Approximately 50,000 Hmong people, members of an ethnic group from Southeast Asia, immigrated to the United States four decades ago. Today, many have become American citizens. How did they adapt to an unfamiliar political system? What topics are they paying attention to? What factors affect their voting? Before the 2022 Election period we went to Wisconsin, a state with the third largest Hmong populations in the U.S, to answer these questions. 

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“DeAardiens” by DeAardiens is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

NFT – a three letter acronym that you’ve probably heard on the news or read about online and wondered “what does that even mean?”

The abbreviation stands for Non-Fungible Token – which in the realm of art translates to a digitally created piece of art that is registered on blockchain – a digital ledger of transactions that is distributed across an entire network of computer systems and is difficult to change, hack or cheat.

“We’ve got those people who are really, really into it [NFTs] that have gone so far down the rabbit hole, and it’s like a way for them to connect,” said Ryan Firth, a Financial Advisor and Planner based in Texas. 

There are several different kinds of NFT ‘forms’ that can be registered on blockchain like avatars, generative art (created by artificial intelligence), collectibles (sports trading cards and NBA top shot moments), photography and music.

“Like you’ve got the NBA top shot stuff where you can buy a moment in an NFT. I think it’s a great way for people who are into shoes and collectible items like that,” Firth said. “This is kind of the next level of digital collection of things for them that is unique and can’t be copied.” 

Unlike other kinds of cryptocurrencies on blockchain, NFTs cannot be traded or exchanged. Once someone purchases an NFT, it’s registered as his or hers on blockchain, and it can’t be replicated.

Whether people love the idea or hate it, NFTs have made their mark on two polar opposite communities – art and finance.  

Technology has managed to change aspects of our society and culture on a broad scale, so it’s no surprise that it has impacted the way art is created and consumed. Traditional mediums of art are still widely used, but “new media art” has been steadily rising in popularity for years.

Snow Yunxue Fu, a New Media Artist and Assistant Arts Professor at New York University, says that the term ‘new media art’ has existed for a while. 

“It came around in the 60s and 70s on an international scale. There were many people who were utilizing whatever was the emerging medium of the time,” Fu said. “Even paint brushes and canvases and cameras were all once new emerging technologies. So, this history that artists have with whatever is the technology of their time has actually been present all along.” 

According to VFX artist Bilali Mack, the uniqueness of the NFT registration process allows artists to control their success in a way that they weren’t able to before. 

“NFTs are such a great way of leveling the playing field for people of color, for women, for any community that you can imagine that has been disenfranchised or been left out in some way,” Mack said. 

Mack isn’t the only one to notice how the rise of NFTs has helped open the door for many artists or individuals interested in art.

“I think it just made artwork more accessible to people – you know, for people who might not have access to the tools they may need to create it,” said Zead Elmehdawi, a Sales Associate and Art Consultant at West Chelsea Contemporary. “You can create these pieces of art with your laptop or phone, so the whole [NFT] process just made it easier to access art.” 

While the concept of NFTs is relatively new, as Fu said, new media art and digital art are not new concepts. Even though these art styles are not new, they are just now starting to become accepted by the community.

“For a really long time, digital artists’ artwork was not being recognized in the way that it should have been, especially in comparison to paintings and sculptures,” Fu said. “Even though it’s still a controversial topic, blockchain technology answers the question of, you know, how do we track back to the artists who are making these pieces of digital work? And how do we value the work for what it is?” 

Since blockchain technology is essentially the buying, trading and selling of NFTs online, artists have become increasingly concerned about how this will impact the art galleries that line the streets of Chelsea, Manhattan. Fu said that on a local and national level, it will depend on the type of gallery and preferences they have.

“There are some that are open and of course, there are some that say ‘this doesn’t make sense to me.’ So, in general, I would say there is a tendency for more acceptance [in art galleries] relating to NFTs,” Fu said. “I would say a lot of even the traditional galleries are accepting of it too.” 

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), one of the most famous traditional art galleries in the world, has just announced that the William S. Paley Foundation will auction off at least $70 million in art masterpieces this fall. The proceeds will all go towards expanding the digital footprint of MoMa in New York and maybe even acquiring the museum’s very first NFT.

While traditional art galleries embrace digital art in Manhattan, several NFT galleries have sprouted throughout the city – creating a new way for people to consume the new media art.

However, with the rise of any new technology medium, the question of ethics arises. The debate of whether the positives will outweigh the negatives is an ongoing discussion when it comes to NFTs.

“I’d say it’s mixed,“ Elmehdawi said. “There are some aspects of it that are really good for the art world, but I think there are other aspects that are just more for monetary purposes.” 

“I think a lot of people got into NFTs because of money at first because it was basically a gold rush,” Fu said. “Back then, it was kind of anything goes in a way, but now I think digital artists now take the time to reflect like ‘what does this mean to me?’” 

While the artistic drive may outweigh the financial drive for some, there remains a risk that digital artwork can be stolen by hackers. There also exists the potential environmental impacts of the overuse of blockchain technology. With so many benefits up in the air, how does the art community fend off the negative aspects?

“It [NFTs] needs a lot of law, it needs a lot of regulation,” Fu said “It’s very exciting that it’s opened up a lot of possibilities, but you know just like any technologies and tools, there needs to be some kind of regulation made to ensure basic human rights are protected.”

While Fu says that even though the NFT market is approaching a downswing right now, she’s still eager to see all the new media artists that emerge from this new pendulum shift in art.

“There’s this interesting energy being built around it, it kind of gives me more hope,” Fu said. “I think only by more and more people understanding what this technology is and what kind of transition we’re in will we end up in a more positive environment.” 

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New York City plans to introduce a long-discussed congestion toll plan, which would charge drivers extra to enter Manhattan’s Central Business District or any area south of 60th Street. 

The toll plan would make New York City the first city in the nation to charge drivers an extra fee for entering a heavily congested area. The state agency that runs New York City’s subways, buses and commuter rail lines plans to charge some motorists anywhere from $9 to $23 to enter Midtown. This area is home to popular buildings that gain a large number of visitors and employ a large number of workers at the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and Hudson Yards, among others. 

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander announced the congestion pricing plan early last month with a mission to address the traffic on the city streets and the financial needs of the public transportation system. 

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council found that before the pandemic, approximately 700,000 vehicles would enter the Midtown area on a daily basis. According to the Metropolitan Transportation Association’s (MTA) estimate, if the fee were set to $23, there would be about 27,500 fewer cars daily. 

“Congestion pricing is also necessary to support the long-term financing the MTA must have to modernize our outdated signal system, make all our subway stations accessible, and expand and improve service,” Lander said in a press release. 

“We pay NYC taxes, yet would be penalized for coming to access services like hospitals in Manhattan,” Adj, a Manhattan resident said. “People in transit deserts who live in New York City deserve to be able to drive into Manhattan.”

New York City was ranked as the worst among cities in the U.S. in terms of congestion by the 2021 INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard — which doesn’t come as a surprise to many. 

Many New York City residents are frustrated and the hashtags #axthecongestiontax and #nocongestionpricing have been trending on social media. 

The Upper East Side’s Community Board 8 Congestion Pricing Task Force also rejected the MTA’s plan in a recent vote. 

“I don’t really think anyone drives through Manhattan for fun,” said Candice Brathwaite, a 41-year-old resident from Hell’s Kitchen. 

Brathwaite is a working mom of three who drives into Midtown on a weekly basis to get to her marketing job in Hudson Yards. When she first heard about the toll plan, she immediately felt stressed because of how much she relies on her car. 

“I don’t have a choice,” Brathwaite said. “My spouse uses our car to drive to carpentry jobs in the film industry and I use our car for work.”

Brathwaite also said this will have a financial impact on her family. She currently pays about $450 a month to park her car and about $460 in other tolls. When the plan goes into effect and if the rate is $23, it will add an estimated $690 to her costs just for using “a car that’s already paid off.” 

For some New York City drivers, the congestion plan may completely stop them from riding into the city. 

“Congestion pricing will only enhance the experience of being in Midtown Manhattan,” Zak Kamin, a 33-year-old from Queens, who drives into the city one or two times a week for work, said. “The worst part of being there is the cars. They should use this opportunity to pedestrianize huge swaths of Midtown to make it a more pleasant place to be.”

If it goes through, Kamin says he would stop driving to Manhattan if he is forced to pay a congestion fee. Even though he would rather take the train than drive into the city, he still supports the toll. 

Glenn Dewar, a resident from Astoria, said he is concerned that the MTA is asking for money from people who technically aren’t using the MTA’s services, including the city’s subway, buses and commuter rails. He believes the true goal of the fee is to raise money instead of cutting congestion. 

“They want to raise the revenue on the backs of a few people,” Dewar said. “The real solution is to spread the tax over all people who come into NYC.”

Lawrence Wirth, a resident of New York City, also agrees and believes residents of Midtown, Manhattan are generally not causing the congestion and should be exempt from the toll since they live within the tolling zone. 

“I don’t believe that residents of the congestion area who register their cars within the congestion area should have to pay this additional tax to help fund the MTA,” Wirth said. “Most residents with cars use their cars to leave the congestion area on weekends.”

Those who are retired and living within the zone are also nervous about the tolls they will have to pay to run simple errands. 

“When I simply want to return home I will be charged a toll, while other NYC citizens can choose to avoid the zone, but I live here,” said Bert Hirsch, a retired federal employee living in Midtown, uses his car to visit and help and take care of his grandchildren. “If the tolls go into effect, it will greatly increase my living costs.”

While many residents oppose the plan, the Regional Plan Association (RPA) — a not-for-profit organization that focuses on recommendations to improve the economic health, environmental resiliency and quality of life in the New York metropolitan area — is in full support of congestion pricing. 

According to RPA communications director Brian Fritsch, the RPA first recommended the idea of a congestion toll back in 1996 to make the city region more economically competitive and has continued to bring up the issue since then. 

“For decades, RPA has strongly supported congestion pricing because it is a centerpiece of a set of policies that will lead to a greener, more equitable region,” Kate Slevin, the executive vice president of the RPA said in a press release. 

In developing the plan, the MTA has considered various exceptions to the tolling program including exempting Manhattan residents, emergency vehicles, cars that travel specifically on the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Drive or West Side Highway but do not exit onto city streets and residents who live in the tolling zone that earn less than $60,000. 

Although the public hasn’t responded well to the idea that they will have to pay a toll and believe the exemptions aren’t enough, experts believe the earnings from the toll plan are necessary and will greatly improve the public transportation system. 

“Bringing our public transportation up to a world-class standard and building some additional capacity in places where it’s necessary will be extremely helpful for making New York City on par with other world cities that have continued to invest in mass transit over the last couple of generations,” Fritsch said. 

According to the RPA, the tolls collected are expected to raise about $15 billion dollars for MTA in revenue, which will fully go towards paying for improvements including subway upgrades, accessibility improvements, electric buses and new train cars. 

Additionally, an environmental review of congestion pricing in the city revealed that higher toll prices would result in steeper declines in traffic. The review also found that the air quality would improve overall and save the area from pollution with greater beneficial effects within and closer to the area. 

“We must get congestion pricing done so we can invest in public transit, curb emissions, and reduce traffic, which has roared back to pre-COVID levels,” New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in a press release. 

There have also been public hearings in which experts, politicians, business owners and residents have been speaking out regarding the congestion pricing plan. 

Many expressed concerns for those from other boroughs who may not have easy access to the subway system and can’t avoid driving into the city including Queens and the Bronx. However, according to the MTA’s Central Business District Tolling Program Fact Sheet, the tolling program is necessary because it is expected to expand “access for low-income residents and visitors by improving travel options.”

The MTA’s environmental assessment also revealed that drivers who are trying to avoid the tolls would then contribute to traffic and pollution in areas like the Bronx, which is already heavily congested and polluted. It is also predominantly lower-income and made up of people of color — which raises a concern about racial equity as well. 

To combat this, the RPA is urging Governor Kathy Hochul, the MTA and city leaders to “develop a comprehensive approach to address localized impacts” that will prioritize the health of communities like the Bronx. 

Although there has been a large amount of pushback, the city still seems to be moving forward with the plan. 

As one of the busiest areas of New York City is set to see change, many residents are thinking about what Midtown Manhattan will look like in 20 years and whether it will be an area in which they truly want to live or work in. 

Both New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Office and New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

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The vibrant red walls, fluorescent ring lights and scattered photographs of legendary basketball scenes painted an upbeat atmosphere in Tha Illest Barber Shop, located in the South side of Racine. A black and white portrait of Marilyn Monroe sits next to a washed out wall hanging with slanted words that read, “dreams to reality”. It’s difficult to imagine that several of the employees are felons or that the barber shop itself had been the site of a stabbing just a few months ago. The incident occurred between the co-owner of the shop and a man who he says came and provoked fighting and violence. 

Some of the employees at the barber shop won’t be voting because they lost their right as felons. Others won’t be voting because they’ve lost hope that politics will lead to change. After growing up in poor areas with high crime rates and frequent discrimination, these residents feel like their government has failed them — and it’s turned them off from any kind of civic participation. 

Nov. 6, 2022 – Racine, WI: Scenes from inside Tha Illest Barber Shop. Photo by Tatiana Ramirez.

Ron Johnson, who won his campaign for re-election, has served as a US Senator representing Wisconsin for eight years. His campaign was largely focused on tackling crime and drugs, but not in a way that helps those stuck in the cycle of it, according to Michael Torres Peterson, a 39-year-old employee at Tha Illest Barber Shop. Rather than prevent crime in the Southern part of the city where violence is most prevalent, he believes politicans in the area have increased police presence and focused on keeping the safer areas secure from external threats. Peterson believes that the areas that need support from government services, have remained largely unaddressed.

Peterson says that he wouldn’t vote even if he had the right to do so. He feels that the tough on crime approach that Johnson has embraced, only leads to repetitive incarceration cycles with the same people in and out of prison. It also doesn’t help remediate the parts of Racine that are in need of crime reduction.

“Like you look at certain areas in Racine, it has looked the same for years,” Peterson said.  “Politicians that have been elected over the years that promise change in certain areas in Racine, and all they did was increase more police in the same exact areas. And the crime rate is still the same.”

According to Crime Grade’s estimates, Racine has a crime rate of 47.58 per 1,000 residents. To put that in perspective, 82% of cities in the U.S. are safer than Racine. 

Peterson says that in certain parts of the city, like the Northwest,which is considered safer, the streets look cleaner and feel safer than they did before — but they weren’t the areas that needed help. As someone who has been incarcerated three times, Peterson feels that increasing police presence in the south part of Racine only contributes to stagnant crime rates and increasing incarceration rates. He also says that sending people in and out of prison breaks up families, which leads the children of those in prison to follow similar paths. 

Peterson doesn’t only blame the current senator though. While Johnson, a conservative politician, has served for eight years, Governor Tony Evers has served since 2019 and represents the Democratic Party. When he looks at his community, Peterson finds inadequacy from both parties and believes both remain equally self-motivated.

“When it’s beneficial to politics, to, to utilize the black vote, that’s when black people become important, and that’s when minorities become important.” Peterson said. “But other than that, only time you’re important is when they put you in cups and chains and throw you in the system.”

He says that the Democratic party may build their platform on diversity, but they often fail to follow through on commitments. On a local level, the minority communities that need the most help often remain underserved. 

Nov. 6, 2022 – Racine, WI: Scenes from Tha Illest Barber Shop. Employee Germaine Spears styles a customer. Photo by Tatiana Ramirez.

“Now you try to contact that person who is just smiling in your face and shaking your hand. You get their secretary, you get a voicemail, you get an ‘oh, we’ll call you back’, you might get an email,” Peterson said. “I’s not coming from that individual that just shook your hand, smiled in your face, and made you all types of promises.”

Peterson isn’t the only one to feel like politicians care more about the race than they do about making an actual difference to the people voting for them. In fact, when Jamie Peterson, the Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), introduced Senate Candidate and Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes at his Kenosha rally on Nov. 6, he brought up a story that raised this exact issue. While canvassing for the South Carolina Democratic party in 2014, he recounts knocking on the door of an African American man who said he had no interest in voting. He was more concerned about the dirt road that he lived on getting paved; the road had remained untouched for multiple election cycles. 

“Everybody has that proverbial dirt road,” Harrison said.”Because you have politicians who have made promises, but they don’t do them.” 

Harrison shares this anecdote as a reminder to elect politicians that will carry out their promises and serve all residents of the area they’re elected in, a standard that he feels the acting senator hasn’t done. The example from 2014 reinforces the same message that Peterson feels in 2022. 

“You all have something very different here in Wisconsin. You have leadership in folks like Governor Evers and Lieutenant Governor Barnes who have made promises,” Harrison said. “You all committed in 2020 because you all went to the polls and elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who made promises and they have worked hard to keep them.”

Peterson’s coworker at the barber shop, Germaine Spears, 31, shares a similar perspective. Spears has never been incarcerated but has been branded by other traumatizing experiences. He vividly remembers checking in with his friend after a shooting in the area that occurred in 2013. He says that as he was walking and talking on the phone, he says he was aggressively confronted by police who accused him of matching the description of the shooter. He recalls this instance as his first negative encounter with police. Then, at age 26, Spears’ friend, Donte Shannon, died after being shot by police in a chase. 

Even though he voted for Obama back in 2012, he’s lost all interest in politics in the years since. He’s seen too much suffering and not enough change to care about who gets elected next.

“Take Biden for example, he forgets what he says,” Spears said, referring to Biden’s promise to forgive student loans. 

Spears, like many others, made financial decisions based on the expectation of student loan forgiveness and says he now has $20,000 of debt that he has to pay off. At some point, when people are struggling, they stop caring about the petty arguments between parties and hope for improvement in their lives. 

Peterson and Spears, who have dealt with the same issues their whole lives, want to see visible change. For Peterson though, it feels like the two parties are more concerned with beating eachother down than with actually creating platforms that will make a difference for those in need. 

“Why do you have to always exploit somebody’s negatives to get what you want in life?” Peterson said. “If you come into it with a negative agenda of pointing out somebody else’s negative agenda, why would I even want to vote for you?” 

Peterson’s reaction to polarization is common among swing voters. According to a 2019 poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation that analyzed the 2016 election results, nearly a quarter of swing voters didn’t vote. This kind of turnout may explain why the election ended up being so close between Johnson and Barnes, a race that was expected to overwhelmingly lean conservative. 

As the country continues to become increasingly polarized, swing states like Wisconsin are losing voters by focusing more on exploiting their opponent. Even in Barnes’ rally, he focused heavily on Johnson’s faults. While he encouraged the crowd to vote blue if they want to see change, he didn’t explicitly get into his plan of action to make change happen. 

“There are no ads saying that, ‘Oh, thank you Ron Johnson for doing all this incredible work for us’, because he hasn’t, he hasn’t done anything for us,” Barnes said. “It is just wild to believe a person who’s been in office for 12 years doesn’t have a single positive ad about his campaign.”

Barnes even noted the fact that the speech primarily focused on Johnson and his failure to help communities in need.

“And I hate to go on and on and on about ’em, right?” Johnson said. “Because honestly, this should be about our values and our vision, and it is. That’s what the campaign is about.” 

Nov. 6, 2022 – Racine, WI: Scenes from outside Tha Illest Barber Shop. Photo by Tatiana Ramirez.

While Johnson focused less on his opponent, he also took part in shaming his approach to crime and mentioned that Barnes was ill-equipped for the job. Nikki Haley, who introduced Johnson, mainly discussed points in line with the larger party goals. Still though, she led a chant where she repeated the phrase, ‘not us, that’s them’, referring to all the shortcomings of the Democratic party platform. 

Without attending either rally, Peterson knows the kind of rhetoric that politicians were taking part in because he’s seen it many times before. He doesn’t want to contribute to the negativity from both sides — what he wants is a better economy and life for people in his community. 

With the exception of Trump, who gave out stimulus checks during the pandemic, Peterson says that he’s never received tangible aid from any politician. This is a factor that might change the way he views politicians. 

“At the end of the day, like he did something,” Peterson said. “He was delivering money to people’s front doors. God bless Trump.”

Peterson made it clear that he isn’t a fan of Trump but his perspective demonstrates the importance of government aid. He went as far as saying that drug dealers contribute more positively to his community than the government does, because they’re providing some kind of monetary relief. 

After years of stagnancy and financial qualms, people like Peterson and Spears have  given up. Moving forward, Spears said that the best he can do is educate his children and encourage them to stay out of trouble. 

“I don’t even want to have any type of encounters. I don’t wanna be stereotyped,” Spears said. “I lost all hope to be honest.”

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That’s why leaders of the organization Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC) said they knocked on doors, had personal conversations, and showed up to support the candidates that align with their values. 

BLOC was founded in 2016 by current Executive Director Angela Lang in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She chose Milwaukee because it is one of the most incarcerated and segregated cities in America. 

Nov. 5, 2022- Racine, Wisconsin. JoVonna Lue, the Community Organizer of the Racine branch of BLOC talks about the day-to-day routine her line of work entails during election season in her office in Racine. Photo by Lauren Peacock

“We’re building up what Milwaukee started, and we’re bringing it to Racine and Kenosha,” said JoVonna Lue, Community Organizer of BLOC. “We’re having those day-to-day conversations and making sure we are present in the communities where we live.” 

Lue said she got involved because she wanted to help people improve their lives. She emphasized the importance of having simple, genuine conversations in her line of work. 

“We want to build those relationships,” Lue said. “These are our communities so we really have to care in order to find solutions to work together.”

Kyle Johnson, Political Director of the Racine branch of BLOC, said that in the 2018 midterm elections BLOC contributed to the Democratic sweep of the constitutional offices as well as Tammy Baldwin’s win. 

“In the last midterm election in 2018, BLOC knocked on more than 175,000 doors in Milwaukee,” Johnson said.

Nov. 5, 2022- Racine, Wisconsin. Kyle Johnson the Political Director of the Racine branch of BLOC discusses their hectic schedule days before the 2022 midterm elections in Wisconsin. Photo by Lauren Peacock.

BLOC leaders are open about the candidates they support and endorse publicly. Johnson said they work to show communities how these candidates can help residents more than their opponents. 

“You can see the hostility through the policy,” Johnson said.

BLOC worked tirelessly for the 2022 midterm election by making phone calls, sending text messages and knocking on doors. 

“We sent over 620,000 text messages, and knocked over 55,000 doors,” Johnson said. “We reached out to people with a sense of education and an intent to inform.”

Johnson said the organization works this hard to ensure certain candidates don’t get voted into office —Candidates like Tim Michels, the Republican who ran for governor of Wisconsin and lost to incumbent Tony Evers on Nov. 9, 2022. 

Michels said that Republicans would never lose another election in Wisconsin after he was elected. 

“He’s willing to sacrifice democracy for his party,” Johnson said. 

Evers supports the work that BLOC does. 

“I don’t care what side of the isle you’re on, getting people to vote is what democracy is all about,” Evers said, just days before the election. 

Johnson says that some people of color in Wisconsin that he met expressed feeling shut out of specific areas by white people. 

“They’re trying to turn Wisconsin into a Sundown state,” Johnson said. “ Know your place, stay in Milwaukee, stay in Racine, stay in Kenosha. The rest of this is ours.”

Johnson believes that the Supreme Court banning ballot boxes in Wisconsin is one obstacle blocking people of color from having easy access to voting.

“We have so many barriers already to jump through,” Johnson said. 

Bryan Tanayo, a 23-year-old resident of Kenosha, believes the work that organizations like BLOC do is essential because voting is not as accessible in communities of color. 

“For example, limited access to voting places,” Tanayo said “Some voting places are put far away in communities where people rely on public transportation.”

Johnson said that BLOC’s support for the Democratic party in the 2022 midterm election was based on harm reduction for communities of color. 

If BLOC didn’t endorse Democratic candidates like Tony Evers and Mandela Barnes, Johnson  feels that it would run the risk of having a representative who doesn’t support people of color. 

“If Tim Michaels gets in, or Ron Johnson gets in, we’re the first person in line with targets on our backs and they’re coming for us,” he said.

The results of the 2022 midterm elections in Wisconsin showed that most of the candidates that BLOC endorsed ended up winning, including Tony Evers, Sara Rodriguez and Josh Kaul.  

“We saw Democrats maintain control of at least the Senate, bucking decades of the trend of midterms yielding large losses to the party that held the Presidency,” Johnson said.

The Republican candidate Ron Johnson won the senate seat over Democratic candidate Mandela Barnes by exactly 1% of the vote.  

BLOC openly supported Barnes and regardless of his defeat, Kyle Johnson said BLOC is proud of the work and role of Mandela Barnes.

“This was one of the closest Senate races we have seen in this state and it is a testament to Mandela that he lost by 1%,” Johnson said. “We need to continue the conversation around racism in this state and country if we want to truly understand many of the factors that played into this defeat.” 

Nov. 5, 2022- Racine, Wisconsin. A flier hanging on the front door of BLOC’s office in Racine lists the candidates the organization supports. Photo by Lauren Peacock.

Johnson and Lue feel that the chaos of elections brings distraction to important issues, such as getting justice for Black Lives Matter cases like Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake. 

“We need to make sure people don’t forget what we were marching for in 2020,” Johnson said. “That fight’s not over.” 

BLOC has an agenda with 10 points for issues that they believe need to be addressed on a federal level to create thriving black communities. 

These points include the creation of rent controlled housing, moving towards 100% renewable energies, raising the minimum wage to at least $15 per hour and various other reforms. 

“I like how they’re telling people what it actually entails, registering to vote,” Aidan Kiely said. “When I graduated high school at 18, they told me to go vote, but didn’t tell me what that actually entails.”

Kiely, 22, works at a cannabis shop in Kenosha and firmly believes in the importance of voting in the midterm elections. He applauds BLOC for teaching specific details about the voting registration process. 

Lue described what BLOC specifically outlines for voters what the voting registration process entails. 

“Sending out information on how, when and where to register, request ballots, vote early and times and locations on Election Day,” Lue said. “We also made phone calls from home on Fridays reaching out to voters and potential voters.”

Outside of election season, BLOC focuses on asking people of color what a thriving community looks like to them. Johnson said that these conversations can go anywhere. It may be about adding a stop sign at the end of a street or ensuring more public safety in areas that see a lot of gun violence. 

Johnson believes that voting should mean more to people than carrying out a civic duty. 

“You care about climate change, you care about student loan debt, you care about legalizing Marijuana, you care about incarceration,” Johnson said. “That’s the reason why you vote,” John said. “When it becomes personable, it becomes real. Voting is the last step.”

Nov. 5, 2022- Racine, Wisconsin. The back of the flier on the desk at the BLOC Racine office next to another flier, an ipad and Mandela Barnes stickers. Photo by Lauren Peacock

Lue and Johnson believe that work doesn’t end after one midterm election in one state of the country, and there’s a long road that follows.

“We have to shift the culture and reframe the conversation,” Johnson said. “It’s not going to be a fight to get justice and liberation tomorrow.”

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