With each Presidential Election, there is a new group of young men and women ready to be engaged civically in the political atmosphere of America. Every four years there is an introduction of new liberals, conservatives, republicans, and democrats ready to make their voices heard. This election season isn’t any different.
With a convicted felon running for president, an infamous attempted assassination on said felon, a president dropping out of the race, and the endorsement of the first Black and South Asian American woman running for president, this could be considerably the most important yet dramatic election to vote for.
And Robert Bellard III is going to make his voice heard this November.
Robert Bellard III was born and raised in Marshall, Texas. He is a sophomore at Paul Quinn College (Historical Black College) and serves as the Student Government Association Treasurer. He’s a member of the Paul Quinn Scholars Program, with a major in Business Management. He dreams of being in real estate development but he also has an interest in politics.
Sitting with Bellard is speaking with an elderly man who is in a very young body. When he speaks you can’t help but listen, and truly understand what this election means to him. In our interview, he touched on the start of the 2024 election, losing faith in the country, and gaining it back after the Democratic Nomination Convention.
When asked about the beginnings of the election, where it looked like another Trump and Biden showdown, he stated, “I was terrified. I’ll be honest because I didn’t think Joe Biden could run the country, but he was the only option.” A common thread of knowledge that plagued millions of Americans who were tired of choosing the lesser of the two evils.
But in a shocking change of events, Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential election, and the world stood still. While some started to book plane tickets out of the country, Bellard remained steadfast that a change was going to happen. “It gave me hope because he put his pride and ego to the side for this country. That is what a true leader does. It gave me hope that the Democratic Party would choose someone worthy of the position.”
In unprecedented times, with Biden leaving the election and the Democratic Party debating on who they would platform Bellard remained hopeful that they would choose the right candidate to bring this country to order. To ensure that democracy would remain in favor of the people it is supposed to serve: the American people.
When asked about the surging of Kamala Harris into the presidential election, he again used that famous h-word to describe the political times that we are living in.
“Watching the DNC (Democratic Nomination Convention), listening to Barack Obama’s speech. It was beautiful. It gave me a lot of hope again in this country.”
But in speaking about hope, we touched briefly on the fact that typically Black people are counted on the most to drive each election. While some people will have the same thought process as Bellard we also have to ponder the thought about the outliers.
The outliers are the Black people who can comfortably say and vote for Republican Presidential Nominee Donald J. Trump. When he could have said harsh rhetoric Bellard remained on the respectful and intelligent pathway by stating that the outliers are not properly informed. They aren’t finding the information for themselves, and they are instead letting propaganda inform their historical vote. Adding that Trump can say things that are appealing to the Black community to sway Black voters one way specifically.
To wrap our conversation Bellard had this to say as it pertains to this historical year for Americans, “This is the fight for your freedom, this is the fight for your rights, this is the fight for your education, this is the fight for your money. This is the fight for your lives. This stuff matters. As a minority, you should feel pressured, because this is the election that is going to make a difference for the next four years, and possibly for the rest of our lives.”
Zahiyah Carter is a Gen Z writer based in Dallas. Her work focuses on topics that matter most to young people, from social issues and pop culture to technology and beyond.
The post Hope, Hope, and More Hope: A Conversation with a Young Black Man Attending an HBCU appeared first on Dallas Weekly.