A DIFFERENT TAKE ON SO-CALLED VOTER SUPPRESSION LAWS

Our Country's Racist History

Just as the hula hoop and Davy Crockett coonskin cap crazes overtook the 50's, Republican-controlled states are in a hurry in the 2020's to enact what are widely viewed in mainstream media as voter suppression acts.(As a kid, I never got the coonskin cap I craved, but, instead, was told to "take turns" with my sister with "our" hula hoop.)

Republican leaders would take issue with the word "suppression," but are selling these new modifications, that frequently limit voting hours, precincts or require more stringent identification, as necessary to preserve the integrity and counteract the latent or even blatant fraud they can't prove exists.

Newly enacted laws that, for example, shut down Sunday afternoon voting in states with a large number of Black voters, do so in response to a long held Black church tradition of "Souls to the Polls," that is, go to church Sunday morning and vote en masse Sunday afternoon.

Is this sort of voting limitation racism?  YES!

As someone who spent thirty years in Arkansas, a state with a history of well-documented racism, I tend to recognize it when I see it.(Google "Little Rock Nine" or  "Orville Faubus, National Guard.")

Racism, I believe, is frequently based on fear.  To put it bluntly, typically mild-mannered and overtly Christian Arkansans were afraid their blonde, 17 year old cheerleader daughter would be attracted to the 6'5" black basketball star.

In a similar way, Republicans fear what is becoming a very diverse state and country.

Texas will likely become majority Hispanic, minority white sometime in 2022.

Our country as a whole is becoming more diverse and minority populations are moving to southern states where the cost of living is lower and job opportunities greater.

Republicans have two options to co-exist in this new, more ethnically diverse environment:  1. Make their platforms more attractive to non-white voters.  2.  Make voting more difficult for non-whites with coy, subtle limitations to voting opportunities, that will not eliminate, but simple suppress or stifle non-white voting.

Taking approach number 2 underestimates the adaptability, resiliency and resourcefulness of Blacks and other current minorities.

Blacks, particularly, have overcome Jim Crow, slavery, segregation, housing barriers, crosses burned in their yards by the KKK, racial slurs painted on their homes, not to mention police harassment.  

Hispanics have also endured and overcome some of the same, while, in many cases, learning a new language and culture.

Asians, who just recently, have experienced unexplainable, ignorant racist attacks, have a long history of wonderful adaptation and fulfillment of the American dream. 

Fort Chaffee, Arkansas 1975

In 1975, with the war in Viet Nam ending, about 100,000 political refugees sought refuge in this country.

Half, about 50,000, wound up in the unused barracks of Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.  These were mostly Vietnamese, but also Cambodians, Laotian and Hmong.

These refugees eventually settled in several states, although a large segment stayed in Arkansas.

I met and worked with some of these people and observed first hand their commitment to family, education and their incredible work ethic.

As a testimony to educational commitment of this group, with English as a second language, a student of Vietnamese heritage won the Arkansas State Spelling Bee 12 years in a row.

What I'm trying to illustrate, with more words than originally intended, is that voter suppression laws will not work.

Blacks and other ethnicities have already demonstrated beyond doubt that "they will overcome" ignorant, racist attempts to control their rights as citizens.