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People. The central narrative of American political history playing out before your eyes:
Every time Black folk&allies build enough power to make politics more fair, white supremacists use the 1-2 punch of mass incarceration & disenfranchisement to reinstate racial oppression.
Every time Black folk&allies build enough power to make politics more fair, white supremacists use the 1-2 punch of mass incarceration & disenfranchisement to reinstate racial oppression.
After the Civil War, southern whites enacted the Black Codes, which made being unemployed & loitering & a million other things punishable by imprisonment and hard labor, ie, slavery.
So the antislavery coalition enacted the 13th, 14th & 15th Amendments to the Constitution.
So the antislavery coalition enacted the 13th, 14th & 15th Amendments to the Constitution.
Those outlawed slavery & guaranteed equal protection/due process and, ahem, the right to vote.
White supremacists didn't like that, so they embarked on a decades-long campaign of terrorism and oppression known as Jim Crow.
White supremacists didn't like that, so they embarked on a decades-long campaign of terrorism and oppression known as Jim Crow.
After decades of failure, the Civil Rights movement finally ended Jim Crow with federal laws reasserting the rights to equality and the ballot.
Which was, in turn, met by modern mass incarceration and felon disenfranchisement, totally altering the political landscape.
Which was, in turn, met by modern mass incarceration and felon disenfranchisement, totally altering the political landscape.
The new civil rights movement -- the one happening right now! -- won its biggest victory yet with Amendment 4 in November.
And the white supremacists are, like clockwork, responding with a poll tax.
And the white supremacists are, like clockwork, responding with a poll tax.
I feel a bit goofy summarizing 150 years of history like this. I'm no historian and no expert.
But, whatever, this is like the central theme of our shared political history so even lay people like me should talk about it. Happy to see corrections and edits if I've misspoken.
But, whatever, this is like the central theme of our shared political history so even lay people like me should talk about it. Happy to see corrections and edits if I've misspoken.
