| June 30, 2006 Editor’s Desk by Aaron Selbig, insurgent49 Jim
Crow Lives
It’s been a backwards week here at Insurgent Headquarters. In 1965, Congress finally did away with Jim Crow laws (obstacles to voting, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, intended to prevent African-Americans from participating in democracy) with the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Considered then and now to be the foundation of civil rights legislation in America, this very important Act is due to be renewed in 2007. In order to assure its renewal (and to have a solid issue to campaign with this fall), Congress intended to vote on it last week. There was only one problem. House Republican leaders blocked the vote. Their ridiculous, racist reasoning is twofold: First, they claim that nine states are singled out unfairly by the Voting Rights Act. Republicans from these predominately Southern states argue that times have changed, that racism, even in the South, is a thing of the past, and every state should be held to the same standard. Let’s look at that argument a little more closely, starting with our own state of Alaska (one of the nine states held to tougher standards under the Act). The reason that Alaska was included with this group, by the way, is that we have a long and ugly history of discrimination against our Native population. Forty-one years later ... how much have things here really changed? If you’ve lived in Alaska longer than fifteen minutes, chances are you’ve witnessed racism against Alaska Natives. But, if you need more concrete proof, check out last week’s report on education from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which stated that Alaska Natives graduate from high school at a dismal rate of 43%. Republican Congressmen are also opposed to a provision in the Voting Rights Act that requires multilingual ballots in areas with a high immigrant population. Continuing with their xenophobic, racist anti-immigrant “debate”, the GOP apparently sees the Voting Rights Act as an opportunity to take a stand against the rising tide of Hispanic immigration in America by preventing them from voting. Which brings us to the real reason for last week’s Republican stall tactics: it’s all about the votes. Hispanics, African-Americans and most other minority groups in this country have at least one thing in common: they typically don’t vote for Republicans. And nothing upsets Republicans more than people who don’t vote for them. And they’ve taken action, too. For evidence of modern Jim Crow-style election tampering, and for one more reason that the 1965 Voting Rights Act needs to be renewed as soon as possible, let’s look at the state of Ohio during the 2004 general election, where Republicans were successful in, as Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell put it, “deliver[ing] the state of Ohio to the Republican party”. Problems with the voting technology in Ohio during the 2004 election have been well documented, but the main culprit in stealing the election there may have been Republican Jim Crow tactics aimed at minority voters. For instance: - in the four years preceding the election, Ohio Republicans purged 300, 000 voters from the state rolls - Democratic strongholds in areas with a high proportion of minorities (such as in parts of Cleveland) did not receive an adequate number of voting machines - several Ohio voting precincts were inexplicably changed at the last minute, and outdated voter lists were delivered to many of them - last-minute rule changes invalidated thousands of provisional ballots (again, mostly in areas with high minority populations) Jim Crow lives, and not just in Ohio. The bright side of this, if there is one, is that the Republicans in Congress who are stalling renewal of the Voting Rights Act are making outrageous fools of themselves. Let them run on this issue. Let them go back to their districts to campaign for the midterm elections on a platform of fear and hate. Discrimination is not a mainstream American value. Aaron Selbig is an activist and media junkie who resides in an undisclosed location in downtown Anchorage. He is the winner of a 2006 Alaska Press Club award for Best Editorial Writing, host of KUDO 1080 AM's 'The Aaron Selbig Show' and a co-founder of Insurgent49. Aaron may be contacted at editor@insurgent49.com |
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