How else to describe the deplorable number of young black males who are incarcerated in the U.S? And those numbers are so disproportionate in large part because of the inequities in the way the various drug laws are enforced. There is no racial difference when it comes to the use of drugs, just in the enforcement of the drug laws. It is good to see that the Attorney General is supposedly looking at this issue and very encouraging that the usual obstructionists have been pretty silent so far.
It is no secret that Stop and Frisk laws have always been applied with a racial bias....on the basis of skin color, and certainly not on the basis of character.
I think white America knows that all blacks and hispanics, (the law-abiding, educated, middle-class included) experience a different day-to-day reality than do their white counterparts. Here a poet will break your heart in his description of a dialogue with his 4-year old nephew and then his own reflections on the culture in which that nephew will grow up.
The real racism is found in the long-term cultural indifference to the subject(s). These are not secrets.
But what am I supposed to feel when one party goes beyond indifference to actively promoting racist policies. The various restrictions to voting that have been enacted in Texas, North Carolina and other Republican-controlled state legislatures are intended to suppress elderly, poor and minority voting. Proponents or these laws like to toss out red herrings along the lines of "If you have to show an ID to (fill in the blank), then why shouldn't you have to show one to vote?" As I say, it is a red herring, because there have been virtually zero incidents of individuals trying to vote fraudulently. They are solving a non-existent problem. And what is the reason for North Carolina to eliminate early voting, other than the fact that it was most helpful to people who tended to vote for Democrats?
Republicans like to confuse the issue of voter fraud with election fraud which, if it exists, these voter-suppression laws will do absolutely nothing to address. Election fraud, which essentially has to do with how the votes are counted and recorded, can be addressed very easily. Although I have heard partisans claim that certain precincts around the country (Chicago, always Chicago) reported more votes for Obama than there were registered voters, I don't know if it is true. If it is, law makers at the federal level can certainly fix the problem easily. Let John Boehner introduce a bill to ensure fairness in federal elections; I and other non-Republicans will sign petitions to the Democratic Senate to support it.
Despite the cover story, occasionally one of these state Republicans gets caught (like Romney and his 41% comment) speaking truth to co-conspirators. Then, the truth comes out that this is all part of a strategy to deliver Republican victories. And why should anyone be surprised? It is a continuation of the Nixon Southern Strategy and the subtle racism implicit in many of the party's messages, which Lee Atwater, architect of many of them, admitted to when he knew he was dying.
The last Republican President was big on spreading democracy around the world. But the party is clearly intent on restricting it at home. And this is when other democracies are, logically, trying to widen the franchise rather than contract it. In Brazil, the law requires everyone under the age of 60 to vote. Heitor always misses elections when he is in Rio to cover the film festival there; later he has to appear before a certain body with documents to show that he was out of town. As far as I know, there is no provision in Brazil for absentee voting, but I will not swear to that. It is just as likely that Heitor is never organized enough to remember in time.
Until some sanity returns to the party, I do hope that the expression "last Republican President" continues to hold.
No comments:
Post a Comment