Sunday, June 23, 2013

The History of Voting in America...or 
How to Screw Black People.

Passed by Congress February 26, 1869, and ratified February 3, 1870, the 15th amendment granted African American men the right to vote.

To former abolitionists and to the Radical Republicans in Congress who fashioned Reconstruction after the Civil War, the 15th amendment, enacted in 1870, appeared to signify the fulfillment of all promises to African Americans.

Set free by the 13th amendment, with citizenship guaranteed by the 14th amendment, black males were given the vote by the 15th amendment.

Sorry black women, you’re still screwed.

From that point on, the freedmen were generally expected to fend for themselves.

Hear that black America? You get to fight in whatever war has been thought up by the pasty white men. Does Senator McChinless ring any bells?

In retrospect, it can be seen that the 15th amendment was in reality only the beginning of a struggle for equality that would continue for more than a century before African Americans could begin to participate fully in American public and civic life.

Are we there yet?

African Americans exercised the franchise and held office in many Southern states through the 1880s, but in the early 1890s, steps were taken to ensure subsequent “white supremacy.”

Why are we not surprised?

Literacy tests for the vote, “grandfather clauses” excluding from the franchise all whose ancestors had not voted in the 1860s, and other devices to disenfranchise African Americans were written into the constitutions of former Confederate states.

2013...back to the future. What kind of “devices”? A simple Math exam? An English exam? Oh gawd! Not the dreaded History exam! We hate History with all them dates!

Social and economic segregation were added to black America’s loss of political power.

Hope they didn’t notice. 

In 1896 the Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson legalized “separate but equal” facilities for the races.

Good thinking Plessy...you too, Ferguson. We outsmarted them old farts.

For more than 50 years, the overwhelming majority of African American citizens were reduced to second-class citizenship under the “Jim Crow” segregation system.*

*The Jim Crow system was under-girded by the following beliefs or rationalizations: whites were superior to blacks in all important ways, including but not limited to intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior; sexual relations between blacks and whites would produce a mongrel race which would destroy America; treating blacks as equals would encourage interracial sexual unions; any activity which suggested social equality encouraged interracial sexual relations; if necessary, violence must be used to keep blacks at the bottom of the racial hierarchy. 

Hear that Tommy  Jefferson? Keep it in your pants and stick to your own kind!

Hmm...how do we feel about the Chinese? They’re eating our lunch at the moment...and, we don’t even get a freaken eggroll.

During that time, African Americans sought to secure their rights and improve their position through organizations such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League and through the individual efforts of reformers like Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and A. Philip Randolph.

The most direct attack on the problem of African American disfranchisement came in 1965.

Prompted by reports of continuing discriminatory voting practices in many Southern states, President Lyndon B. Johnson, himself a southerner, urged Congress on March 15, 1965, to pass legislation “which will make it impossible to thwart the 15th amendment.”

Unless you introduce bright n shiny new voting machines and know how to program blax out! Have I said too much?

He reminded Congress that “we cannot have government for all the people until we first make certain it is government of and by all the people.”

The Voting Rights Act of 1965, extended in 1970, 1975, and 1982, abolished all remaining deterrents to exercising the franchise and authorized Federal supervision of voter registration where necessary.

What do we do about the teabaggers...or whatever we call the fux who are attempting to kidnap our democracy by making one (1) voting machine available for 20,000+ black voters?

Gee...I sure hope nobody noticed the freaken lines farther that the eye could see.

Okay gang! Here’s a fun image you can go to bed with and have a smile on your face. Picture this:

President Obama enters the room and the pasty faced old white men have to stand up!

Is that not a knee-slapper?