By Lafe Toliver, Esq
Guest Column
Justice Roger Taney who wrote the prophetic and racist decision in the famous Dred Scott case decision in 1857 is smiling in his grave.
As you may remember, the Dred Scott decision basically said that there are no rights of
the Negro that the white man must respect or protect.
The decision was in 1857 but its legal scar tissue still is evident today in the MAGA bent supermajority (it was a 6-3 decision) holding of the current United States Supreme Court members who for all practicable purposes have eviscerated the all- important Section Two of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
That powerful section, when first enacted, was a buffer zone to the white zealots who wanted to gerrymander their political districts based upon a continuation of white rule over
Black populations being denied a chance to be represented in state legislatures and the United States House and Senate.
Now decision, led by the ever grinning Justice John Roberts, decides that states that are
dominated by Republican majorities can get about the artful business of skinning and shaving political districts to favor white rule.
Gerrymandering is the artifice that is being used, rightly or wrongly, to craft safe and winnable districts of one political party over the other simply for the purpose of gaining power and, as we all know, with power comes the control of the purse…the money!
In the final analysis, in politics, it is all about who controls the treasury and who gets the plums and goodies from that control and how it is doled out. Nothing new here.
But. The granular problem of going from precinct to precinct pales in comparison when
the macular problem is studied and we find that the gerrymandering schemes are in some
cases a pretense for racial discrimination.
Where you find in present day America, are white politicos squabbling over who gets to vote and that discussion is inflamed due to minority groups demanding a seat at the table so as to have a voice in who controls the purse strings and who gets to write the checks.
Black voters have always been a stubborn stain to erase with all of their complaints, marches, voting demands that they are entitled to be just like the white voter who
takes it for granted that they own both the table and the chairs around the table because their white skin privileges so inform them.
Theirs has been a recorded history of voter suppression of the Black vote by any means necessary including exclusion, lynchings, laws, red lining, terrorism and simply corruption to make sure that they “rule the roost.”
Now, the Supreme Court has taken upon themselves with arcane legal “logic” to articulate
some legal gibberish that continues to allow certain state house representatives to employ
rules and regulations that ensure that for the time being, minority voters will be properly heeled.
What makes this recent decision more egregious is that Clarence (Uncle Tom) Thomas
was part of that history revisionist group of jurists who have pronounced that in some
states controlled by the Trump led GOP, they will be set free from any legal restraints so as to wreak havoc in future elections using racially “disguised” gerrymandering devices.
I cannot think of any recent decisions in which Uncle Tom Thomas was on
the side of minority voters whose rights were being challenged. He always seems to be
snarkly, grinning at Black people when he has the chance to toss them a loaf of bread rather than a serpent’s egg.
To me, it seems that Uncle Tom Thomas is still trying to earn his honorary white man card so
he can finally relax and enjoy basking in the glow and aura of his fellow white jurors.
Clarence Thomas wants to be part of the in-crowd of fellow white jurists and to be the paternal object of the crowd of white persons who seemingly treat him as a special pet… like a cat who wants to be petted in one’s lap and he will purr and purr when you stroke his head.
If Thurgood Marshall was alive, he would take Uncle Tom Thomas out to the woodshed for a well-deserved “lecture” and more. It is really galling to find out that Thomas, in his written remarks, wanted to totally null and void the entire voting rights act!
But, Thurgood Marshall is regrettably not alive and the Trump/MAGA movement is still in control until the next election cycle and we have to in the interim, continue peacefully with a seemingly MAGA oriented court that can count among its strident members a person who benefitted from Affirmative Action in higher education but now disavows it at every chance he gets.
Do I hear the distant marching of a reconstituted suit wearing Klan as they savor the rise of the threats against D.E.I., critical race theory, voting rights being gutted and the government’s firing of seasoned Black men and women in high positions, including the military?
Stay tuned…it only gets better.
RECENT UPDATE: Republican Rep. Josh Williams, who is a black lawyer running to represent a
white congressional district, feathered his street cred with white voters by slamming the creation of Black voting districts! It always pains me when such gibberish is issued by Black politicos who blithely overlook hundreds of years of white gerrymandering/trickery that insured that they would win their districts at the expense of Black voters. The 1965 Voting Rights Bill fought against white political gerrymandering (among other tactics) and to make sure that the Black voter was not silenced. What say ye….Josh? The late John Lewis and Thurgood Marshall and the alive James Clyburn would like a response.
Historical note: In the book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it was Uncle Tom who was the self-effacing hero who sacrificed for the other slaves. The real troublemaker was called Sambo. In any future references to Clarence Thomas, I will use the appropriate term, Sambo to describe his apparent disdain for people of color.
Contact Lafe Tolliver @ lafe5x@gmail.com