Racism -

[Shokew]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/...ry-passed-any-laws-based-on-race?detail=email

The comments alone speak almost perfectly for me (despite how fucked with SJWs this news site is now...).

One only has to go online to cite the many countless acts of racism in US History toward blacks (such as myself with all those Jim Crow laws), Asians (what with Chinese Exclusion Acts and Japanese Internment, for major examples), as well as our own former natives, to name obvious examples.
And don't get me started on poll taxes and all these current voter laws in many states to keep minorities, AGAIN such as blacks (like myself), away!

Willful ignorance or stupidity sums it up perfectly (Haley's comment toward Trump...) - how we are ignoring that racism, like religious abuse, is one of many things ruining the US... I know this issue is much worse elsewhere, but I felt this needed pointing out as something to think about.

 

[Mark Corrigan]

Not sure if I got that right, but is she trying to criticise Trump and coming off as even dumber than him?

 

[Shokew]

Not sure if I got that right, but is she trying to criticise Trump and coming off as even dumber than him?

By forgetting the history of slavery in the US, via willful ignorance, or better yet, sheer idiocy, I can safely say yes.

I wanted to post this in the "Trump 2016" thread, but it was off-topic, in my opinion; besides, something like racism and things like slavery and segregation that are by-products of it is something worth delving deeper into than that.

 

[KatsuKitty]

The meaning of racism is considerably diluted when people begin micro-policing words or claiming things like "video game racism". It's like the same thing that's happening to sexism. There needs to be more calling-out of foreign cultures that are tremendously racist, such as Islam.

 

[AnOminous]

Not sure if I got that right, but is she trying to criticise Trump and coming off as even dumber than him?

This is the second time in as many days that one of Trump's opponents has fallen face first into the toilet while he looked good by comparison, the first being Ted Cruz.

 

[Shokew]

This is the second time in as many days that one of Trump's opponents has fallen face first into the toilet while he looked good by comparison, the first being Ted Cruz.

In a sane world - in a world not plagued by the BS banks put us through, Hailey would be getting carted off somewhere to a mental ward for such a fucking stupid comment, to go off-topic for a bit. There's a term that fits such stupidity on display here, and it's not governor, honestly.

It doesn't help that this willful ignorance / stupidity will continue, even if someone did vote her stupid ass out, knowing how many people want to ignore the atrocities of such behavior that originated in South Carolina, as well as the Southern US in general.

 

[Joan Nyan]

And don't get me started on poll taxes and all these current voter laws in many states to keep minorities, AGAIN such as blacks (like myself), away!

Can you elaborate on what laws are stopping blacks from voting today?

 

[Shokew]

Voter ID laws (in general) in easily gerrymandered / violently conservative states seem to target people of minorituies quite easily. It's the biggest stealth form of racism out there, next to all the police brutality towards minorities as of late.

 

[Ruin]

Voter ID laws (in general) in easily gerrymandered / violently conservative states seem to target people of minorituies quite easily. It's the biggest stealth form of racism out there, next to all the police brutality towards minorities as of late.

Racial minorities don't have drivers licenses or social security cards? Actually isn't it kind of racist to assume minorities are all too poor/stupid to get a form of ID?

 

[Wallace]

Racial minorities don't have drivers licenses or social security cards? Actually isn't it kind of racist to assume minorities are all too poor/stupid to get a form of ID?

Not necessarily all, but a relatively lower percent have a government issued ID. On average, black are more likely to be asked to show said ID to vote, and their polling places are further away from residential areas.

 

[Ruin]

Not necessarily all, but a relatively lower percent have a government issued ID. On average, black are more likely to be asked to show said ID to vote, and their polling places are further away from residential areas.

Can that be definitively linked to a racist conspiracy though? I could compare the distance in polling places between white rednecks who live in rural West Virginia to black folks who live in New York and come up with a more significant margin, that doesn't mean there's a racist cabal out to get white people. Maybe I'm just naive but I don't believe every statistical deviation is evidence of racial malice. Your second point is utter rubbish. By law everyone is required to show a form of ID to vote in the United States.

 

[Shokew]

Racial minorities don't have drivers licenses or social security cards? Actually isn't it kind of racist to assume minorities are all too poor/stupid to get a form of ID?

You're right and I apologize if I did. But I've never been able to shake that sinking feeling that that might have been the unfortunate intent for some politicians out there in mostly Southern states...

By law everyone is required to show a form of ID to vote in the United States.

To be brutally honest, I don't know why it's become such a big deal recently when this truth was always common sense, sadly enough.

 

[AnOminous]

Your second point is utter rubbish. By law everyone is required to show a form of ID to vote in the United States.

Not true. Most places I've voted, I've only had to countersign the voter registry.

 

[RepQuest]

A couple of months ago, Alabama shut down some satellite DMV locations in majority black counties shortly after it passed voter ID laws, but that decision was later reversed. While I'm sure that there were other factors involved, such as budget constraints, I wouldn't blame anyone who thought that this was more than coincidental.

 

[Ruin]

Not true. Most places I've voted, I've only had to countersign the voter registry.

Huh, where I live its mandatory. Thanks for the correction.

 

[nad7155]

Most people who cry racism are racist themselves.

 

[Marvin]

Can that be definitively linked to a racist conspiracy though? I could compare the distance in polling places between white rednecks who live in rural West Virginia to black folks who live in New York and come up with a more significant margin, that doesn't mean there's a racist cabal out to get white people. Maybe I'm just naive but I don't believe every statistical deviation is evidence of racial malice.

There's a different reason why white rednecks are discriminated against: they're poor.

I think the problem people have is that they treat racism as this incredibly huge sin. Like with police brutality, some people can't seem to believe any evidence that there's a racial element to it, unless you literally present them with a video of the cop wearing a Klan hood and doing the nazi salute while he kicks some guy's teeth in. I take the opposite approach, I assume that people are chock full of innate biases, including racial and ethnic ones.

Of course, seeing the situation this way goes both ways. If it's so common to be racist, then you shouldn't demonize people for minor fuckups. You can acknowledge and treat a problem without demonizing people for their mistakes. (Assuming they're operating in good faith.)

I don't think that that there's some scheming group intentionally disenfranchising minority voters. That's like a conspiracy theory. I don't believe in conspiracy theories. What's much more likely is that the people who place polling places figured they could save a few bucks for the government, and they just didn't think hard enough about how it'd affect minorities. People naturally give more attention to issues that affect groups more similar to themselves.

It's not a coincidence when it happens. There are definitely racial elements (and class and gender and all of that) that cause it to happen. But you also shouldn't treat it identically to conscious, intentional racism.

 

[Doc Cassidy]

Can that be definitively linked to a racist conspiracy though? I could compare the distance in polling places between white rednecks who live in rural West Virginia to black folks who live in New York and come up with a more significant margin, that doesn't mean there's a racist cabal out to get white people.

I agree. I have to drive 10 miles to the nearest polling station and show ID. It's not part of a conspiracy to stop white rednecks from voting for Trump, it's because I live in the middle of nowhere and it's the closest place to set up a polling station. That's just the way it is sometimes.

 

[Joan Nyan]

I seriously don't understand how anyone of voting age could even function in society without an ID. Don't you need an ID to get a job, or unemployment, or welfare, or food stamps, or to rent an apartment, or to open a bank account? You can't even buy cold medicine without an ID. If it's difficult for some people to acquire an ID shouldn't we be trying to help them get IDs? It sounds to me like people who don't have IDs probably have much bigger problems than not being able to vote.

 

[AnOminous]

I don't think that that there's some scheming group intentionally disenfranchising minority voters. That's like a conspiracy theory. I don't believe in conspiracy theories. What's much more likely is that the people who place polling places figured they could save a few bucks for the government, and they just didn't think hard enough about how it'd affect minorities. People naturally give more attention to issues that affect groups more similar to themselves.

They think about the exact influence voting regulation and laws like this have on elections and model it to the tenth of the percent and finer with detailed maps and software specifically for doing it, preferring laws that favor their electoral success. This isn't a secret. There have been numerous studies on the exact impact these laws have and why they disproportionately favor Republicans.

When they deliberately close voting places on weekends when those are overwhelmingly used by people who have actual jobs, it's hard to say it's some completely innocent event when this just happens to favor the election of the people passing the law.

Unless the law is specifically intended to disenfranchise, it's generally legal. A party is allowed to pass legislation that favors its electoral success.

It's not like the laws say "black people aren't allowed to have ID," but a number of marginalized populations have reasons it can be more difficult to meet ID requirements, especially when they're made absurdly strict. For instance, a lot of superannuated people simply don't have a birth certificate of the sort currently required, because records were kept differently in many places, or people were not born in hospitals and may have only entered any kind of record keeping system on getting a Social Security number or some other government program. In some cases, someone may have actually gone their entire lives without ever needing such documents.

Judge Richard Posner of the 11th Circuit, a conservative Reagan appointee, wrote the decision in one of these cases and, subsequently, years later, wrote a subsequent legal dissent about why the previous decision was wrong and that these laws are, in fact, discriminatory.

In any event, though, while the evil if you are in one of these disenfranchised groups is that you may have had roadblocks put up to your personal right to vote, the evil to society is that democracy itself ends up warped.

As for me, I recently put together the documents for one of the more onerous ID requirements in the country and it cost upward of $50 with an actual birth certificate filling about half of that (although I spent somewhat more than necessary to actually have the copy certified which was not actually a requirement). This isn't a lot of money for most people but for some, it is basically a poll tax.