The Women of Color Table: Setting New Ground in Elections Work
The Women of Color Table is knocking doors in the Burnsville Area to accomplish three things simultaneously: (1) get endorsed candidate Lindsey Port running in District 56B (2) with support from local people of color and personal care assistants and (3) build a relationship between Lindsey Port and our community.
This matters because these are communities that are typically left out of electoral process – at TakeAction Minnesota we believe that a person’s full identity and personhood should be fully seen and respected. One way we the way we personify this value is by knocking on doors that don’t exist in our voter’s data base; it’s called a targeted-semi blind knock. We understand that people of color and immigrants are too often overlooked and systemically discouraged from fully participating in the election process, so that means we have to double our efforts to identify and build relationships. Our goal is to do just that. Through this series of doorknocks we plan to register people to vote, encourage them to get out to vote early and from there and after that, coordinate a community meeting.
We’re also doing it with a language justice framework. What does this look like? We’re working hard to have Spanish, Somali, and English informational literature, posters, and music and a fully translated training session. At the community gathering, we’ll be fully prepared to translate the meeting professionally for everyone involved. Our endorsed candidate, Lindsey Port will join us for the last hour of the meeting to hear our stories (translated of course) and commit to passing policy that shares our values and our priorities.
The importance of building a relationship between Lindsey Port and our multiracial base is essential. Lindsey lives in a district that is shifting demographically towards a more progressive and racially and culturally diverse community. And, at the end of the day this kind of work reflects the movement we are a part of that’s changing who decides and who benefits in our state.
