In the political sphere we talk of power as organized people and/or organized money. As we look towards the 2026 midterm elections Black communities around the country including here in South Florida need to be thinking about both. For some this may feel daunting, but we’ve been doing both things for a very long time. Look no further than Frederick Douglass, Ella Baker and Dr. King as examples on the ability to organize people. When it comes to money let me remind you again that Black people in America have one trillion dollars worth of spending power. All we have to do is organize it. Fear not though, I’m here to help ease your mind.
When it comes to organizing people we should have that in the bag. Unfortunately we have been complacent over the last 50 years to get on the same page with our family, friends and neighbors. Individualism and distrust have run rampant and we have lost our sense of collectivism, but the Trump administration has created a common enemy for Black people who are paying attention. A spike in Black unemployment combined with the widening racial wealth gap should give us enough evidence that we all need to get on the same page that he and his cronies are not it. Add on top of that the racism and you have a literal deadly combination as we’ve seen increases in racialized state violence and a few too many occurrences of “Strange Fruit” to ignore. We know that our traditional spaces like churches, social organizations and HBCUs are there for us to rally and self organize, but we’ve become incredibly proficient organizing ourselves online, in chat rooms and social media spaces. We just need to be leery of AI and deep fake means that look to misinform and undermine our movements.
Now when it comes to organizing money it gets a little more complex. As a community, data shows that we can be overrepresented in the purchasing of things that don’t necessarily serve us, but can we reimagine our spending power and habits being funneled into our own liberation? It’s not far-fetched. Celebrities like Harry Belafonte, Sidney Portier, Aretha Franklin, Dick Gregory and many others were huge supporters of the Civil Rights movement both in financial giving and volunteering their celebrity. More importantly though, whether it was the Montgomery Bus Boycott or the Black Panther Party, those efforts were founded on and sustained by grassroots donations by everyday people like you and I. In other words we can and we have funded our liberation. We built iconic institutions with our own money. So it is not outside of the realm of possibility!
Recently the great Rev. Jesse Jackson became an ancestor; his foundation was formed by Dr. King. His work was centered on building a Rainbow Coalition and his legacy built the foundation that gave us a Black president. His words remind us “Hands that once picked cotton can now pick presidents.” We have the power!
Dwight M. Bullard is a former Florida state senator and the senior political advisor of Florida Rising.
