The Ugly Face of Racial Resentment: Scalia

[Procrustes Stretched]

The Ugly Face of Racial Resentment: Scalia

Cynthia Tucker writes about how "Scalia dismissed a critical part of the law as a 'perpetuation of racial entitlement.'" and "the notion that much has changed in the decades since a young John Lewis was beaten bloody on the Edmund Pettis Bridge 48 years ago this week." Like her I have sometimes found this to be "a very seductive argument."

I've seen people of all stripes; progressives, liberals, conservatives and others, speak of this attraction. But something always pulled me back from that attraction and here Cynthia addresses it straight on...

But the Georgia General Assembly dragged me back to the reality of the modern-day politics of racial exclusion. In 2005, its Republican members pushed through an odious piece of legislation requiring state-sanctioned photo IDs, such as a driver's license, for voting. It became one of the first states to do so.

#Then, as now, there was no compelling argument for the requirement. Despite conservative claims about voter fraud, in-person fraud at the ballot box is virtually non-existent. As many voting rights activists pointed out, the law was aimed squarely at poorer voters who tend to support Democrats, especially black and brown voters. Georgia's voter ID law, like similar ones around the country, was designed to suppress the minority vote. So instead of giving up on the Voting Rights Act, I enthusiastically supported its renewal in 2006.

Since then, voter suppression efforts have gone into hyper-drive.

What bothers me and puzzles many is how many conservatives and some pothers can deny this reality.

Racism, bigotry, and prejudice is alive and well in America, and we have only to look as far as the next mirror

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

The Ugly Face of Racial Resentment: Scalia

Cynthia Tucker writes about how "Scalia dismissed a critical part of the law as a 'perpetuation of racial entitlement.'" and "the notion that much has changed in the decades since a young John Lewis was beaten bloody on the Edmund Pettis Bridge 48 years ago this week." Like her I have sometimes found this to be "a very seductive argument."

I've seen people of all stripes; progressives, liberals, conservatives and others, speak of this attraction. But something always pulled me back from that attraction and here Cynthia addresses it straight on...

But the Georgia General Assembly dragged me back to the reality of the modern-day politics of racial exclusion. In 2005, its Republican members pushed through an odious piece of legislation requiring state-sanctioned photo IDs, such as a driver's license, for voting. It became one of the first states to do so.

#Then, as now, there was no compelling argument for the requirement. Despite conservative claims about voter fraud, in-person fraud at the ballot box is virtually non-existent. As many voting rights activists pointed out, the law was aimed squarely at poorer voters who tend to support Democrats, especially black and brown voters. Georgia's voter ID law, like similar ones around the country, was designed to suppress the minority vote. So instead of giving up on the Voting Rights Act, I enthusiastically supported its renewal in 2006.

Since then, voter suppression efforts have gone into hyper-drive.

What bothers me and puzzles many is how many conservatives and some pothers can deny this reality.

Racism, bigotry, and prejudice is alive and well in America, and we have only to look as far as the next mirror

The problem is racism is hidden behind the façade of partisan contrivances and myths such as ‘voter fraud,’ allowing racists to conceal their actual motives.

As for Scalia, he grows increasingly bitter and detached from reality, a consequence of his realization that his tenure as an associate justice has been largely a failure – along with the failure of reactionary judicial conservatism in general.

He might enjoy a hollow, pointless ‘victory’ in Shelby County, but the edifice of civil rights jurisprudence will nonetheless remain intact, much to the dismay of the right.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

CJ, good post. Racism is something none of us truly like dealing with. There are times I am so over it, but I'm white. I can walk away from it and I think that is what many white people forget: we can walk away from it where others live it