“African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans”

Team, that is a direct quote from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell when asked this week for his message to voters worried about accessing the ballot box during the upcoming midterm elections.

Let’s be clear, team, Black people are American and, as a Black woman who represents the Virgin Islands, a majority Black part of America, we are no less American than Mitch McConnell.

Black people are the backbone of the Democratic base, and an integral part of the American electorate, no matter who Black people choose to vote for.

These comments from an elected official are unacceptable. I will always call out comments like this and fight for every American who has ever felt like they are less American because of the color of their skin, where they live, or how much they earn or don’t earn. Will you contribute today and tell Mitch we will not tolerate such blatant denigration?

Rather than bringing us together and using the power of his office to call for one America, McConnell’s words do the complete opposite.

By making a distinction between Black people and the rest of America, he is taking us back to an era when segregation was the norm. Separate but equal didn’t work 100 years ago, and we won’t tolerate its premise today.

If you can, contribute today and join me in telling Mitch that Black people are no less American than him.

-- Stacey Plaskett