Supreme Ignorance
Originally Posted at The Blog of Progress
“The South has changed” Racism is over; after so many years during one oral Argument before the Supreme Court all racism had become a moot point. In a decision that will most likely stir partisan controversy voting rights for minorities hangs in the balance especially in the south.Yet to the South they have done their time, in today’s “post racial” America, there is no need to protect the rights of minorities anymore especially because discrimination has officially ended.
In a stunning turn of events racism is over in America. Forget about the incarceration rates being higher for minorities. Forget about police constantly pulling over men of color (especially in the south) simply because they look suspicious. Forget the death of a young man in Central Florida gunned down , armed with only a packet of skittles, merely because he had a hoody. Forget a Jacksonville shooting of a young man killed in a car with his friends simply because he was listening to “urban music”. Discrimination in the work place? That is no longer an issue as men and women of color now routinely make the same if not more than their white counterparts. People of colored are not stopped and questioned in many states around the country, like Arizona and Alabama (the new home of tolerance) simply because they are of a darker shade or may seems as if they are illegal. The internet is not filled with racist jokes about the President, the Kenyan who somehow hoodwinked a Nation. Racism in America is dead and according to the Supreme Court the right to vote is safe even if the South is given free reign to do as they please.
Yet in this post racial America; in a Nation lacking in racial prejudice and filled with a new sense of Kumbaya; Nothing says we are not racist, like the recent words of Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia. Ladies and Gentleman during oral arguments which were discussing the virtues of post racial America, Mr. Scalia openly and plainly stated that the law protecting Voting Rights was protecting is a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.” Ladies and Gentleman this was not spoken by some illiterate KKK member in some trailer park in Alabama. This was spoken by a Justice of the Supreme Court, who is charged with interpreting Constitutional Rights. Yet there he stood stone faced and with the gall to on one hand entertain a notion of a post racist America while spewing a racially charged comment. Ladies and Gentleman I give you a so called Post Racial America, as interpreted by a member of the Supreme Court.
Post Racial America is a a lie. This Nation still continues to fall into the old habit of judging men and women by the color of their skin. Racial Discrimination is still rampant in many facets which is why we still need protections like affirmative action and yes voting laws. With all the recent discrimination minority voters have faced the last four election cycles allowing the South to do what they want when it comes to voting will only send us further backward. The “States Rights” crowd is waning however they are still trying to use the Power of the Court to bring back full blown States racism. It is sad that after so many years that lust for a Confederacy remains so strong today, it so sad that such blatant racism can be heard coming from a source which needs to be colorblind and neutral., after all the Constitution is colorblind why can’t the Justices who interpret it be as well