YOU COULD LOSE YOU’RE JOB!

(Scott Bombay, The Tennessean, NAACP, New York Times)

(Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, United States Department of Justice)

(Our Documents, Carl Hulse, Robert Barnes, Frazer Chronicle)

 

I always like her approach to her subject, I really loved how her concoctions looked and tasted and enjoyed her southern drawl, and even though I never really gave it much thought, I always thought that Paula Deen might have been bigot. What gave her away…..in my opinion, a healthy bunch of you-alls.

 

Did finding out that Paula Deen was a racist, (at least at one time during her life) matter to me, not really, everybody has their own opinion, and in America you are allowed to speak your mind, and state your feelings. Of course other people also have rights, and in the case of Paula Deen, her bosses, the Food Network decided to opt out of Paula Deen’s food show. Now I’ll have to look elsewhere for those delicious deserts she created.

 

Paula Deen I’m sure will be seen as a side-note to what happened yesterday, June 25, 2013, when the United States Supreme Court found that a portion of a 1965’s Voting Rights Act was too old, and did not apply to today’s world.

 

Under the old law, the United States Justice Department had the right to approve voting changes in states and districts that had shown a pattern of discriminatory behavior, determined by a formula set in 1965 and updated in the 1970’s. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act gave the Justice Department this power of (pre-clearance) with the ability to overturn any election passed by a state on the pre-clearance list, including how Congressional districts were drawn.

 

With Section 5 not currently enforceable, states can consider undoing districts…..moving reliably Democratic black and Hispanic voters into a more Republican-leaning seats and in some states making it less likely that those seats would elect Democrats.

 

MUMBO-JUMBO, ATTORNEY JARGON

Simply stated, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 puts down the good old boys syndrome that existed…..and exists in some states today. Anybody who say’s its not true is either a member of some sort of Southern group of supremacists, or is living up in the Smoky Mountains without access to newspapers, radio, or television, and hasn’t talked to anybody for decades.

 

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 targeted southern states in its simplest form because some southern states acted in an inappropriate manner in how they regulated elections locally, regionally and on the national level. Gerrymandering throughout the United States with regards to voter districting, in the North to secure additional votes…..and in the South to disenfranchise people of color.

 

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 dealt a blow to those racially driven people and groups who held onto the old South, and their way of doing things! I’ve traveled extensively through the South, and I can tell you first hand that prejudices still exist…..there still is a difference between a Southern black and a Northern black.

 

Clearly a majority of the Supreme Court hasn’t visited the south lately, if they had, the results of their vote, and the subject matter of the majority decision which was written by Justice Roberts would have reflected their visit, and their experiences.

 

The states that made the list that required pre-clearance for any political redistricting were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. The state that I’m a bit surprised by is Alaska, but I guess all that one has to do is remember the former governor, Sarah Palin…..case closed!

 

The arduous fight that took place left the landscape littered with dead lawyers, and fattened bank accounts. This battle took several years, and many political salvos, and legal infighting before the issue was finally dragged through the halls of the Supreme Court by the bloodied and bleeding attorneys.

 

The decision was a huge step forward…..backwards for civil rights here in the United States, the ability for the black or brown man to vote freely, and in a way where the vote will count has, at the present time been revoked.

 

THE N WORD IS OUT…..NIGGER IS IN

Whatever happened to sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me go, doesn’t that saying still apply? A key part of Justice Roberts written verdict was the fact that parts of Voting Rights Act of 1965 does not apply in today’s world. I’m really glad to have that issue cleared up for me; don’t want progress in our national brotherhood movement to be overlooked.

 

But let’s take a short break here, and use the same to discuss the social changes that have taken place over the past 48 years in the United States. Black and white people seem to be getting better, discrimination is waning…..right, blacks can now move freely in every corner of our great nation in search of a home and job.

 

Profiling of a black person in a car late at night in a white neighborhood isn’t done anymore, racially mixed marriages are now universally accepted, there is almost an equal split in college, and professional head coaches, many, many Fortune 500 companies are run by black people.

 

Equal rights on the bus, at the lunch counter, in the bathroom and the swimming pools of the country…..black people are on a first come, first serve basis…..right. The observations and questions herein actually raise more questions, and differing opinions.

 

Whenever acts were imposed to monitor the promise that the United States Constitution grants people’s rights, and then to systematically restructure the acts leads nowhere but down. The weather changes, the season’s change, but to change attitudes and atmosphere under which people operate takes a hell-of-a long time before an unfettered attitude is achieved.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!