Activists and organizers always face the fundamental challenge of persuading voters to listen. Simply getting a potential voter’s attention can be a major obstacle. That process becomes much more challenging and complex when the nation is in the grip of a deadly pandemic.

The pandemic is a storm and we all feel its impact. At the same time, white Americans are in a much safer boat than are communities of color. This is true in terms of health; true in regard to who lives and who dies. It is also true in terms of economic impact, now and for the foreseeable future.

Martin Luther King’s incisive view of violent protest has been quoted many times in the last weeks: “A riot is the language of the unheard.” He followed this insight with an equally acute question: “And what is it America has failed to hear?”

America is in the middle of a rolling election crisis. On June 10th, the state of Georgia became the latest exemplar of voter suppression. The New Yorker’s Charles Bethea filed a report from the ground, which includes accounts like this from people who tried to vote.