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Color of Change Reminds Voters: 'Speak Up or Someone Will Speak for You'

Midterm elections are here and for those who still have not cast their vote at the polls, Color of Change has a series called "If They Speak for Me," which reminds voters how important their voices are on Election Day.

Midterm elections are here and for those who still have not cast their vote at the polls, Color of Change has a series called #IfTheySpeakForMe, which reminds voters how important their voices are on Election Day.
In the two videos, Color of Change sets up hidden cameras in a taxi and in a hair salon where several African-American women are set up in scenarios to make them powerless.

In the first clip, three different women enter a cab and give the driver directions, only to have an older white man intervene and tell the driver another set of directions. The cabbie follows his lead instead and drives off causing the women to respond frantically. 
At some point the car stops and the women are confronted by Mitzi Miller, the Editor in Chief of Ebony magazine, who asks them how it felt to be powerless. "Can you imagine if that gentleman was in a position to make a decision to tell employers not to pay Black women the same wage as white men?" Miller asks. "Or that voting rights only extend to those able to go through multiple hoops to get valid ID?" 
In the second video at the hair salon, the women sit down in a stylist's chair. The same white man appears and instructs the stylist to "straighten out" a woman's natural hair and proceeds to touch the other customers' hair.

"Imagine if he was making the decision not to raise minimum wage for all the hard working people out there or that it was OK for the police to continue targeting our community using unjust and deadly force with zero accountability," Miller said.

"That puts a lot into perspective," one woman responds.

"Well it's just that simple, if you don't speak up, someone will speak for you," Miller concludes.
Follow Natelege Whaley on Twitter: @Natelege_

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