Tag Archives: civil rights

All Posts, civil rights, Constitution, ethics, north carolina, race

Should we stand for our national anthem?

After months of complaints from the political right about PC limitations on speech and discussion, it is ironic that those same right wingers see a national scandal  in Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for our national anthem.  Like Muhammad Ali and Olympic Athletes of 1968, he is using his celebrity status to bring attention to what many see as American racism.

Kaepernick’s voice is but one in a crescendo criticizing the “land of the free”.  Leaders from African American and Latino communities have politely spoken their minds on voting rights, law enforcement, criminal justice, public education and income inequality.  Not much happened.  If quiet and polite voices are ineffective, louder ones are to be expected. Whether it is an NAACP Chapter, a Latino Coalition, Black Lives Matter, the American Civil Liberties Union or  some other organization, their list of unaddressed concerns is long.

Since passage of civil rights laws in the 1960s, many Americans, believe that we live in a post-racial society.   We don’t.  Our problems extend to the heart of democracy, consent of the governed.

It is with those thoughts in mind that I looked into the controversies surrounding North Carolina’s new voting law as one example among many concerns.  For a more complete account, read Appeal-16-1468 published by the Fourth Circuit United States Court of Appeals.  It overturned portions of the law because of its discriminatory intent.

The court found that the law was specifically designed to target African Americans and said, “…by 2013 African American registration and turnout rates had finally reached near-parity with white registration and turnout rates. African Americans were poised to act as a major electoral force. But, on the day after the Supreme Court issued Shelby County v. Holder, 133 S. Ct. 2612 (2013), eliminating preclearance obligations, a leader of the party that newly dominated the legislature (and the party that rarely enjoyed African American support) announced an intention to enact what he characterized as an “omnibus” election law. Before enacting that law, the legislature requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices. Upon receipt of the race data, the General Assembly enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans.”

The court also found that, “Although the new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision, they constitute inapt remedies for the problems assertedly justifying them and, in fact, impose cures for problems that did not exist. Thus the asserted justifications cannot and do not conceal the State’s true motivation  … the State took away [minority voters’] opportunity because [they] were about to exercise it. … Faced with this record, we can only conclude that the North Carolina General Assembly enacted the challenged provisions of the law with discriminatory intent.”

Here are a few examples of discrimination that the court found in the law.  In deciding which forms of identification would be acceptable for voting, the legislature used racial data to select IDs that whites are more likely to have than minorities.  They used racial data to eliminate voting opportunities that were used more heavily by African Americans than whites.  Similar processes were used to determine early voting days,  eliminate same day registration, and eliminate out-of precinct voting.

North Carolina’s law was crafted by Republican leadership in secret sessions with advice from consultants employed by attorneys so that documentation of their work would not be available to the public.  The court found that “… after the General Assembly finally revealed the expanded (law) to the public, the legislature rushed it through the legislative process…in three days: one day for a public hearing, two days in the Senate, and two hours in the House.”

The law passed by party line vote.  Every Republican legislator supported it.  I don’t think they are all racists.  Instead, I think they are much like the Democrats who passed racist laws in the Jim Crow era.  They bowed to pressure to win elections and one way to win elections is to keep the opposition from voting.  That’s what they did, and it is an example of 21st century racism in operation.

Because of laws like this one and other grievances, some people don’t honor our national flag and anthem.  Would you honor the flag of a nation that did such things to you? I’ll continue to pledge allegiance because our courts generally overturn unjust laws and because we’re free to replace those who passed a racist law at our next election.  It’s time to have a record voter turnout.

 

All Posts, health, lgbtq, north carolina

Exposing the Republican Bogeyman

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A law passed by NC Republicans bans the two transgender Americans in the picture above from restrooms that match their physical appearance unless they can get revised birth certificates. 

READ THE NEW NORTH CAROLINA LAW HERE HB 2

The bogeyman will get you if you don’t watch out!  As a child, I heard that myth from adults who wanted me to be properly frightened of dark places, new ideas and people who looked or sounded “different”.  I never met him, but somehow I inferred that the bogeyman was a lot like the Jews, Negroes, Catholics, and Gypsies that we were expected to fear.  Children learned, without being explicitly taught, that some of “those people” were nice but many of them were dangerous and “we” should avoid them.  When I was a little older, I began to hear about “queers” and the awful things that they did to boys, so if anyone acted “that way” I should stay away from him.  Most people of my age learned some version of the myth.  If not from parents, it seeped in from the world around us.

By now I’ve been fortunate to have personal and work relationships with individuals from those groups. I learned that there is nothing about their religions, race, culture, ancestry, sexual orientation or gender identity that makes them dangerous or threatening.

The City of Charlotte passed an ordinance which extended its non-discrimination policies beyond the traditionally protected groups to include discrimination based on “marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression”.  The new rules apply to public accommodations, public transportation, and the practices of businesses that have contracts with the City. North Carolina’s Republican legislature and governor have called the bogeyman back into service to overturn that ordinance.

With only stories and fear-mongering, the Republicans created the myth of the transgender bogeyman who will “get” you or your children if you don’t watch out.   Then they called an emergency legislative session and introduced him to justify passing a law that not only overruled Charlotte’s ordinance; it also banned local governments from setting minimum wages and took away existing rights of individuals to file discrimination suits in state courts.  By eliminating the role of state courts in protecting many civil rights, they turned discrimination concerns over to the federal government.  They did all that in only one day.  When you’re running from the bogeyman there is no time for thoughtful deliberation.

Janet Mock, a transwoman who was born male is not allowed to use womens restrooms in NC unless she gets a revised birth certificate.
Janet Mock, a transwoman who was born male is not allowed to use women’s restrooms in NC unless she gets a revised birth certificate. The new law allows her to use only men’s restrooms. If she complies, will most NC men be more comfortable with her than with Teo Drake, below?

 

 

In more than 250 American cities that have laws similar to Charlotte’s, there is no evidence of an increase in sexual assaults and no pattern of men pretending to be transgender so they can commit crimes in women’s restrooms. In reality, transgender people are generally the victims, not the assailants.  About half of transgender people have been victims of sexual assaults.

Teo Drake, a transman who was born female is not allowed to use men’s restrooms in NC unless he gets a revised birth certificate. The new law allows him to use only women’s restrooms. If he complies, will most NC women be more comfortable with him than with Janet Mock, above?

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, IBM, Red Hat, and others among the crown jewels of the North Carolina economy want the law repealed.  Because of the law,  Pay Pal announced today that it has cancelled plans to locate their global operations center in North Carolina. The state lost 400 new jobs.  Leaders of these companies are realists who know that discrimination, hate, and fear are bad for business.  But the most serious damage is not to the  economy.  It is to the lesbian, gay, transgender, and bi-sexual people who have been clearly told that they are not welcome in North Carolina.

My niece and nephew are raising a bright, energetic transgender teenager.  He looks like a slender teenage boy but because he’s anatomically female North Carolina Republicans insist that he use the women’s washroom.   His mother shared these thoughts with me,  “As a mom with a transgender child, I feel anything but protected or safe.  Quite the opposite in fact.  I am a mom and he is my child and I worry about something as simple as him walking into a bathroom. Unfortunately, some people think that a bathroom is related to sexual behavior and predators…Predators are criminals who won’t stop because there is a sign on the door that says men or women only. If criminals obeyed signs, we could use them to get rid of heroin! Seriously? Criminals don’t work like that. As you know, my son is looking at a university in NC. Now, we’ll have to consider whether it is safe for him to travel there and stop for a restroom. It’s sad. Very, very sad.”

Years ago, public acceptance of marriage equality left North Carolina’s Republican leadership behind.  Their constitutional amendment to prevent it yielded only unnecessary expenses and animosity.  This Deja-vu law is similar.  It might be funny if it wasn’t so painful.  Sadly, the new bogeyman sports an American flag and a Christian cross on his lapels while he demands laws to hurt people who are different from him.  He’ll get you if you don’t watch out.