Ted Cruz shows off his cluelessness, and his myopic white privilege.
BY CELINE CASTRONUOVO
In a hearing before the subcommittee on the Constitution, titled, “Restoring the Voting Rights Act: Combating Discriminatory Abuses,” Cruz, the subpanel's ranking member, asked each of the five witnesses to say whether they believed “voter ID laws” were “racist.”
Franita Tolson, vice dean for faculty and academic affairs and professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, was the first to respond, saying that “it depends” and that “one thing we have to stop doing is treating all voter ID laws as the same.”
Cruz asked her to clarify, adding, “What voter ID laws are racist?”
Tolson then replied, "Apologies Mr. Cruz, your state of Texas, perhaps."
The professor went on to say that the state’s voter ID law “was put into place to diminish the political power of Latinos with racist intent...”
Cruz interrupted by saying, “You’re asserting that. What’s your evidence?”
Tolson responded by citing the ruling by a federal judge in 2017 that said the 2011-passed Texas voter ID law was designed with the intent to discriminate against Black and Hispanic voters, who are less likely to have photo IDs or the resources — such as owning a vehicle — that make it easier to get them.
The previous attempt to pass a very restrictive voting law in Texas passed in 2011, and it was struck down in 2017 as being discriminatory.