Leonard Pitts: Why silence from African-American voters? [View all]

[KaryninMiami]

Last edited Mon Jul 16, 2012, 11:50 AM - Edit history (1)

From today's Miami Herald:

An open letter to African America:

In the late ’90s, the Internet belched forth a rumor that the Voting Rights Act was soon to expire and that black folks would lose the vote as a result. Though stupid and untrue, the rumor spread like a dust cloud till it was inescapable. You couldn’t get away from it in a confession booth. You couldn’t get away from it in a phone booth. Everybody was up in arms.

Flash forward to 2012. Now the threat is real. There is a sustained effort to suppress the black vote as we approach this pivotal election. And what is our response?

Silence.

“I don’t sense that African Americans are truly aware of what is in the process of happening or could happen to them,” says Rep. John Lewis, Democrat from Georgia. “People should be angry. There should be a sense of righteous indignation. African Americans and people of good will, Latinos and young people, should be saying, ‘How dare you? The gall of you!’ ”

"Snip"
In Washington, conservative Republicans are seeking to gut the Voting Rights Act. In Florida, they are, in effect, purging Democrats from the voting rolls. In Kansas, there is a law requiring a voter show proof of citizenship. And in 30 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there are Voter ID laws, either passed or under contemplation.

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Conservatives argue that such laws are needed to prevent voter fraud. This argument might hold more water if there actually were any significant voter fraud in our elections. There is not.

In a speech last week before the NAACP, Attorney General Eric Holder likened Voter ID laws to the poll taxes of yesteryear. He is right. Like the poll taxes, like the grandfather clauses, and literacy tests of decades past, Voter ID laws are officially race-neutral. And like those discarded laws, these new ones have the intention and effect of preventing African Americans from voting. Poor people, you see, are less likely to have photo IDs — and black people are disproportionately poor.

So where are we in all this? Silent, that’s where.

"Snip"

Silence.

From the barber shops, silence.

From the beauty parlors, silence.

From the pulpits, silence.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/14/2894666/why-silence-from-african-american.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/14/2894666/why-silence-from-african-american.html