People really need to stop thinking about this stuff in terms of individualized will, it doesn't really work that way on a macro level. Looking at these kinds of structural forces to explain the disparity should be our default.
It isnt even hard to follow the few jumps to structural disenfranchisement:
Racially biased enforcement of drug and other laws -> disproportionate convictions -> disenfranchisement of felons -> racially discriminatory disenfranchisement
True! I imagine that played a big role. Hopefully we can put more work into figuring out why (that might have played the largest role but these things usually have multiple causes) and then do something about it.
Only a specific group, they exclude felons convicted of "moral turpitude" which was basically defined as anything that they could convict black people of. They finally defined that a little better so a group of felons gained the right to vote. It's still not perfect tho.
Black men get the brunt of black brutality and black women get left with the family, so they fight tooth and nail for themselves and their children and to save their husbands and sons who get locked up, killed or addicted to drugs or worse.
my neighbor judy wore our trash after she fell in it drunk. judy really hated my asian roommate, except for the night she fell in the trash bags in front of the house, and kissed him after he helped her up. next day, she was back to regular old judy making cracks out him being asian and repeatedly telling him 'i've known you since jump street' because he MILDLY looked like johnny depp. fucking judy.
Unfortunately if they aren't Rosa Parks, history largely has. Even with Ms. Parks her role has been largely reduced to one action, ignoring the rest of her contribution to the cause. Black women were on the front line during the Civil rights movement, but the men get all the attention. Black women were on the front line of the women's liberation movement, but the white women got all the attention.
Actually, the real credit goes to another Black lady who did what Rosa Parks did even before she thought of doing it (I'm talking about the bus situation) but I'm guessing most people don't know that. I forgot that lady's name. It's in wikipedia.
Harriet Tubman is probably one of the most badass humans to ever live in general, not just as a black woman. Her whole life story is just non-stop jaw-dropping. If she had been born in ancient Greece instead of 19th century America she could have knocked Alexander off his perch.
Black women have largely stepped up as vocal outspoken leaders for various ideological progressive movements in the US. A right they have only had for a few decades. POC less support LGBT rights, but still made massive shifts to acceptance over the last 10 yrs and that also led by black women
From national movements and their spokespeople to ones black grandma not taking shit if someone tries to speak hate around her
Recently, the Black Lives Matter and #metoo movements were started by black women. Other than that, the only other thing I can think of off the top of my head is that a black transwoman was the first to throw a brick at the Stonewall Riots.
My eight-year-old son, who is very white, is obsessed with everything about space. He knows all the astronauts, where the Mars rover is now, how many moons Jupiter has, etc. He is also obsessed with black women in NASA. He did his first biography report in school on Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space. He wanted a lego set that came out recently, "women of NASA", and he was annoyed that none of the women from Hidden Figures were in it. The point is, that anyone who is a fan of space exploration will quickly realize that black women have played a huge part... even my eight-year-old sees the trend.
I'm proud of him too. What's even more impressive to me is that my wife and I don't know hardly anything about space and have never been interested in it. He picked it up all on his own.
That's amazing and makes me so happy to read. If you ever decide to purchase a telescope for him, shoot me a message or go checkout r/Telescopes to be sure you get him the right one. We need more people like him.
We got him a telescope for Christmas last year, but I feel so bad because we hardly use it. We live in a small apartment in Manhattan so it takes a fair amount of effort to get out side and set it up. Not to mention all the light pollution.
Yeah, my parents didn't know shit about dinosaurs but I could tell you so many of those complicated names. I was deadset on becoming a Paleontologist too.
Then they took me to the Kennedy Space Center and now I'm an engineer. Point is, keep taking your son to cool science shit even if you don't understand it. It's so, so valuable.
We do! We live in NYC so there is a lot to do right at our doorstep. We went down to DC last year to go to both air and space museums. Also, last summer we told my son for his birthday we were going to drive all the way to Florida to go to the Kennedy Space Center and then we surprised them by also going to Disney World for a week after that. The whole two days in the car he and his sister thought we were going to KSC and then just turning around and driving home, and they were totally cool with it.
Kids are just like that. I've loved space ever since seeing a space shuttle take off as a kid, something just sets off their curious little brains to want to know as much as they can about something.
When I was a kid we had a biography of Mae C Jemison! I also had a trivia question last week about that Lego set. I'm black, so most of our books at home were about black historical figures, but I'm glad your son appreciates the contribution black women have made to NASA!
Yeah. My wife had that locked down as soon as she could preorder it. I know it's become hard to find, which is a shame since it's an excellent educational set.
In case your son was wondering why she isn't in the Lego set, she refused to be in it. Lego asked her permission to make her a minifigure since she was in the original design for the set, but she refused their request. I wish she was included since it would raise awareness and maybe inspire other girls towards STEM, but thankfully we have the other 3 minifigures in the set! When he is older, get him the Saturn V set! It is magnificent!
That's really awesome! If he's into aviation in general I'd highly recommend the Tuskegee Airmen from World War Two- some of the most decorated American fighter/bomber crew from the war
Katherine Johnson, a black woman who worked for NASA starting in the 50s was the person who calculated the trajectory of Apollo 11 for the 1969 moon mission, in addition to many other early space missions.
In the 1950s, NASA had an entire department of black female computers.
Was her small amount of African genetics critical in getting us towards the moon? Yeah, that must be why black women score so well on standardized math tests...
In the 1950s, NASA had an entire department of black female computers.
Yes, because it was menial number-crunching back then.
German rocket scientists poached from the Nazi's post WW2 were 'Critical' to Americans making it to the moon. Black women? I'm not trying to diminish anyone's individual contribution, everyone should get the credit to which they due, but... 'critical'?
This is diversity-as-religion. It's not true and on some level you must know it isn't true.
michelle obama was a truely great first lady. seeing her having fan, dancing with people with a huge smile as first lady warms my heart, it gives the population a connection point to the obamas, also barack being really charismatic helps as well. perhaps not going into history books as the most succesful presidents, they sure as hell were great personalities and that has some value as well.
Truth. I will always hold that the real Democratic base is women of color. They've always been there for us as a strong voting bloc and been a strong organizing body in Democratic elections. We need to step up and take the weight off their shoulders. it's not fair that they put in so much effort to be forgotten and cast aside.
Enlighten me because I'm still at a loss as to why white women would vote for someone who has made it a mission to drive them back to the kitchens by all means necessary. And I'm not being argumentative here, I'm just at a total loss to explain this.
They don't see it that way. They're only thinking of short term things, like bringing in more values they agree with. They're not thinking about the implications those values hold, or what they would have to give up in order to get what they want.
Yet they’ve been reduced to “welfare queens” and “hood rats” by so many on the right. Black women have been the backbone of so many social movements in the US. Yet they are constantly forgotten, disrespected, and pushed aside.
Why are they angry? It's not like anything is wrong. They should just be happy about the passage of the Civil Rights Act and not complain about anything ever again \s
I am so fucking sick of passionate women getting dismissed as "loud, angry bitches." Fuck yes we're mad and we have reason for it. Maybe instead of marginalizing and ridiculing us for having opinions men should shut the fuck up and listen every now and then. I realize that was not your intention in your comment, but fuck does it get me fired up to see women painted in a negative light for being angry.
Edit: I realize that as a white woman my experience with this pales in comparison to what WOC experience. Much respect to all of the women who walk a daily tightrope of being assertive without being dismissed as a "hysterical woman."
Honestly though it's probably a lot of those "screaming in your face loud black women" that are getting this shit done. They powerful as fuck. Much respect to them.
And skinny. Honestly, look for confirmation of any stereotype and you'll find it. Living in a city, with thousands of tiny interactions of observations a day, you can use confirmation bias to confirm just about anything.
And they all feed off each other. The internet may have made it worse: it's far easier to find the worst of the other group if you go looking for it. Then it's a small step to painting them all with the same brush.
Then it's a small step to painting them all with the same brush.
Exactly. It's ironic that this sub, which likes to consider itself very progressive sees no issue with painting all conservative white males with the same brush, while simultaneously criticizing them because they think that they do the same thing to others
I mean, if you make the distinction that it's a conservative male who doesn't currently support this administration, I think you'll see very different results. There's discussion, at the very least. And there's very little different between the response to conservative males & females, although there are fewer conservative women.
The problem is that that pretty much anyone who still self-identifies as a Republican in the US right now supports Trump or his administration. People might be making the jump from 'conservative' to 'Republican', and that's unfair.
But let's be realistic, people on all ends of the political spectrum (extreme but primarily non-extreme) make the jump from liberal to Dem or conservative to GOP. It's part of the polarization of the US and it's rooted in statistical fact.
If "liberals" as a whole are responsible for the Democrats, then "conservatives" as a whole are responsible for Republicans. Either no sides make that distinction, or it should be called out equally by everyone. Every conservative sub on reddit has zero qualms about this, in my experience. I had to unsub from /r/libertarian and I got freaking banned from /r/conservative where I used to post all the time. Don't even get me started on the "openly" Trump-supporting subs.
True, great points- but let's forget the "conservative" distinction for a second.
From where I stand, it seems that it is perfectly socially acceptable, (and even encouraged in certain places such as /r/politics) to stereotype heterosexual white males as privileged individuals with a penchant for racism.
Stereotyping other groups of people is off limits, but white males are fair game.
I think people use the fact that "white males have all the power" to justify their blatant stereotyping of individuals, which they so passionately shun when other groups are being stereotyped.
As a hispanic person, a lot of these damn stereotypes are true...but only for a certain set of hispanic. There are so many different kinds of us that it doesn't hold true for everything.
Like in that movie Fools Rush In, with the parents that have to speak every sentence in Spanglish no matter what, with the militant angry Mexican dad and the barely-allowed-to-speak-for-herself mom...I've met people like that. But my parents weren't like that, no one in my extended family is, no one I knew growing up was like that, but we were completely different kinds of mexicans!
I miss her way of not even trying to get around her unabashed Chicago black accent. And her downplayed but classic sense of personal style, lightly sarcastic sense of humor, and her common decency and poise. Michelle was such a wonderful first lady. Never shied away from the realities of her background and perspective, and never turned that into anything but an affirmation that America is a great nation that constantly evolves.
Ok, well it's certainly not true in Philadelphia. The hipsters are mostly confined to a few select neighborhoods, whereas minorities occupy entire regions (North, West Philly). Philadelphia is poorer than the national average though, so that could play into this.
They’ve been reduced to that Because of the power they hold. Cis white males of the republican variety are anti women, anti minority, any LGBTQ because they know if we are allowed the same opportunities, we will succeed at the same, or greater rate, than they and they don’t want to have to compete. Hell, they are anti “woke” white cis men for the same reasons.
Let's hope Doug Jones acknowledges who really carried him and actually puts up an agenda to help these people in a deeply xenophobic, racist and sexist environment.
He said it in his victory speech. I mean, there's a ton more that he can acknowledge, but he couldn't have thanked them for his win any sooner than he did.
Or even if they stay GOP, they'll learn to like Jones. It got buried under the anti-Moore coverage (which rightfully deserved to be front-and-center), but Jones is an upstanding guy in his own right. And not just compared to a looney pedophile.
One of the things I remember (vaguely) from last night was about CHIP, which is one of those issues that affects a lot of African American communities in Alabama, so he was already pushing to help the people who voted for him.
He specifically called out the black community, Latinos, and Jews. While this victory definitely belongs to black Alabamans, I have to think the 10,000+ Jews in Birmingham probably helped too.
He also mentioned CHIP as one of his top priorities - a program that helps a great many impoverished African American families. It seems very obvious that he cares deeply about the black people struggling in his state.
Oh, he could get re-elected, this is with 30% black turnout, build some infrastructure and get it to 50% - we will be electing all kinds of Dems then. The Democratic party in Alabama has said for years it's possible if they could get some money and support.
I’m from South Carolina. It’s not possible here. It’s not like West Virginia where broad candidate infrastructure is buildable. Everything here is so divided on racial lines that no white conservatives will vote for Jones unless they have literally no other option (and as we saw here, even then only a few switched over).
But that's the thing, it's different in Alabama because 26% of their population is black. You don't need to turn out Republican moderates, just turn out POC and progressive white people. Trying to get those moderates is what has been killing us. There are over 1.2 million African Americans in Alabama, more than enough to swing any election. They do not vote because they don't believe in either Democrats or Republicans. They were given a reason to turn out this time, people went in their communities and asked for their vote.
higher turnout among your base can be a winning strategy, but it's tough in Alabama. The surge in black voting yesterday was a major deciding factor, but conservatives who could not stomach Roy Moore and stayed home or wrote in played a massive role too and this democratic victory could not have happened without both. In Alabama black people and progressives make up less than 50% of the population, so you really have to drive out the vote to overcome that difference if you're not going against someone who makes members of their own party stay home.
I hope it's a sort of energizing win that shows people that yes, races in Alabama can be won. People see that it's possible to win, so there's less of that feeling that it's not worth bothering because you can't make a difference.
If the GOP manages to nominate a complete fuck stick again in 2020 it will certainly be possible that he wins re-election. And that is a very real possibility. Another possibility is that the events of the next 2 years could see the GOP completely fracture to the degree that you see the conservative vote being split with a third party or independent candidates who could also win Jones reelection.
I think the establishment is right on this one. Trying to blame this on McConnell is just ridiculous. He made it very clear from the start that he didn't think Roy Moore was a good candidate for the party and he proved to be correct.
I'm also from South Carolina and I think it's possible. Fritz Hollings, a Democrat, was senator from 1966-2005. Jim Hodges, another Democrat, was governor from 199-2003. If enough black people turned out, I think they could elect a Democrat again. And SC has about the same percentage of black residents as Alabama.
I don't want to agree with you, but everyone I know who works in elections will tell you without hesitation that South Carolina is the toughest nut to crack in this whole country. More so even than West Virginia. The ordinary rules of time and space are suspended in your state. The entire plot of House of Cards is based on the politics of SC, which is the main reason it's considered believable. Nobody understands South Carolina except South Carolinians.
Let me take a look at the numbers again and adjust, but my point still stands in that there are 1.2 million eligible African American voters in Alabama and they make up over 26% of Alabama's population. We had 1.3 million votes cast in this special election. The numbers are there to swing state-wide elections, and other states in the South have even more favorable demographics.
Oh my god, I was the one who misread the article. Black turnout was at 75% of the 2016 turnout. Christ, that's a terrible way to present turnout numbers.
Going by your numbers ~30% looks like a good estimate.
Oh, he could get re-elected, this is with 30% black turnout
...and a pedophile as the GOP candidate. I'm really wary of seeing this as much more than a lucky break for the Democrats, things would not have shook out this way if Moore was even slightly less odious.
What disgusted me is that 63% of white women voted for Moore. You would think women wouldn’t vote for him period, but 63% of white women that voted just showed themselves to be irredeemable fuck sticks.
Really? You sure it's not brosocialists who never vote and have been attacking Doug Jones for not supporting a $15 min wage in Alabama? I was told if we don't capitulate the party to them now, we'll never win another election.
i mean, its not exactly a glowing sign of how future elections may go. the divides are still present and centrist democrats are still having trouble mobilizing a genuine voting movement even against a fucking pedophile, so.
Was this or was this not record breaking voter turnout for a special election primarily driven by the the democrats core voting groups including women and POC in what's typically a +30 R race?
Barely beating a pedophile who openly complained about the amendments giving women the right to vote and the abolition of slavery shouldn't have been that close. Democrats can't keep campaigning on the message of "But have you seen the other guy" because they're not all going to be Moore or Trump.
Well when they tried a Bernie endorsed progressive who shunned the establishment (even though the establishment still ended up funding a good chunk of his campaign) he couldn't even beat a guy who had already lost to a democrat in Montana before and assaulted a reporter the night before the election.
Same with Virginia, again we ran someone the Green Tea party decried as a milquetoast candidate and several "progressive" groups and politicians went out of their way to not endorse and he cleaned up while also driving the down ballot victories. Again, primarily by driving voter turnout amongst our actual base, minorities and women.
In both races, we saw who was mobilized and who stayed home. We saw who stood up and said "we're here and we vote"
Point is so far, we've only seen the brogressives be proven wrong and wrong again. Bernie has directly endorsed about two dozen candidates. All but 2 have lost. 2 at some low level council or state legislative races.
His dark money PAC inflates its numbers with uncontested elections, incumbents, and trivial positions and still can't even win 1 out of 3 races.
Meanwhile when we focus on our tried and true strategy of driving base turnout, we exceed expectations with historical victories.
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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '17
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