Abandoning racial justice won’t save our democracy — reimagining elections will |
Abandoning racial justice won’t save our democracy — reimagining elections will
In two weeks, voters will cast their ballots in the first national election without the Voting Rights Act’s strongest protections against racial discrimination in voting.
For far too many, that’s something to celebrate. From the moment the Voting Rights Act was signed into law, it has been under attack by those who never wanted our country to deliver on its promise of a free and fair democracy that affords everyone an equal opportunity to participate.
But after the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby v. Holder, a succession of decisions have succeeded in weakening the act, most recently Louisiana v. Callais. Both decisions were argued before the Supreme Court by the Legal Defense Fund, where I am associate director-counsel.
The evisceration of these protections has left Black voters vulnerable to disenfranchisement by strict voter ID laws, targeted polling site changes, early voting restrictions and unrepentant redistricting schemes that dilute Black voting power.
Indeed, we are currently facing the greatest attack on voting rights since the height of the Jim Crow era. But we would do ourselves a grave disservice if we abandoned the principles of racial justice that helped create the blueprint of our multiracial democracy a mere 61 years ago. We cannot allow cynical, hyper-partisan maneuvering to upend a foundational tenet of our political system: that ours is a government of, by and for the people — all of us.
Black voters are not political pawns. We are not faceless masses waiting to be packed and cracked into districts that most efficiently benefit either party. We are not a means to an end.
Yet, if we continue........