That's Racist! (Racists Don't Care)

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Turning Civil Rights Inside Out - The American Prospect

The Supreme Court has now invited racial gerrymandering, as merely political and thus beyond judicial challenge.

prospect.org

In Louisiana v. Callais, the Roberts Court has continued its war on civil rights in the name of civil rights. The cynicism of the 6-3 majority decision in Callais is staggering. According to the majority decision by Justice Samuel Alito, the long-standing interpretation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, requiring minorities to have opportunities to have representation in rough proportion to their population, has been overtaken by events.

What has changed? Nothing, except Alito’s ability to cobble together a majority based on his disingenuous claim that this ruling is merely an “update.” As recently as the Court’s 2023 ruling in Allen v. Milligan, Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh voted to uphold a lower-court order requiring an additional majority-minority district in Alabama. This was in line with an earlier precedent in the Court’s 1986 ruling in Thornburg v. Gingles, which overturned a North Carolina districting plan on the ground that it diluted Black voting strength.

The last thing they want is black people with power in the voting booth.

 

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Thanks, SCOTUS.

Tennessee Republicans Kick Out Democrats as They Vote on New Map

“This is the Republicans’ white power rally,” warned state Senator Gloria Johnson, as protesters shouted down the GOP.

newrepublic.com

Tennessee Republicans kicked Democratic lawmakers, journalists, and constituents out of a special redistricting session Wednesday as protests over their new congressional map engulfed the state House.

After one round of protests forced Republicans to shut down their meeting, they relocated to a new room, according to The Tennessean, and prevented anyone from entering.

Democratic state Representatives Gloria Johnson and Gabby Salinas were both told to leave the Judiciary Committee meeting as lawmakers discussed the GOP’s new congressional map, which would eliminate Democratic Representative Steve Cohen’s majority-Black Memphis area district and give Republicans a 9–0 majority in the state.

 

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MAGA Virginia Rep. Thinks Hakeem Jeffries Has “Cotton-Picking Hands”

Representative Jen Kiggans agreed when a far-right radio host made the racist insult.

newrepublic.com

A Republican Virginia lawmaker is facing calls to resign after she agreed with a wildly racist statement about Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Representative Jen Kiggans appeared on Richmond-based radio commentator Rich Herrera’s show Monday to discuss the state’s hotly contested congressional maps. But the since-deleted interview flew off the rails when Kiggans emphatically concurred with Herrera after he referred to Jeffries as a slave.

“He spent $20 million-plus on our redistricting debacle we had. He now is talking about … firing our Supreme Court justices,” Herrera said of Jeffries. House Majority Forward, a nonprofit connected to Jeffries, spent roughly $40 million on the redistricting effort.

“If Hakeem Jeffries wants to be involved in Virginia politics, then I suggest he … leave New York, move down here to Virginia, run for office down here, you can represent us,” Herrera continued. “If not, get your cotton-picking hands off of Virginia.”

“That’s right. Ditto. Yes. Yes, to that,” Kiggans replied.

Seems we got a bit of a dittohead in our midst. Also, no one politicking in Virginia can claim ignorance of that phrase.

 

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Better late than....

France’s parliament votes to repeal slavery-era Black Code, with tears and history in the chamber

French lawmakers have voted to repeal a 17th-century law that governed enslaved people in France's colonies.

apnews.com

For nearly two centuries after France abolished slavery, the colonial-era law that classified humans as property has remained quietly on the books. On Thursday, the lower house of parliament voted to wipe it from French law.

The National Assembly voted 254-0 — a rare show of unanimity — to adopt a bill repealing Code Noir, or Black Code, the 1685 decree King Louis XIV signed to govern slaves across France’s colonies.

The law turned human beings into chattel, allowing them to be worked, beaten, sold, raped and murdered.

And the realization that France never formally did away with it left many aghast. Debate in the chamber turned raw on Thursday.

Steevy Gustave — a lawmaker descended from enslaved people on the Caribbean island of Martinique, now a French overseas department — told colleagues that the repeal was necessary, “but no vote alone can repair centuries of shattered lives.”

“We are not descendants of slaves,” he said, bursting into tears. “We are descendants of human beings born free, then reduced to the worst — reduced to slavery.”