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Headlines that make us go, "WTF?"
What's up with SCOTUS, the N.C. General Assembly?
By Kimberly Lawson @kimlawson22
You can't trust headlines on social media. My boyfriend recently came across one on his Facebook newsfeed that he read aloud to me as we drove back to Charlotte after a weekend trip: "Texas Board of Education Revises Textbooks: Slaves were 'Unpaid Interns.'" My hands gripped the steering wheel harder; I nearly ran us off I-77. "What kind of ridiculous bullshit is this?" I wondered.
A quick look at the article revealed the story was from a satirical news site. Whew.
You can't blame me for thinking for a moment that such an outlandish headline was true, though. After all, the past few weeks have seen several national stories that have made us go, what the fuck?
Right now, the Supreme Court is getting a lot of props for striking down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act. Same-sex couples who are legally married in their state are now eligible for federal marital benefits like Social Security. In addition, SCOTUS rejected hearing a case pertaining to Proposition 8, effectively allowing same-sex marriages to resume in California. But this same group of justices also struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — a hugely important and actually effective civil rights law — thus giving states the freedom to change their election laws without prior approval from the federal government.
Essentially, the Voting Rights Act secured millions of Americans — black, white, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, etc. — the right to vote.
Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion: "Things have changed in the South. Voter turnout and registration rates now approach parity. Blatantly discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare. And minority candidates hold office at unprecedented levels."
That all might be true, but if your skin's a little darker or your English a little broken, life is still far from fair. (For a more in-depth look at how racism thrives in the South, read a transcript of a recent roundtable discussion some CLers had about Paula Deen, here.) If anything, the ruling will make way for more discrimination. For example, states like North Carolina are about to run wild with voting discrimination.
Writer John Grooms explores this and other political WTFs from the North Carolina General Assembly in this week's cover story.
Here's the sad truth: If you don't have a penis, a green card or make $100,000 a year, the majority of the GOP-led General Assembly just doesn't like you.
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