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This Hashtag Is Calling Out How America Talks About Black Women Voters

by Chris Tognotti
Sean Rayford/Getty Images News/Getty Images

On Tuesday night, the state of Alabama saw one of the biggest upsets in its electoral history — Democratic Senate candidate Doug Jones defeated Republican senate candidate Roy Moore by nearly 2 points, despite trailing in the polls heading into the voting. And when you look at all the demographic voting data, it's not at all subtle what happened ― namely, soaring turnout by black voters (and particularly black women) turned the tide in Jones' favor. In the aftermath of the particularly dramatic night in American politics, "Black Women" tweets began trending to recognize women of colors' impact on Jones' win.

Even a brief glance at the exit poll breakdown of how white and black Alabamans voted on Tuesday tells the tale. Overall, according to CNN, the exit polls suggest that 68 percent of white Alabamans voted for Moore, an accused child molester (Moore vehemently denies the allegations), while 96 percent of black Alabamans backed Jones, his opponent, a former civil rights attorney.

Even further, the exit poll data sorting by both race and sex shows that 72 percent of white men, and 63 percent of white women back Moore, while 93 percent of black men and a staggering 98 percent of black women backed Jones. These numbers came in a race in which black voters turned out in a huge way, accounting for about 29 percent of the total electorate, despite Alabama's embrace of voter suppression laws and on-the-ground practices, which were reportedly in effect yesterday.

In short, black Alabamans, especially black Alabaman women, successfully pushed Jones over the finish line, and it's a stark reminder of what a powerful force in Democratic politics they are, how much they're owed by the Democratic Party, and how much more work the party should be doing to repay that debt. Here are 19 tweets from the #BlackWomen hashtag, in the aftermath of the dramatic outcome in Alabama.

1. We Just Made Moore Disappear

2. It's Show Us Time

3. We Won't Always Be There

4. Support Black Women

5. Don't Take Your Supporters For Granted

6. A Friendly Reminder

7. Trending Every Single Day

8. No More Turning On Us

9. Nobody's Free Until Everybody's Free

10. What Should We Require?

11. Will People Actually Invest

12. We've Been Leading Change

13. Who's Running In 2018?

14. We Get Usually Hit First & Worst

15. We Know What's Good

16. We Set Trends For Everybody

17. The Most Telling Sign

18. That Too Is White Supremacy

19. Black Women Did That

Not to be forgotten amid Moore's numerous allegations of sexually predatory behavior, he has also suggested that America would be better off if it repealed all the amendments to the U.S. Constitution after the 10th. He has also stated that the country was better off during the days of slavery ― because, despite the fact that human beings were being sold as property and owned as property, "families were united" back then. In reality, the families of the enslaved were anything but "united" (to the contrary, they were torn asunder by the institution of slavery).

This is far from the first time black voters, led by black women, have turned out in opposition to a racially demagogic or far-right candidate. During the 2016 presidential election last year, exit polls showed a full 94 percent of black women breaking for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, with only 4 percent voting for Republican nominee Donald Trump. Black men were also overwhelmingly opposed to Trump, though not to quite the same extent: 82 percent of them voted for Clinton, while 13 percent voted for Trump.