5 things we know for sure

Published in

ZORA

4 min readNov 5, 2020

Hi ZORA Fam,

In the chaos of election day, I got a frantic call from a friend telling me she was terrified. She had a good reason to panic. The projections of how close the race is between Biden and Trump is really disappointing and it’s kinda scary to see how many people in the country are willingly endorsing a lying, misogynistic, racist.

*me, every time I see an election results map*

But in an effort to calm my friend down, I told her to take a deep breath and focus on the things she knows to be true. To remember all she’s survived up to this point and all she will continue to overcome. We should all take some time to calm down, step back and look at the things we know right now:

1. We’re still counting votes.
Patience is a virtue. While day-of votes have been locked, mail-in ballots are still incoming and still being counted. Things are changing very quickly but things can still change. We have to let the process play out.

2. The way we do elections in this country is outdated.
The Electoral College has usurped the popular vote in two elections from the last 20 years. The Electoral College is racist and has gone against what the majority of the country really wants. It’s the first of many things that need to go in election reform.

3. Latinx and Hispanic voters are not to blame for election results.
The Latinx community is not a monolith. There are Democrats, Republicans, and Independents in this voting bloc just like any other. Besides, instead of pointing fingers at communities of color for not swinging an election, perhaps we should look to white American traditionalists, who have overwhelmingly voted against the best interests of the nation.

4. The work doesn’t stop after the election.
Don’t get it twisted. Red states don’t just “turn blue” by accident. It takes local politicians and grassroots organizers (especially those in the south) doing the hard work to change the minds and votes of staunch racists. They’ve been doing the work and will do it for years to come.

5. We’ll be okay.
As I told my friend, we’ve been here before. This year alone, we’ve gotten through Trump tweets and policies, police brutality, and a global pandemic and we can do it again. We shouldn’t have to. But no matter what happens, we’ll get through this, and we’ll keep moving forward.

(Know someone who could use these reminders? Forward this their way, and remind them to sign up here.)

Take care,

— Jolie A. Doggett, ZORA platform editor

🧘🏾‍♀️ Need a few minutes to relax? 🧘🏾‍♀️

Experience ZORA’s Sound Bath with Shana Nunnelly

*Unclench your jaw, relax your shoulders, and find the calm in the post-election chaos with this sound bath from* *Shana Nunnelly*.

Zero to 💯

Who kept it 100 this week? Let’s take a look.

Every Member of the Squad is Re-Elected: 💯/💯
Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib ain’t going anywhere. They will continue to serve their districts in Massachusetts, New York, Minnesota, and Michigan, respectively — and for the American people — in the House of Representatives.

Oregon Becomes the First U.S. State to Decriminalize Hard Drugs: 💯/💯
Voters passed a ballot measure to no longer criminally charge people in possession of heroin, meth, LSD, oxycodone and other hard drugs. Here’s hoping more states follow. Addiction is a disease. We need to treat it, instead of criminalizing it.

Cori Bush is Missouri’s First Black Congresswoman: 💯/💯
The activist is also the first nurse and single mother to serve the state. In her victory speech, she shared her win with the collective: “To the Black women, the Black girls, the nurses, the essential workers, the single mothers: This is our moment.”

Mauree Turner is Oklahoma’s First Non-binary and Muslim Legislator: 💯/💯
The community organizer told HuffPost that she ran to represent “Oklahomans with her ‘shared lived experience’ — someone who was raised in ‘a single parent household because one parent was incarcerated’ and ‘had to live off SNAP benefits.’” We love a woman who sees the many, and not just the few.

Kanye West Gets More than 60,000 Votes: 🚮/💯
Voters in approximately 12 states chose Yeezy for president on their ballots. He conceded and seems to be setting his eyes on the 2024 election. In case folks need yet another reminder: self-serving people will never serve us.