Update (8/17/04): Check out Duane’s ambulance. Hilarious!
…roars the dinosaur, also known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). But they barely manage a squeak.
These limousine liberals with no important work left to do just released a “special report,” ominously titled, “The Long Shadow of Jim Crow: Voter Intimidation and Suppression in America Today” (PDF). Talk about hyperbole! The NAACP ought to be ashamed.
First of all, why is it always black voters who are “intimidated?” Why not white women or Asians or…sorry, I forgot. Blacks are victimized and still suffering from the “legacy of slavery,” so I guess we’re a little jumpy.
The overview begins this way:
In a nation where children are taught in grade school that every citizen has the right to vote, it would be comforting to think that the last vestiges of voter intimidation, oppression and suppression were swept away by the passage and subsequent enforcement of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965. It would be good to know that voters are no longer turned away from the polls based on their race, never knowingly misdirected, misinformed, deceived or threatened.Unfortunately, it would be a grave mistake to believe any of it.
In every national American election since Reconstruction, every election since the Voting Rights Act was passed, voters — particularly African American voters and other minorities — have faced calculated and determined efforts at intimidation and suppression. The bloody days of violence and retribution following the Civil War and Reconstruction are gone. The poll taxes, literacy tests and physical violence of the Jim Crow era have disappeared. Today, more subtle, cynical and creative tactics have taken their place.
OK.
In the opening of the 25-page report, the NAACP lists what’s presumably their strongest examples of “Jim Crow” voter intimidation”:
In 2004 in Texas, students at a majority black college were challenged by a local district attorney;s absurd claim that they were not eligible to vote in the county where the school was located. It happened in Waller County — the same county where 26 years earlier, a federal court order was required to prevent the local registrar from discriminating against the students.
Where do I begin? First of all, a group of black college students marching en masse to the courthouse to protest against “disenfranchisement” as if this were still the 1960s? Wake me up when it’s over!
Second, college students across the country of any race have to deal with residency issues at one point or another (see examples here, here and here [registration req.]). It’s about residency requirements, not “voting intimidation” against blacks students.
Moving on:
In 2003 in Philadelphia, voters in African American areas were systematically challenged by men carrying clipboards, driving a fleet of some 300 sedans with magnetic signs designed to look like law enforcement insignia.
For this example, the NAACP cites this article on American Prospect, which I had to dig up because no date or article title was listed in the report.
Read it for yourselves. All it amounted to was Republicans and Democrats in Philadelphia aggressively trying to register voters. I plan to contact the Philadelphia GOP to find out the real deal about the “300 sedans” and signs that looked like “law enforcement insignia” because frankly, I don’t believe the NAACP’s rendition.
But for entertainment purposes, let’s say the dinosaur’s version is true. Why would blacks in particular be intimidated by men with “law enforcement insignia?” What is the subtext?
Here’s another example of “Jim Crow” voter intimidation:
In 2002 in Louisiana, flyers were distributed in African American communities telling voters they could go to the polls on Tuesday, December 10th — two days after a special Senate election [of Senator Mary Landrieu] was held.
Is the NAACP implying that the Louisiana GOP tried to trick voters in predominantly black neighborhoods into showing up on the wrong day? Even if true (and I hope it’s not), does it rise to the level of state-imposed skin color segregation, for crying out loud? Can’t black voters call around to find out if and when an election has been rescheduled? Apparently not.
Again, inquiries must be made to get the full story.
In 2000 in Florida, thousands of voters whose names mistakenly appeared on a flawed list of felons were purged from the state’s voter rolls. Despite the ensuing outcry and litigation, the state has not yet restored the rights of many of those voters — and in fact has begun a new purge of an additional 40,000 names for the 2004 election.
Is this about the 2000 presidential election again? Good grief. Is the dinosaur implying that the “thousands of voters” were mostly black? If that were the case, I’m sure they would’ve stated so in the report, which they don’t. Keep in mind, these are the NAACP’s strongest examples of the return of Jim Crow.
The NAACP manages to get a few things right about the history of real voter intimidation in the rest of the report. But these limousine liberals want to give the absurd impression that state-sanctioned segregation and intimidation tactics are alive and well in 2004. Shame, shame, shame! Read a few examples of Jim Crow laws. Do they bear any resemblance to life in America as blacks know it today?
Hat tip: The Other Point of View (Renee is new to the blogosphere, so go on over and make her feel welcome!), who writes:
To sum it up, the entire report is a bunch of incidents “supposedly” of voter intimidation in “African American” and minority communities. Where they could specifically pin-point the incident as being “sponsored” by the GOP or the Republican Party, the party or guilty party is so labeled. There are a great number of incidents listed that are not labeled with a political affiliation (Can you say Democrat/liberal?) Where Republican/GOP is mentioned, the description of the incident infused with more “minority” labels (i.e. Hispanics, Latino, African American). Where no affiliation is listed, is toned done somewhat.This research took me all of five minutes and cost nothing….Isn’t it about time for the NAACP to start working on “Advancing” someone in need and not wasting the donors money?
Right on, Renee. Ditto to infinity and beyond!
