A Supreme Injustice

The Supreme Court issued its long awaited decision in Shelby County v. Holder was so disappointing and stalk reminder of days long past, which turned back the hands of time. 

In its decision, the Supreme Court effectively invalidated Section 4 of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. As evidence of its negative impact; within hours of the ruling Texas immediately enacted a Voter ID law and rest assured many other states will revert back to their old ways denying millions of minorities, and African Americans in particular, the right to participate in America’s democracy.

I have seen and remember old Jim Crow and I am deeply troubled by the Supreme Court decision striking critical protections within the Voting Rights Act. In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court struck Section 4, a provision which outlines the formula federal officials have used to determine which states must clear new voting laws with the Department of Justice. This decision ignores the persistence of discrimination in voting and weakens a vital tool that has protected the right to vote for all Americans for nearly 50 years.

Most of America knows that it was because of the Voting Rights Act that African American’s were afforded the right to vote; although not a permanent or guaranteed right to vote. Periodically it had to be reauthorized. I was one who thought there would be a president to come along and refuse to sign the reauthorization into law or a Congress such as the one we have today would take away that right. But on June 25, 2013 the Supreme Court of the United States proved me wrong by being the culprits that take affectively took that right away.

Let’s take a historical look at some history. In 1865, it was said that slavery was over meaning blacks were free. In thirty years, the Supreme Court of the 1890s ruled in the Plessy v Ferguson that ushered in government sanctioned segregation that lasted until 1965 when President Johnson signed into law a number of Civil Rights Bills including the Voting Rights Act shortly after Bloody Sunday. That means it took a hundred years for this so-called freedom to have some semblance of reality. In the last election we saw the evil forces at work with tricks and schemes to further the disenfranchise minorities, the poor and elderly their right to vote.

So many African American’s gave their lives and blood to obtain the right to vote. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, "Thanks to the Voting Rights Act, progress once the subject of a dream has been achieved and continues to be made." She went on to say "Hubris is a fit word for today's demolition of the Voting Rights Act.”

I must express my distain for the “Negro” justice on the bench because this guy sided with the majority and it is reported that he said he would like to remove the entire Voting Rights Act. Sir your collusion and opinion is a disgrace and you should be ashamed! Make no mistake what you helped them do, in my view, was done to ensure that there will never be another black president.

For the sake of our children’s future we must take a stand and not let this stand! And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

I have to wonder if Uncle Thomas can remember this horrible event.

An explanation of what happened June 25, 2012

Oh Clearance!

During that God awful period of American history, which has been sanitized from the mind of today, when slavery was the law of the land there was an arrangement where African Americans were divided in two groups: – “House-Negros (I never use the N-Word but you get the point) and Field-Negros”. That same can be said of some in our community today!

For these who might not understand, let me explain:

“The house Negro, they lived in the house, with master. They dressed pretty good. They ate good, cause they ate his food, what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near their master, and they loved their master, more than their master loved himself. They would give their life to save their masters house quicker than their master would. The house Negro, if the master said "we got a good house here" the house Negro say "yeah, we got a good house here". Whenever the master would said, we, he'd say we. That's how you can tell a house Negro.

If the master's house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the master got sick, the house Negro would say "What's the matter, boss, we sick?" We sick! He identified himself with his master, more than the master identified with himself. And if you came to the house Negro and said "Let's run away, Let's escape, Let's separate" the house Negro would look at you and say "Man, you crazy.

What you mean separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?" There was that house Negro. In those days, he was called a house nigger. And that's what we call him today, because we still got some house niggers runnin around here. This modern house Negro loves his master. He wants to live near him. He'll pay three times as much as the house is worth just to live near his master, and then brag about I'm the only negro out here.”

There are many who fall into this category but I am saddened by one in particular. I said sadden but not surprised by the actions of Clearance Thomas as he voted once again against the interest of African Americans. He is widely regarded as the most conservative member of a conservative dominated Supreme Court and far more conservative than Hugo Black, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan who served on the court from 1937-1971.

Black, a former U.S. Senator from Alabama once filibustered an anti-lynching bill and joined the KKK in the early 1920s. In fact, during the 1926 election, he gave speeches at KKK meetings throughout the state. But Black later redeemed himself by acknowledging that joining the Klan was a mistake and became one of the most liberal members of the Supreme Court, strongly backing the principle of "one man, one vote" and using the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to forbid racial discrimination.

“The field Negro, those were the masses. There was always more Negros in the field as there were Negros in the house. There Negro in the field caught hell. He ate leftovers. In the house, they ate high up on the hog. The Negro in the field didn't get nothing but what was left in the insides of the hog. They call them chit'lins nowadays. In those days, they called them what they were, guts! That's what you were a gut-eater. And some of you are still gut-eaters.

The field Negro was beaten, from morning til night. He lived in a shack, in a hut. He wore cast-off clothes. He hated his master. I say, he hated his master. He was intelligent. That house Negro loved his master. But that field Negro, remember, they were in the majority, and they hated their master. When the house caught on fire, he didn't try to put it out, that field Negro prayed for a wind. For a breeze.

When the master got sick, the field Negro prayed that he died. If someone come to the field Negro and said lets separate, let's run. He didn't say Where we going? He said any place is better than here". We got field Negros in America today. I'm a field Negro. The masses are the field Negros. When they see this man’s house on fire, we don't hear these little Negros talkin bout "Our Government is in trouble. They say thee Government is in trouble. Imagine a Negro, "Our Government".

The same ol slave master today has Negros who are nothing but modern Uncle Toms - 20th century Uncle Toms to keep you and me in check. Keep us under control. Keep us passive and peaceful… That's Tom making you nonviolent. It's like when you go to the dentist and the man is going to take your tooth. You're going to fight him when he starts pulling. So they squirt some stuff in your jaw called Novocain, to make you think they’re not doing anything to you. So you sit there and because you got all that Novocain in your jaw, you suffer peacefully. ahahaha.”

Some of us understand that we are that which is referred to as the “permanent underclass”. But when you can effect change and chose not to - it is simply a disgrace. In every major case that could represent justice for the least of thee - this guy voted against those interests. What makes that so strange is that Thomas, who reminds me of my uncle whose name is Tom, has benefited from affirmative action throughout his adult life. To characterize Thomas' behavior as resentment is an understatement.

Let me quote the late U.S. Appeals Court Judge Leon Higginbotham who said of Thomas, "I have often pondered how is it that Justice Thomas, an African-American, could be so insensitive to the plight of the powerless. Why is he no different, or probably worse, than many of the most conservative Supreme Court justices of the century? I can only think of one Supreme Court justice during the century who was worse than Justice Clarence Thomas: James McReynolds, a white supremacist who referred to blacks as 'niggers.'" This is a sad commentary!

I only talked about one such house-negro but there are more, and you know who they are! And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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