They (the mainstream news media) are still crediting the "Emancipation Proclamation" as the law that ended slavery, even though it really was the 13th Amendment that ended slavery. The EP only applied to ten of the southern states, was an illegal over-reach of Presidential powers, and some northern states continued to practice slavery after it was issued.
But now we have a new historical fallacy regrading the attenuation of racial inequality. People want to take credit for what someone else has done. I have heard several news reports that the so-called Selma Civil Rights March "gave blacks the right to vote". This is totally absurd. Supposedly, this march led to adoption of the Voting Rights Act which they are saying "gave blacks the right to vote".
The 15th Amendment is what really guarantees that blacks (and people of any other race) have the right to vote. To be more correct, they can't be denied the right to vote on the basis of race. Here it is ratified nearly 100 years before all of this "Voting Rights Act" nonsense:
But now we have a new historical fallacy regrading the attenuation of racial inequality. People want to take credit for what someone else has done. I have heard several news reports that the so-called Selma Civil Rights March "gave blacks the right to vote". This is totally absurd. Supposedly, this march led to adoption of the Voting Rights Act which they are saying "gave blacks the right to vote".
The 15th Amendment is what really guarantees that blacks (and people of any other race) have the right to vote. To be more correct, they can't be denied the right to vote on the basis of race. Here it is ratified nearly 100 years before all of this "Voting Rights Act" nonsense:
Section. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
According to Wikipedia, "In Mobile v. Bolden (1980), the Supreme Court held that as originally enacted in 1965, Section 2 [of the VRA] simply restated the Fifteenth Amendment..."
The real purpose of the VRA was to give the Federal Government power to manipulate local elections so that the fat cats in Washington could stay in power. The VRA does not do anything to protect blacks but does prohibit certain prerequisites for voting like literacy tests, educational or knowledge requirements, proof of good moral character, and requirements that a person be vouched for. So this is really about making sure that corrupt, immoral and uneducated people can vote so that the votes of the honest, hardworking, and knowledgeable Americans can be diluted. It is easier for a corrupt politician to get elected if the electorate is uneducated and selfish. The VRA has absolutely nothing to do with race.
This is just another example why Americans need to do two things: 1. learn the Constitution 2. do not support any piece of legislation until you have read it yourself. People are now making a big deal about this 50th anniversary of the Selma march because they want to take credit for something that had already been done a long time before that.
No comments:
Post a Comment