The Race Card

[Nuala]

Thor --

On March 7th, 1965, 600 of us lined up to walk from Selma to Montgomery, to march for voting rights.

When we tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River, we were met by state troopers. They attacked us with tear gas, bullwhips, and nightsticks.

It became known as Bloody Sunday(*How many goddamn Bloody Sundays are there?), and the national outcry over the brutality that day led to the enactment, exactly 45 years ago today, of the Voting Rights Act.

The progress we've made since then is remarkable.

But the expansion of voting rights for millions did not happen overnight. It was the product of a continued struggle, by many people, over many years.

And just as change did not come easily then, it does not come easily now.

Discrimination still exists in America -- its effects can be as harmful as they were decades ago. And we can always become a better, more just society.

Two years ago, this movement -- led by Barack Obama -- brought millions of people into the political process for the first time.

I'm told that many of you are working hard now to get as many as possible of those folks -- and others from across the country who are with us in these fights -- to the polls this year.

It's an important effort, and the legacy of the fight for the Voting Rights Act is that it is not only our right to vote, and to help others do so -- it is our duty.

Can I count on you to help out between now and the elections in November?

When I was a child, I tasted the bitter fruits of racial discrimination -- and I did not like it.

That was what spurred me to act. In those early days, we sacrificed our very selves for our rights as Americans. But we never gave up.

And now barriers that kept an entire people from full participation in this country have been removed.

No longer are people who look like me met with violence when we register to vote.

No longer is the idea that an African American could become president just a dream.

We live in a better world, a better country.

But our work is not complete. We cannot wait for someone else to make change.

We must all do it. You must do it. I must do it.

Please sign up to help millions more vote:

http://my.barackobama.com/VolunteerVRA

Thank you,

Representative John Lewis

It's just so interesting how often the race card is played. I am no stranger to discrimination, but how long can this go on when there are groups like the New Black Panther Party(*That has been repeatedly shunned by original BPP members), the Westboro Baptist Church(*Lunatics protesting everything from the Quran to Lady Gaga), the Tea Party Movement(I don't even know, or care), and Obama's insistence on attempting to involve the race card, or claims of "change" in everything he or his followers does or says.

Where is the USA heading? What do you think can be done to improve and lessen the impact of the age of political and social strife we're once again plunging into? Then again, is that even correct? America reinvents itself every decade, so is it becoming weary to American citizens? What exactly is going on?

* - My opinion

 

[Tsuyoiko]

As I understand it, the term "playing the race card" means using race to attain some kind of advantage. I'm not sure how the term applies to the article you posted. The author seems to be saying that the fight for equal voting rights has met with success and that the campaign should continue in order to maintain that success.

Equality is not an advantage, so I don't see how fighting for equal rights for all races is playing the race card. I don't think anyone is campaigning for enhanced voting rights for certain races.

 

[Nuala]

As I understand it, the term "playing the race card" means using race to attain some kind of advantage. I'm not sure how the term applies to the article you posted. The author seems to be saying that the fight for equal voting rights has met with success and that the campaign should continue in order to maintain that success.
Equality is not an advantage, so I don't see how fighting for equal rights for all races is playing the race card. I don't think anyone is campaigning for enhanced voting rights for certain races.

He's invoking the Civil Rights Movement to further the Democratic Party's agenda.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

He's invoking the Civil Rights Movement to further the Democratic Party's agenda.

It seems more like they are using the Democratic Party to further the Civil Rights agenda.

Are you saying that by taking on this cause they are more likely to encourage those voters to vote Democrat?

 

[Nuala]

It seems more like they are using the Democratic Party to further the Civil Rights agenda.
Are you saying that by taking on this cause they are more likely to encourage those voters to vote Democrat?

Hahaha, oh my god, uh, what exactly are they doing to further Civil Rights?

 

[Tsuyoiko]

Hahaha, oh my god, uh, what exactly are they doing to further Civil Rights?

Campaigning to ensure people exercise their right to vote?

It might help me understand your point if you explained what you mean in more detail.

 

[Nuala]

Campaigning to ensure people exercise their right to vote?
It might help me understand your point if you explained what you mean in more detail.

There's nothing stopping every US citizen from voting, Tsuyoiko. Absolutely nothing, but you know how I feel about some hate group like the New Black Panthers Party carrying batons outside a voting center? It's deplorable. And really, it's not campaigning to ensure people exercise their right to vote. It's campaigning to ensure people vote Democratic by invoking the Civil Rights movement.

Black, Latino, Asian, Caucasian, and whatever you want to address all have rights in the United States of America. There's no need to invoke the Civil Rights movement in such a way to get more voters to come out in favor of Democratic party candidates.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

There's nothing stopping every US citizen from voting

There may be nothing in law that physically stops people from voting. Whether people exercise that right is an entirely different issue, and I think that's what John Lewis and President Obama are campaigning about.

There's no need to invoke the Civil Rights movement in such a way to get more voters to come out in favor of Democratic party candidates.

All parties campaign, and direct their campaigns to particular sections of society. Persuading people to vote for you is a legitimate part of the democratic process.

Of course the voter intimidation by the NBPP was deplorable. However, I don't see what the Democratic Party has to do with it, even if the latter were "persuading" people to vote Democrat. The way you put the article and the video together makes it look as though they are connected, which I don't see any evidence of. John Lewis is a Democrat and a Civil Rights activist, so it's perfectly natural for him to use one cause to further the other. The fact that he was a Civil Rights activist, who was critical of the Kennedy administration, before he was a Democrat politician seems to support my suggestion that he's using the Democratic Party to further the Civil Rights agenda; that's if he's really guilty of having an agenda at all, which I doubt.

Although it was the Democrats who imposed racial segregation a hundred years ago, I think John Lewis believes that nowadays voting Democrat is in the best interests of those who believe in the Civil Rights movement, and he's probably right. What makes you think he has some kind of cynical agenda going on? Couldn't it just be that he's acting in what he thinks is the best interests of the people he represents?

Think of it another way. If the Democrats persuade minorities to vote for them, those voters are going to expect the Democrats to represent their interests. If they don't live up to that, the voters have the opportunity to put on pressure or to change their allegiance. In fact, that already happened. The Republicans used to be the party of Civil Rights, but when they stopped working for minorities, those minorities changed their allegiance. In other words, voting Democrat gives those minorities an opportunity to pressure the Democrats to represent their interests more effectively than splitting their vote would do.