The Target Is on Our Back| Silencing of Black Youth

For this upcoming 2026 midterm election, HBCU students from North Carolina A&T State University traveled to Raleigh to address the early-voting polling sites being removed from campus. When they arrived as a collective to express their concerns, they were faced by the chairperson of the board, Francis De Lucas, who threatened to call police if they refused to leave the building. This has now been documented on video and on multiple news outlets.

According to the Article Insider Higher Ed, the chairperson's reasoning for the removal was that there was not enough space to occupy the polls because it would result in a parking issue, expanding that if there is no space for parking, they didn’t want tickets to be an issue for individuals. However, I think there is more to this than a “parking lot” issue.

After the rejection, Zayveon Davis, vote engagement leader at NC A&T tells NC Newsline: “I hope that everybody leaves here knowing that your voice matters. Your vote does matter." I couldn't agree more with such a strong statement, even at times HBCU students are told to do quite the opposite. To see so many students travel from Greensboro to Raleigh for their rights to speak, whether being rejected or not, is powerful. It's a resilience that has come before us and through our ancestors, it’s in our blood, it is unshakable.

However, how do they expect black students to feel when they express their concerns about their education and basic voting rights, yet they are threatened to be faced by officers? What an absurd response.

Once again, the black youth is being criminalized for peacefully advocating. Not for creating a riot, not for entering in with weapons, but for participating in activism. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call today's modern day vote oppression. Ripping away small accesses little-by-little until there is nothing left.

So they put a target on our backs, attempting to instill the fear of arrest, fear of authority, and the fear of disciplinary action that could affect your academic or work career. We should not have to fight to have the basic democratic expectations and be threatened for it.

Please be aware, the target is on our back. I don’t repeat this to bring fear but awareness.

They put it on us because they too understand how powerful we are within our protest, within our voices. They understand how connected our community can be from our family to strangers, so they attempt to silence us because we sing a louder song that they cannot replicate.

Reading these articles has been heart-wrenching and disappointing to see how our elected officials treat the black youth and the HBCU students. Regardless of the rejection and number of attempts to keep us restricted, there is not enough officials or men in suits to keep us quiet, ever. They have attempted for the last four to five hundred years, and they still continue to fail. So, my message is stay alert and proactive! Happy Friday Everyone, if you have any thoughts or even suggestions, please let me know.