Black millennials march in Minneapolis. Wikimedia/Tony Webster. Some rights reserved.I must have seen the phrase and Twitter hashtag #MissMe more than a dozen times before I found out what it meant.
It sounded cute and curt — a knock-out response by those who seem to have mentally checked-out of an argument in the underbelly of online public commentary. “Miss me with your BS,” I read a couple of times in particular. It always came up in heated discussions about race and black identity. It felt important. And so I unexpectedly came across black millennials’ powerful challenge to the status quo, one not to be ignored.
“Miss Me With Your Equality” titles Arielle Newton’s striking response to the US Supreme Court’s landmark 2013 decision in Shelby County v Holder. Justices in the case split 5-4 to strike down core provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that required certain states to obtain advance federal approval for any changes to their election laws. At the time many, including president Obama, expressed disappointment that this effectively opened the door for states to enact laws that could indirectly disenfranchise black voters. But Newton’s was a different voice with a stronger message.
