One day, many years ago, I was working in my college bookstore when this guy walks in wearing a T-shirt. “White Power,” it said.
I was chatting with a friend, Cathy Duncan, and what happened next was as smooth as if we had rehearsed it. All at once, she’s sitting on my lap or I’m sitting on hers — I can’t remember which — and that white girl gives this black guy a peck on the lips. In a loud voice she asks, “So, what time should I expect you home for dinner, honey?”
Mr. White Power glares malice and retreats. Cathy and I fall over laughing.
Which tells you something about how those of us who came of age in the first post civil rights generation tended to view racism. We saw it as something we could dissipate with a laugh, a tired old thing that had bedeviled our parents, yes, but which we were beyond. We thought racism was over.
I’ve spent much of my life since then being disabused of that naivete. Watching media empires built upon appeals to racial resentment, seeing the injustice system wield mass incarceration as a weapon against black men, bearing witness as the first African-American president produced his long-form birth certificate, all helped me understand just how silly we were to believe bigotry was done.
So a chill crawled my spine last week as the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could result in gutting the Voting Rights Act. That landmark 1965 legislation gave the ballot to black voters who had previously been denied it by discriminatory laws, economic threats, violence and by registrars who challenged them with nonsense questions like, “How many bubbles are in a bar of soap.”
One of the act’s key provisions covers nine mostly Southern states and scores of municipalities with histories of such behavior. They must get federal approval before changing their voting procedures. The requirement may be stigmatizing; but it is hardly onerous.
Yet Shelby County, Ala., seeks the provision’s repeal, pronouncing itself cured of the attitudes that made it necessary. “The children of today’s Alabama are not racist and neither is their government,” wrote Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange last week.
It was rather like hearing a wife beater say he has seen the error of his ways and will no longer smack the missus around. Though you’re glad and all, you still hope the wife’s testimony will carry a little more weight in deciding whether the restraining order should be lifted.
But the court’s conservatives seemed eager to believe, peppering the law’s defenders with skeptical questions. Indeed, Justice Antonin Scalia branded the law a “racial entitlement.”
Sit with that a moment. A law protecting the voting rights of a historically disenfranchised minority is a “racial entitlement”? Equality is a government program?
Lord, have mercy.
There is historical resonance here. In the 1870s, the South assured the federal government it could behave itself without oversight. The feds agreed to leave the region alone where race was concerned. The result: nearly a century of Jim Crow. Now here comes Shelby County, saying in effect: We’ve changed. Trust us.
It is an appeal that might have seemed persuasive back when I was young and naive, sitting on Cathy’s lap (or she on mine) and thinking race was over. But that was a long time ago.
Yes, the South has changed — largely because of the law Shelby County seeks to gut. Even so, attempts to dilute the black vote have hardly abated. We’ve just traded poll taxes and literacy tests for gerrymandering and voter ID laws.
So we can ill afford to be as naive as a top court conservative at the prospect of softening federal protection of African-American voting rights. “Trust us,” says the South. And the whole weight of history demands a simple question in response.
Why?
Comments
Pork_Ribs 2 months, 2 weeks ago
If you want or expect something from others or the government because of your race...you are the racist.
If in every situation you are confronted with you play the race card...you are the racist.
You want to end racism? Help out a black man. Until they step it up, as a whole, the problem will persist. When we can watch a sporting event and learn of the young man's parents instead of just his mom a majority of the time...that's when we'll know we're on the right track. Keep following race baiters like Leonard Pitts and things will only get worse.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus 2 months, 2 weeks ago
"If you want or expect something from others or the government because of your race...you are the racist."
What he wants is for (local and state) governments to not put up structural impediments for those of a particular race from exercising their right to vote. But you want to enable the racists to pick up where they left off, and call those who protest "racist." That's just as pitiful as it is intellectually dishonest.
tomatogrower 2 months, 2 weeks ago
So you agree with all those Jim Crow laws and methods of voter suppression, black or white?
Liberty275 2 months, 2 weeks ago
The soft racism of low expectations. You'd think we'd be over that garbage by now.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus 2 months, 2 weeks ago
That doesn't make any sense.
Katara 2 months, 2 weeks ago
He's referring to the idea that minorities need an extra boost to make it up to the same level as white males.
Of course, the idea that affirmative action is no longer needed assumes that everybody has an equal opportunity to make something of themselves and that assumption isn't true.
Liberty275 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Why is it not true? Tell me, what advantage I have because I am beige? Do I not have to show up for work everyday? Do I not have to be somewhat skilled to keep my job? Do I get to vote more often? Are my taxes less? Are there special stores just for beige people?
DougCounty 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Ask a differently colored skin friend of yours to answer the question how it's different.
Liberty275 2 months, 2 weeks ago
You're probably a shade different. You answer.
DougCounty 2 months, 2 weeks ago
You might, I'd never. You might not have that friend much longer if you gave that answer after they gave you an honest response.
avarom 2 months, 2 weeks ago
To me Voting is a laughing matter.....everytime I vote....I say No, Not that one...and No, not that one either........and I laugh .....because he/she really didn't matter.... enough....to Get My Vote!
tanzer 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Pork ribs from which dictionary did you get those two (non) definitions? Here is what the world English dictionary says
racism or racialism (ˈreɪsɪzəm, ˈreɪʃəˌlɪzəm)
— n 1. the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority over others 2. abusive or aggressive behaviour towards members of another race on the basis of such a belief
tuschkahouma 2 months, 2 weeks ago
porkribs sounds the sign of desparation....get the federal government that stopped Little Rock in 1957 out of the way.....the forces that went to Ole Miss and Philadelphia, Mississippi out of the way.....convince conservatives who've benefitted from white priviledge for a century and a half that they want to go back in time.... to what? more racism? not playing the race card......I'm playing the history card.....which conservatives fail at.....including scotus judges.
cait48 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Voting is not an "entitlement", it is a right. Scalia, at the very least, needs to recuse himself and probably should be impeached for that kind of remark. I personally believe it's his incipient Alzheimers. He needs to retire and stop holding on to the office in a desperate attempt to keep Obama from appointing his successor. Clarence Thomas can go with him.
Liberty275 2 months, 2 weeks ago
I'm not sure voting is a right. Please point out what you believe makes voting a right. Thank you.
cait48 2 months, 2 weeks ago
I dunno. Maybe it has to do with the title of the law currently before Congress. You know, the VOTING RIGHTS Act? Maybe it has to do with the 19th Amendment that gave women the RIGHT TO VOTE. I think the right is pretty well enshrined in the Constitution.
Liberty275 2 months, 2 weeks ago
That forbids discriminatory practices related to voting. It does not give you a right to vote. You are smart enough to know the difference.
The right to vote exists nowhere in the US constitution.
boltzmann 2 months, 2 weeks ago
The text of the 19th amendment states that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
It would seem that this wording acknowledges the existence of a "right to vote" - if a "right to vote" didn't exist, the amendment would be pretty silly, as stated.
Liberty275 2 months, 2 weeks ago
It's the same as the 14th. It prevents discrimination. It doesn't give you the right to vote.
boltzmann 2 months, 2 weeks ago
The subject of the sentence specifically mentions "the right of citizens of the United States to vote" and goes on to state that it cannot be denied or abridged to a specific class. If the right that is the subject of the sentence did not exist, how could it then be denied?
Liberty275 2 months, 2 weeks ago
"it cannot be denied or abridged to a specific class."
But it can be denied to all classes.
State's may give you the right to vote, but the federal government does not in any way give you a right to vote. The federal government protects you from discrimination.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus 2 months, 2 weeks ago
So, you hold the beliefs you do just to keep Pitts in a job? That's a new twist on the old argument that says racism is a benevolent act.
cait48 2 months, 2 weeks ago
I'm guessing that you replied to a comment that's been removed?
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Yea-- I think it got sent back to Linwood again.
UneasyRider 2 months, 2 weeks ago
If Obama wasn't president, what else would or could you whine about?
UneasyRider 2 months, 2 weeks ago
pork ribs, another all white meat.
grammaddy 2 months, 2 weeks ago
They don't want to stop them from voting because they are BLACK. They want to stop them from voting Democrat. I thought everybody knew this is "post-racial" America. Has been since Obama got elected.Racism died November of 2008. I thought you knew.
UneasyRider 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Over 50 % of white males over 45 voted for Romney. Doesn't that sound a lot like the old white males are racists as they've always been. But the good news is they're dying off just like the GOP.
verity 2 months, 2 weeks ago
I think grammaddy was being sarcastic.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus 2 months, 2 weeks ago
No, it's recognition that to vote otherwise (i.e., Republican) is maladaptive.
WristTwister 2 months, 2 weeks ago
When will Pitts write an article about Louis Farrakhan, Khallid Abdul Muhammad, the New Black Panthers, Jeremiah Wright and others of this ilk. You know...the Black KKK of contemporary America.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus 2 months, 2 weeks ago
When up becomes the down that's part of your racial mythology.
appleaday 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2008/05/04/853019/the-messenger-who-killed-the-message.html
WristTwister 2 months, 2 weeks ago
I actually read the article in your link. Did you? Although Pitts speaks at length condemning Wright, the discerning reader will note that this Pitts special is more about separating Obama from Wright than it is about Wright. Pitiful that Obama sat in a pew for 20 years and listened to Wright spew his hate for America and white devils in general only to kick the Rev to the curb for political reasons. I believe a major part of the Obama psyche is still associated with the Rev. It is reflected in his agenda and comments concerning the Trayvon Martin case and the pre beer summit fiasco when he took the side of a black professor before knowing all of the facts.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus 2 months, 2 weeks ago
My bet is that you don't know anything more about Wright than the the out-of-context and very selective and/or highly distorted tidbits you heard ad nauseam on Faux News.
grammaddy 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Maybe when they do something that upsets more than just rednecks.And you really ought to learn something about the KKK.
WristTwister 2 months, 2 weeks ago
It may be that you are the one needing education Gram.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9HdvB... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biadSU... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnlRrx... http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1325
UneasyRider 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Don't think Leonard is the one crying or as more properly called whining.
Armstrong 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Standard Pitts formula. Standard Pitts article. Nothing new here
Moderate 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Cain killed Abel (or so the story goes) so should all first born males be suspect and placed on special monitoring programs forever. Surely there must be an end to punishment for crimes committed generations ago??!!
Corey Williams 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Exodus 34:6-7 - "And He [the Lord] passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, 'The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.'
Moderate 2 months, 2 weeks ago
God goes to the third generation. How far do we go? Has the countdown begun? Seems as if there have been close to three generations since the voting rights act led to sanctions.
yourworstnightmare 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Many of the folks who opposed the civil rights act in the Jim Crow south are still alive and still in positions of power. It was not so long ago.
Pork_Ribs 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Racist/Bigot = A conservative who has just won an argument with a liberal.
Armstrong 2 months, 2 weeks ago
How open minded of you !
UneasyRider 2 months, 2 weeks ago
I try to keep my mind at least as open as average conservative.
Katara 2 months, 2 weeks ago
By pork_ribs' definition, racism and bigotry is truly gone.
tuschkahouma 2 months, 2 weeks ago
pork ribs making a repeated arguement in denial of reality and the acceptance of the horrors of the past makes one a racist or a bigot. I love watching said people do the sidestep around the issue knowing full well that the bluff of reality they to accomplish fools no one. you don't fool me. maybe you are what you are. the other equasion here is the counties in South Dakota where there's a historical Lakota Indian majority being gerrymandered out of power and profiled into submission by a wascichu (White) minority to the point where the US Justice Department intervened there or the denial of voting rights for Dine, Pueblo, Hopi, Zuni, Apache, and other Indians of New Mexico until 1951 when Native Americans received the right to vote with the Snyder Act of 1924 and yet White people fearful of the consequences of exclusion were forced to let these Indians vote 27 years after a federal law passed. Call uninformed people out and set the record straight. Don't tolerate willful and billegerent ignorance which I don't. If someone acts a certain way the perception doesn't lie.
UneasyRider 2 months, 2 weeks ago
And as average person says to average GOP racist, get over it, we elected a black man.
Armstrong 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Elections have consequences
UneasyRider 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Yes they do, and you poor little conservatives can't stand them.
Armstrong 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Anyone paying taxes is suffering the consequence of Barrys reelection
Katara 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Please stop calling them conservatives. They are not.
UneasyRider 2 months, 2 weeks ago
But every post you make manages to point out his race. Doesn't that create the appearance of a racist?
Armstrong 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Is it racist to mention someone is Black, Hispanic, Latino.... No
cait48 2 months, 2 weeks ago
No more racist then for me to look at a composite photo of all of the freshmen legislators in the state house and point out that, hey, they're all white people!
tomatogrower 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Double like.
voevoda 2 months, 2 weeks ago
I am stunned to see how so many posters on this forum disclaim any racism, but then make derogatory generalizations about persons who aren't white.
tomatogrower 2 months, 2 weeks ago
No, not all conservatives are racist, but when they are faced with racist acts by their peers, and deny that it wan't really racist, I have to question them. When I am still told a racist joke by white people who barely know me, and assume since I'm white, I won't mind, then I know racism exists. Pointing out a racist attitude is not race baiting. It's pointing out the obvious. I no longer sit by when I see racism; I point it out. If you are conservative, and not a racist, then start condemning those in your ranks who are.
tuschkahouma 2 months, 2 weeks ago
if you're not racist and you don't like being associated with historic racist attitudes do something about the people responsible for giving good conservatives a bad name. Don't blame the target of said bad behavior for speaking openly about these bad people. Fifty years ago Good Democrats passed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act and pushed the bad Democrats or Dixiecrats out. Between 1967 and 1982 or between George Wallace, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan these racist Dixiecrats became Republicans. This was crazy to witness as I grew up in Louisiana and Mississippi from the early 1970's to the early 1980's. The GOP was a carpetbagger party during Civil War Reconstruction and for these southerners to go GOP was like watching a vampire go willingly into the sunlight. They did so because good Democrats told them to leave and they became right wing Republicans. I'm 42 years old and I witnessed this firsthand in Moss Bluff, Louisiana between the 1976 and 1980 presidential elections. Witnessed history trumps gop mythology and claims of reverse racism.
cait48 2 months, 2 weeks ago
I can't "like" this enough. I'm 60 and, although I grew up and lived in Kansas, I was VERY aware of the Dixiecrat flight to the GOP. (By the way, you forgot that piece of filth, Jesse Helms.)
I get OUTRAGED when some modern Republican tries to tell me they are the "party of Lincoln". They no more espouse Lincoln's beliefs and philosophy now than the Ayatolla preaches on the Bible.
tuschkahouma 2 months, 2 weeks ago
cait48 I'll reference Orville Faubus, Ross Barnett, George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, and Jesse Helms for you to make it right. I'm the former grandson of a almost 90 year old White/Choctaw Dixiecrat who went GOP with Reagan. He is the patriarch from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" wrecking his family with Southern Patriarchy in style. His culture didn't value my late mother's college education and it upended their narrow mindedness which is why southerners pretty much always assail intellectuals as the people who upset their apple carts of keeping things the same much as the 1960's and Civil Rights did. Look at how they treated Willaim Faulkner and William Fulbright not to forget Jimmy Carter. They like locked in step standard bearers who fight to keep their way of life alive at the expense of all of us. This is the fight occurring as we speak in DC and Cyberspace. They are trying to rewrite history that they've lost and we should not let them.
cait48 2 months, 2 weeks ago
I have deep southern roots on my mom's side. Her family came from Tennessee and Texas. I was the first woman in my mom's extended family to have a college education. The only reason they tolerated it was because it was in nursing (a "woman"s" profession). I didn't get married until I was 24 (in an era when most women married within a year of graduating from high school) and I can't tell you the "old maid" jokes I endured. We didn't have a "patriarch" (he died when I was 13) but believe me, the attitudes and culture were all there.
Agnostick 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Did somebody get obnubilated? Is obnubilation covered under Medicare, Part O...?
jafs 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Racism is defined as the belief that those of a certain race are superior to those of another race simply by virtue of their race.
Many things that are commonly called racist don't fit that definition.
Armstrong 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Best post on the thread jafs
jafs 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Wow! Thank you.
Commenting has been disabled for this item.