Joseph Sabino Mistick: Reject racial hatred with your vote

Where I grew up, Election Day was a holiday, a twice-yearly chance to celebrate American freedom. In neighborhoods with families from all over Europe, voting was a sacred moment, a reminder of a right they never had, a ritual that marked the blessings of the New World.

After our grandparents passed and we no longer heard their frequent reminders of how much better it is here than in the old country, we sometimes voted out of habit or tradition, forgetting that Election Day is the symbol of American freedom. At times, we have taken our other constitutional rights for granted, too.

But this past week, as we voted in the Pennsylvania primary election, it was impossible to ignore the fact that many Americans will not get to enjoy those same freedoms. They do not feel safe, they do not feel free, they cannot count on the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Three days before Election Day, 10 of our fellow citizens were shot to death in Buffalo by a domestic terrorist for being Black. Their killer, a self-described white supremacist, hunted them and killed them.

That happened here in Pittsburgh in 2018, when an antisemitic domestic terrorist killed 11 of our neighbors at the Tree of Life synagogue because they were Jews. And it has happened elsewhere.

Twenty-three Latinos were shot dead in El Paso in 2019 because they were Latino. Nine Black worshippers were murdered in 2015 at a Charleston, S.C., church because they were Black. Six Sikhs were murdered in 2012 at a temple in Wisconsin because they were Sikhs. All these murderers were white supremacists.

They carried military-style automatic weapons, designed for the purpose of destroying human life on wartime battlefields. They often broadcasted their deadly intentions on social media sites where their strange views are shared.

They talked about the “great replacement theory,” a racist belief that there is a Jewish plot to replace them with immigrants — the “others.” They lived in fear and acted out of cowardice, and others still do.

As Bret Stephens wrote in The New York Times last week, “What the far right calls ‘replacement’ is better described as renewal.” And accepting their sinister view “is to weaponize America against itself.”

In America, everyone has come from someplace else, and all our families were once considered the “others.” But this is a violent age. And there are politicians and talking heads who get votes or make money by dividing us and nurturing those old hatreds.

Put your politics aside for a moment and listen to the words of Joe Biden, not spoken as president, but as a father and husband and fellow American. He visited the grieving family members of the victims in Buffalo, as they struggled to understand why a stranger would travel hundreds of miles to kill their loved ones simply because they were Black.

“We need to say as clearly and forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America,” Biden said.

“Failure in saying that is going to be complicity. Silence is complicity,” he said, adding, “We cannot remain silent.”

And that gets us back to the sanctity of the polling place. Our voice will be loudest when, as we vote, we reject any candidate who seeks public support by fueling racial fear and hatred.