Reviving Jim Crow?

[msgadget]

Any day now the Justice Department will render judgment on one of the single most discriminatory pieces of voting legislation of recent years: a Georgia state law requiring voters to present one of only six forms of photo identification before they can exercise their right to vote. Before enforcing this statute, Georgia must get Justice Department approval by proving that the law will not put minority voters in a worse position than they were in before the requirement was instituted.

The facts surrounding Georgia's voter identification requirement cannot be disputed. Virtually every black legislator opposes the legislation, and most black lawmakers staged a walkout to protest its passage. Every major civil rights and minority advocacy group, including the NAACP, and many legal scholars, oppose the restriction; several have submitted comments to the Justice Department for consideration.


Additionally, it is surprisingly difficult to obtain a photo ID in Georgia. Though the state has 159 counties, there are only 56 places in which residents can obtain a driver's license, and not one is within the city limits of Atlanta or within the six counties that have the highest percentage of blacks.

...

Reviving Jim Crow?

[Karenina]

1. Maybe they'll get Choicepoint

to store the data. :eyes:

Is it just me or does anyone else think American-style racism has gotten MUCH WORSE in the last decade?

[msgadget]

2. Nope, not just you

I think everything's rollin' backwards these days.

[Brewman_Jax]

3. I don't think that it's you

but combine an intellectually-challenged populace and an indifferent corporate-controlled media, there's brain rot. The majority reverts to old habits, blaming "those people" for their troubles rather than seeking the truth. Notice that they blame poor minorities, who have very little economic and political power, for problems that they can't possibly create, instead of the oligarchs, with whom they'd rather align themselves. :crazy:

[undergroundrailroad]

4. Does anyone see a black dichotomy in play here? Those that have vs those

that have not. Or let me put it in this context, would Oprah, Bill Cosby and Michael Jordan be denied the right to vote in GA without ID vs John and Mary Doe (your everyday working African-American citizens)? This concerns me. Because I think we need to lobby to insure that Jim Crow won't creep back in another form. Indeed I do think it is a form of reviving Jim Crow. The issue of ID in the black community as long been a problem and it must be addressed. I think we need to fall back on good old grass roots organization to assist blacks in getting the necessary documentation and transportation to obtain identification cards. This is nothing more than another way of stopping the black vote. In the 50's you needed to pay a "poll tax" AND pass a competency test. It's all one in the same.

Yes, Ms. G, it is reviving Jim Crow. Until we get * out of the White House NOTHING is going to change, NOTHING! I'm with Diddy, vote or DIE!

M-

[wildeyed]

5. ....

Indiana recently passed such a law, as has Wisconsin (though Wisconsin's Democratic governor vetoed the legislation), and it's likely that legislatures in Florida, Texas, South Carolina, South Dakota and other Republican-controlled states are watching to see what the Justice Department will do.

So if this legislation is allowed to stand, it will likely spread, too.