arin's attic | tagged as: racism

Tagged as: racism

the more things change, the more they revert back

this is a few days old, but worth noting.

March 9 (Bloomberg)—The U.S. Supreme Court limited the Voting Rights Act, ruling that provisions aimed at maintaining black and Hispanic influence at the polling place don’t apply in districts that are less than half minority.

The justices, voting 5-4, struck down a North Carolina redistricting plan that sought to preserve minority voting power in a state legislative district that is 39 percent black. The high court said that district wasn’t covered by the “vote dilution” protections in Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because minority voters could elect their preferred candidate only with the help of whites.

“Nothing in Section 2 grants special protection to a minority group’s right to form political coalitions,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for three justices in the court’s controlling opinion.

The ruling, which will affect the way voting lines are redrawn after the 2010 census, may make it harder for minority candidates to win election in some voting districts.

Justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens dissented. Souter said the ruling will lead to districts that are more racially concentrated.

The decision will have the effect of “contracting the number of districts where racial minorities are having success in transcending racial divisions in securing their preferred representation,” he said.

Kennedy said that dipping below the 50-percent threshold “would place courts in the untenable position of predicting many political variables and tying them to race-based assumptions.” He said that approach would raise “serious constitutional questions.”

Critics of the ruling questioned that reasoning, saying the upshot will be more racial polarization in voting.

The decision “seems to open the door to still more packing of minority voters into fewer districts so as to minimize the number of political races their votes will impact and thus diluting their political voice,” said J. Gerald Hebert, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, which filed a brief backing the North Carolina plan.

Defenders of the ruling disagreed. “The practical effect of this decision is to make it harder for politicians to gerrymander electoral districts by race,” said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Ralph Kasarda, who filed a brief opposing the plan.

and, of course, that’s exactly what the decision would mean. section 2 of the voting rights act sought to end vote dilution. there is absolutely no “equal opportunity to participate in the political process”, if districts are redrawn to make it impossible for a minority to be elected. after this last election, it should come as no surprise that conservatives have tried to find a way around that.

from an article entitled “Voting Rights in Jeopardy”, which discusses what was then an up and coming revisitation of the voting rights act:

Prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, barriers to black registration and voting were massive and crude. The entire white southern way of life was at stake. It was voting rights, more than anything else, that stimulated the 1964 Freedom Summer, voting rights that split the 1964 Democratic National Convention, and voting rights for which young activists gave their lives. In 1964, Mississippi had only about 7 percent of its black voting-age population registered to vote, with a voting-age population that was 36 percent black, Alabama, with a voting-age population that was 26 percent black, registered less than one eligible black voter in four, and Louisiana, with a voting-age population that was 28 percent black, registered less than one in three. In 1964, out of about 29,000 local, state, and national elected officials in the entire ex-Confederacy of 11 states, just 16 such officials were black, 3 of these state legislators and 13 local officials.

The 1965 act focussed entirely on the franchise. The act contained two sets of provisions, permanent sections that prohibited discrimination in voting, and temporary elements for enforcement, subject to renewal. The most important of these temporary features was Section 5 pre-clearance, which empowers the Justice Department to pre-clear any proposed changes in local registration and voting procedures. But there were also other temporary sections that barred specific impediments to voting and that provided for direct federal observation or examination of electoral processes as they occurred. This was the most basic takeover by Washington of local civic functions since Reconstruction; it was richly deserved and roundly resented.

No sooner was the law enacted than several southern state legislatures adopted programs of massive resistance to voting rights, much like the earlier massive resistance to school desegregation. States recast entire systems of representation in order to dilute black influence. They permitted or required county and municipal governments to create at-large voting for public offices, which submerged geographic black voting strength within a larger white majority. They changed balloting systems so that black voters were forced to vote for entire tickets, thus blocking any “single-shot” or “bullet-voting” by blacks for a liberal or minority candidate, which had been permitted previously in some jurisdictions. They pushed local governments to establish absolute majority vote requirements for winners, thus preventing plurality victory by a black candidate over a split field of whites. They converted elective offices to offices appointed by officials likely to have exclusively white support. Finally, states reapportioned legislative and congressional district lines to submerge black voting strength in white majorities.

yet, the supporters of this recent ruling, illogical asshats that they are (woo! check out my non-ableist language!), would have us believe that would *never* happen. yeah. right. and that civil war? had *nothing* to do with slavery.

Blogged, Politics, Comments (0)
Tagged as: politics,racism,conservatives,voting March 23, 2009 @ 03:11 pm

interesting shows…

from abc’s “what would you do”...

you see a group of white teens vandalizing a car, what would you do? what if the teens were black?

Blogged, Politics, Comments (0)
Tagged as: tv,culture,racism,bigotry,immigration,society February 24, 2009 @ 02:54 am

white nationalist movement continues attempts to mainstream hate

new report out by the southern poverty law center that examines three leading “anti-immigrant” groups: federation for american immigration reform (FAIR), the center for immigration studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA. all were founded and funded by john tanton, who has a long history of white nationalist ties. tanton is still on the board at FAIR.

FAIR, whose members have testified frequently before Congress, has hired as key officials men who also joined white supremacist groups. It has promoted racist conspiracy theories. And it has even accepted more than $1 million from the Pioneer Fund, a racist foundation devoted to proving a connection between race and intelligence, the report found. In 2007, FAIR was designated as a hate group by the SPLC.

The report also examines how the Center for Immigration Studies – which bills itself as an “independent” scholarly think tank – began its life as a FAIR program and continues to produce dubious and sometimes completely false studies furthering FAIR’s anti-immigration agenda. It’s a vision described by Tanton in a 1985 letter in which he wrote that CIS would produce reports “for later passage to FAIR, the activist organization, to remedy.”

Similarly, NumbersUSA, a group that has achieved dramatic policy successes, began its life as a Tanton foundation program, the report found. NumbersUSA Executive Director Roy Beck has even been described by Tanton as his “heir apparent.” He also edited The Immigration Invasion, a book by Tanton and a colleague that was so raw in its immigrant bashing that Canadian border authorities have banned it as hate literature.

it is consistently annoying to me to see people who should know better (the media) quote CIS as some type of valid source on the immigration issue. it’s the equivalent of going to “www.wehateblackpeople.com” to look for “minority crime rate statistics”. sadly, it’s in vogue to be “anti-immigration” in the same way that it’s still socially acceptable to be “anti-gay” and the media just bolsters the idea that these groups are valid by continuing to grant them access.

the full report is here.

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Tagged as: politics,racism,bigotry,immigration February 05, 2009 @ 10:42 am

stories that make you go… O.O

sometimes, the only reaction you can have to the news is…

Fla. woman claims ‘Merry Christmas’ got her fired:

PENSACOLA, Fla. – A Christian woman claims she was fired from her job because she greeted callers with “Merry Christmas,” but the vacation rental company says it’s no Scrooge and the woman is just a disgruntled employee.

Tonia Thomas, 35, said she refused to say “Happy Holidays” and was fired, even after offering to use the company’s non-holiday greeting. The Panama City woman filed a federal complaint that accuses the company of religious discrimination. She is seeking compensation for lost wages.

“I hold my core Christian values to a high standard and I absolutely refuse to give in on the basis of values. All I wanted was to be able to say ‘Merry Christmas’ or to acknowledge no holidays,” she said Tuesday. “As a Christian, I don’t recognize any other holidays.”

Thomas said she is Baptist.

exactly what christian “values” require the use of the words “merry christmas”, rather than “happy holidays”? “have a merry christmas and a happy new year” is ok, but “happy holidays” is not? is her god REALLY that shallow?

“as a christian, i don’t recognize any other holidays.” well, guess what, ms. thomas, regardless of whether you “recognize” them or not, they exist. they don’t cease to exist by sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling “lalala, i can’t hear you”. acknowledging reality doesn’t require that you participate in those holidays.

but guess what? there’s a whole “12 days of christmas”, which apparently some ~~“christians”~~ idiots have forgotten. it’s more than just a song! the 12 days count from december 25th clear on through january 6th, the epiphany, which is a ~christian~ holiday, so even if lil ms. thomas’ god is really that shallow, even he should be happy that people would recognize the entire season of holidays.

so can we all get over this “war on christmas” bullshit already? happy fucking holidays >:|

Blogged, Current Events, Politics, election2008, Comments (2)
Tagged as: holidays,religion,politics,news,racism,elections2008,christmas,democrats January 03, 2009 @ 04:30 am