Poll taxes, grandfather clauses, literacy tests, white primaries—these were the transparently racist practices used in the past to prevent African Americans from voting. And then there is the racism of today, which is often indirect and not as clearly discriminatory. Case in point: currently Republicans are attempting to rewrite state election laws, requiring voters to have valid government-issued photo IDs.
The statistics, provided by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University law school, speak for themselves—25 percent of African American voters do not have a valid government-issued photo ID, compared with 8 percent of whites. 15 percent of voters earning less than $35,000 per year—often being members of minority groups—do not have such an ID.
The alleged reasoning behind the new laws is to prevent voter fraud, the pervasiveness of which is open to debate, according to the independent federal and bipartisan Election Assistance Commission.
The problem isn’t necessarily that government-issued photo IDs themselves are unaffordable; the cost of an ID card in North Carolina is a mere 10 dollars. Many third-party voter registration groups, however, will face new restrictions. Rather than being allowed to register on the day of voting, individuals may cast a "provisional ballot" but must fill out all of their paperwork requiring voters’ IDs and then turn those forms in within 48 hours. If paperwork is not in good order, groups face fines and their ballot will not count.
Needless to say, the Democratic Party would suffer from the new laws, having historically carried the vote of many poor and minority voters. Republicans have good reason to change voting laws in ways that strengthen their party’s hold on power in addition to having well said intentions to curb voter fraud. When we step back to look at what exactly the demographic breakdown is though, of who exactly is being put at a disadvantage by the new laws, something doesn’t seem quite right.
The de facto creation of more obstacles for African Americans and other minority groups is no less discriminatory than the systematic measures to prevent African Americans from voting in the past.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson is urging civil rights lawyers at the Justice Department to reverse some of the new laws.
“The irony is those that are willing to declare war for democracy abroad are too willing to declare war against democracy at home,” Jackson wrote in a column of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Kerry Haynie, associate professor of political science, also noted the irony.
“The amount of voter fraud of the type proponents of these laws claim the laws will address is insignificant by any reasonable estimation or calculation," Haynie said. "It is even more perplexing that Republicans, at the same time they are advocating for smaller government and less government spending,[they] are advocating for a big government type policy. There appears to be a bit of hypocrisy here, and I think the hypocrisy is rooted in racial concerns.”
The new laws are significantly more subtle in how they discriminate against African Americans and minorities, but thereby perhaps more malicious in a certain sense. To ignore the fact that these laws put a certain group at a disadvantage is to simply avoid the topic of racism.
Racism still exists, and it’s nothing to be forgotten.
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