We have often been told to let the system do its job and justice will prevail. We now know that has never been the case for people who look like me.  But, in so many ways, it’s time for that to change. The recent non-action on Breonna Taylor and a summer of clear and blatant disregard for Black life has made one thing clear: racial equality requires a radical shift in power.

While much attention has rightfully been paid to how to vote during the pandemic, we have been thinking about why it is so important to vote in the first place. In a democracy, the individual act of voting itself is a crucial step.

Far too much coverage of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings has focused on her role as a mother of seven. Republican and Democratic senators alike have admired her “beautiful” and “well-behaved” children. In apparent awe, they have queried, “How do you do it?” In response to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Coney Barrett relied on a familiar deflection: “I have eyes in the back of my head.”

How should educators teach the election of 2020? No doubt it’s essential. Pulitzer-winning historians Eric Foner, Jon Meacham, and Doris Kearns-Goodwin have gone on record saying that this Presidential contest is epochal, that the outcome may well be challenged in historically important ways, that it rates as a high-stakes “crisis election.” The recent presidential debate put students on notice that the contest will be bruising; they’re fascinated — as they might be watching a car wreck on YouTube. They want to talk about it.