Uncle Ruckus - er Clarence Proves Why He's So Dangerous to Blacks

Beware the Black face in a high place. That includes you know who!! I feel a little bit like Shakespeare writing Julius Ceasar: beware the Ides of March. Some of them don't even pretend to have your (our?) interests at heart *cough Condi Rice cough*. Now that she's gone back to private life millions of dollars richer she can continue supporting her "husband" on her own dime at least.  At least she supported education for everyone. Such is not the case with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. 

In typical conservative activist action, Thomas was the only one to vote against reauthorizing Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. It requires federal preclearance of voting procedure modifications in areas where minorities were discriminated against in the past. Let's review some of the ways women and non-whites were prevented from voting: poll taxes and requiring parental/husband permission. We use fancy words like disenfranchisement and voter fraud.

Modern techniques at stopping people from voting involve redrawing district lines, closing polling locations at the last minute, claiming a voter has a prior felony or simply taking their name from the roll. You know how much I hate the word minority in relation to how non-whites are discounted to make way for the continued domination of whites though the physical numbers wouldn't support that. I digress though. 

Section 5 is supposed to prevent obvious and overt means of subterfuge. In other words, a voting district can't just change the way people are allowed to vote without getting approval and telling others. The problem is Section 5 isn't permanent and can be challenged. It's set to expire in 2031.

This also doesn't guarantee that said district - or state - can't ever obtain approval to make changes that adversely affect certain voters. The push for voter identification cards is like a modern day poll tax. Just because you're not being beat over the head doesn't mean others are not seeking to discourage you from exercising your right to vote.

From Detroit News: The Austin utility district, backed by a conservative group opposed to the law, brought the court challenge.  It said that either it should be allowed to opt out or the entire provision should be declared unconstitutional. 

The court said that the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 in Austin, Texas, can apply to opt out of the advance approval requirement, reversing a lower federal court that found it could not. Justice Clarence Thomas, alone among his colleagues, said he would have resolved the case and held that the provision, known as Section 5, is unconstitutional. 

"The violence, intimidation and subterfuge that led Congress to pass Section 5 and this court to uphold it no longer remains," Thomas said.   {Oh really and how would you know?}

Debo Adegbile, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund lawyer who argued for the preservation of the law at the high court, said, "The fact is, the case was filed to tear the heart out of the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act and that effort failed today."

It failed today, but we can't guarantee it won't the next time it's challenged. The Court could have refused to hear the case thereby leaving it intact as is. Black people, our rights are being chipped away little by little and some of us had better wake up out of our fog before it's too late. We have people that look like us that seek to do us far more harm than others. They want to be the only ones standing. They laugh at us, demean us, call us uncouth, pretend to be our friend or claim to be with us in solidarity when they are anything but. 

The sad...and scary thing is Thomas is far too obvious and predictable. We have many other infiltrators and combatants that are trying - no succeeding - in destroying some of us from within. If you don't think media representation matters guess again. If you think denigrating the women from "our" group doesn't matter think again. If you think self-hate doesn't matter you are wrong. You may be okay but others are not and will not be. Perhaps you'd rather spend your efforts on other activities but those of us who are a little more self-aware or in positions to affect change might want to reconsider that. Or it could be too late and the tide is just over the horizon. I don't know, but I had to put out my two cents here. The coffee's bubbling over.