Book Review: Say It Louder!: Black Voters, Voices & the Shaping of American Democracy by Tiffany Cross

Say It Louder!: Black Voters, Voices & the Shaping of American Democracy by Tiffany Cross
Publisher: ‎ Amistad
Publication Date: July 6, 2020
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

A breakout media and political analyst delivers a sweeping snapshot of American democracy and the role that African Americans have played in its shaping while offering concrete information to help harness the electoral power of the country’s rising majority and exposing political forces aligned to subvert and suppress black voters.

Black voters were critical to the Democrats’ 2018 blue wave. In fact, 90 percent of black voters supported Democratic House candidates, compared to just 53 percent of all voters. Despite media narratives, this was not a fluke. Throughout US history, black people have played a crucial role in the shaping of the American experiment. Yet still, this powerful voting bloc is often dismissed as some “amorphous” deviation, argues Tiffany Cross.

Say It Louder! is her explosive examination of how America’s composition was designed to exclude black voters but paradoxically would likely cease to exist without them. With multiple tentacles stretching into the cable news echo chamber, campaign leadership, and black voter data, Cross creates a wrinkle in time with a reflective look at the timeless efforts endlessly attempting to deny people of color the right to vote – a basic tenet of American democracy. 

And yet as the demographics of the country are changing, so, too, is the electoral power construct – by evolution and by force, Cross declares. Grounded in the most up-to-date research, Say It Louder! is a vital tool for a wide swath of constituencies.

Black voters are consistently taken for granted in America. It’s assumed that they will vote for Democratic candidates so those candidates don’t really make much of an effort to include them in their platforms. At the same time, Republicans make every effort to keep them from voting. Then when they don’t turn up to vote, people wonder why.

Say It Louder! is an examination in the media’s role of both how Black people are represented in the media and how they are represented in politics. Why is it that we break down every sub-group of white voters when analyzing how they voted on issues – educated, rural, suburban, etc. but we assume that all Black people think and vote the same way?

Cross writes a lot about assumptions that people make when thinking about Black voters. For instance, it’s just assumed that Black people will vote for any Black candidate running. But they are strategic, just like any other voting bloc. This is why a lot of them supported Biden in the 2020 presidential primary over Corey Booker or Kamala Harris – they wanted a candidate they felt confident could beat Trump and weren’t confident that the rest of America would vote for a Black woman. And some of them had other issues with Kamala as a candidate.

Cross shows us how time and time again, the media ignores Black issues in favor of centering white people. I think that all white women should read her section on feminism and how white women leave Black women out of the conversation while still expecting their support.

Cross writes in a conversational style and she’s pretty funny, making this a quick read even though it’s packed with great information. I think Say It Louder! will be eye-opening for a lot of readers who may take what the media puts out there at face value. Highly recommended.