I just wanted to talk about the American Alabama Republicans refusing to draw a second
Black Congressional District Supreme Court and order. It's a news article by Jane C.
Tim It was in July twenty one, twenty twenty three. You know,
there was a time when racists to try to see how much they could
get away with when under a Supreme Court order. They would try to go
right up to the edge of the line, a bit like kids in the
backseat of a car on a long run. Now they just want to force
the Supreme Court to openly embrace their hate. And this latest incarnation of a
court is acquiesce and the right wing dementia with relic. Ironically, this defiance
that we're seeing in this is a perfect example of why the Voting Rights Act
was needed in the first play. I think they expected the court to go
their away the last time, but there and they were a little butt heard
about. Maybe free vacations, use of a yacht, and free tuition for
family members just doesn't buy what it used to. The question is will it
be enough when it does come down to it. A House speaker Kevin McCarthy,
the champion of his career above all else. He has been in contact
with a few Alabama legislatures, but for some reason, I think that it
has more to do with wanting to stay speaker than wanting to see fair election.
Now, I hope this hasn't come across even slightly disingenuous when I say
that I'm certain the efforts of the Alabama Republican Party left no stone unturned in
their efforts to make sure their consistent constituents were properly represented. Well, I
lied. I don't think there was the slightest effort at all. This is
just another attempt to beat the week in the Voting Rights Act, over twenty
five percent of Alabama being African American seven districts, seems like the efforts of
the body could only devise one majority Black district. Now, I don't expect
the Supreme Court to consider enforcing a map made by an outside group. It's
it's one option available to them if they ultimately don't meet this. But I
do have a little expectation of the Supreme Court at this Now, I hope
I am pleasantly surprised, but I wouldn't hold my breath. But the Voting
Rights Act, as I touched on was one of the most important critical piece
of educate legislations to guarantee the voting rights and minorities in the US and empowered
the fourteenth and fifteenth to do what they actually lacked the teeth to do.
Now, the thing is, though, is one thing I am though well
aware of, is that the three fiest mentality I can assure you is alive
and well in Alabama. Now, Cynthia, I just wondering what are your
thoughts on that? Well? I would say that I am shocked Alabama disobeyed
the Court to uppoth air racist district maps, But that would be like saying
that I did not think I would get what if I walked outside during the
ring without an umbrella? But you know, I am more concerned about the
implications when it comes to state legislatures completely disregarding the Supreme Court rulings. So
what do we think are the consequences here? Do you think that Alabama disobeying
the Court will set precedents for other states to do the same. What are
your thoughts to him? I mean I hope not. I mean realistically probably
yes, you know, would would what states? Would? We probably see
this in Texas? Florida, Mississippi, Georgia. You know, the usual
suspects. I certainly hope not. It's it's it's scary, and jerrymandering is
alive and well in all these states and we know it. I mean,
it's not just a problem in Alabama. Maybe the most egregious case to come
forward right now, but I mean, you know, spending most of my
youth in Mississippi and growing up in Mississippi, I mean I knew this was
a problem even then. You know, our social studie teacher was telling us
about the jerrymandering problems in Mississippi and how they're drawn on racial lines quite often.
So yeah, I you know, and it's kind of crazy, specifically
with Mississippi because Mississippi is like almost forty percent black. Yeah, but you
can definitely tell, especially when you are looking at the infrastructure of the state
and some of the issues that they're having and who has the most issues.
They're normally in areas where it's concentrated Africa in Marror. But you know,
I want to go a little bit down south and not necessarily Mississippi, I
mean south of the border and ask our residential cartoon, have you ever heard
tale of jerrymandering. No, I had to google it. I had to
actually go and google it. I'm going to read what I found rendering.
It's a controversial practice and has been the subject of legal challenges to ensure fair
and equitt equitable representation for all citizens. Apparently, guys over there in the
USA, you don't have like a group of senator chosen by people, but
you go like making maps and choosing one person from each part of that.
It's so weird. The USA is so weird. You have to explain this
to me, because for me, this is all new alien territory. We
are a bunch of weirdos up here as we are. Well. Jerrymandering more
so is when a state, a legislature will draw up district lines and basically
on who lives where, so that that will kind of like maneuver a vote
the way that said legislature wants to maneuver it. Now, with Alabama being
mostly a rich state, this is mostly people who are in the legislature who
happened to lean more Republican than They're going to draw lines around certain areas in
order for them to be able to have voters be able to choose more likely
a Republican candidate to represent said area. Problem is with that, as as
Glynn talked about, it is that when you are drawing lines based on party
affiliation, per se and sensibilities, when it comes to policies with parties with
party affiliation, then you do have groups of people that will get annexed out,
especially when it comes to their vote. And oftentimes when Jerry Mandarin happened,
it's like Tim, you mentioned Mississippi, does it? Texas does it?
I mean they jerry Mander in Illinois where I'm at, they jerry Mander
in Wisconsin. Louisiana. I mean Louisiana actually even had one of the same
issues, but they actually got their their particular lawsuit in their favor. But
regardless of that, it often disranchises black voters, and black voters are often
are not able to really choose odd representator representative representatives that would represent their interest
when it comes to whether if it's in the state legislature or even a federal
legislature. Because these district lines can also even affect our federal congressional representatives,
whether if you're a senator and also as a or as a what do you
call them people. There's a House of representatives. Yeah, that's that's what
you call them. I do want to say in Texas especially, you know,
I taught debate high school debate for a little bit, and we kind
of went over this in my debate class. Because I taught mostly Hispanic students,
A lot of the lines are drawn to disenfranchise Hispanic voters because there's such
a majority minority in Texas. So you see that a lot here. I
do want to add in one thing really quickly, because I thought this was
really interesting. It came to my mind as we were talking about this article,
and Tayo, you might find this particularly interesting. Jerry Mandering got its
name from being a portmanteau of salamander and Elbridge Jerry, vice President of the
United States at the time of his death, who signed a bill to create
a Parsan district in Boston, and that area was compared to the shape of
a salamander. That's how jerry mandery. That's what jerrymandering is called. What
it is, it's Jerry and salamander together, if you can believe it.
Kind of grazy. I first thought you were gonna say salmon, and I
was like, damn. I'm but regardless of that, you know, I
wanted to something else to you, guys. I want you to think about
this, like, so, can the left use the same tactics Alabama is
using to disobey the Court on some of the problematic cases that haven't passed through
the court. Anybody wants to weigh on that, what about you, infidel?
Well, I would say that it's an option. But right now,
ultimately, anything they try to pass is going to end up with that same
right wing, reactionary court that we're facing right now. While they're very receptive
to, yeah, let's go ahead and spread the people we don't like over
a wide distribution so we don't have a concentrated effort too, so they can
actually get representation, I don't think we find nearly the same receptiveness. And
if we tried to do that more progressive policy, I definitely think there's an
agenda. I think that unfortunately, there are at least bad actors at this
point on the Supreme Court who have demonstrated time and again that they don't really
care about the rule of law. They care about promoting an agenda. And
as long as you have that that it's going to be pushedback. I'm really
hoping that Biden gets at least one chance to put one more person on a
Supreme Court so we can kind of get this back to a five four where
Robert's going at least become relevant because he likes playing relevant time. Yeah,
but even like with you know, maybe if we get like somebody else that
actually will balance out the Supreme Court. We we also have to consider people
who happen to be in federal courts, in appellate courts that are under them,
and and even you know, federal judges who happen to be in other
districts as well that could possibly rule on cases like this, whether if they
deem a legislature drew lines that happen to be racially motivated or not. But
I you know, even just like thinking about all of this stuff, especially
when we're talking about Jerryman Green and I know, Glenn that you pretty much
mentioned mostly the Voters Rights Act of nineteen sixty five really being the basis on
making sure that votes coming from the electorate are accounting counted properly and in a
more equitable and equitable scene. Even though that a lot of the issues specifically
with the Voters Rights Act was gutted in two thousand and thirteen. As far
as like the efficacy of some of the things that you know, the Voter
Voters Right Acts was doing, and and we may have like a long list
of you know, civil rights uh, different civil rights activists that were pushing
for more equitable voting who were what's the good word killed because they were trying
to actually push forward, you know, like listen, if I'm a citizen
my votes account, I should be able to vote without impedance, and I
should not necessarily have certain barriers that are placed on me just because I happened
to be of a different group other than a majority. And you, Tim,
I didn't know that you were a person that came from the South that
was witnessing ers like you know what when you even like read any of this,
and you were like, you know, privy to like, oh wow,
they voted. The Supreme Court voted against Alabama saying that you absolutely disenfranchised
black voters in your in your state. And then Alabama said, so what
were your thoughts? Basically, and we're gonna do what we want to do,
So what were your thoughts? And do you think that the Supreme Court,
and I guess this is going to be for all of you guys.
Do you really think that the Supreme Court is going to encourage or maybe you
know, find a way to actually enforce their ruling that happened in Alabama.
I hope they do. I mean, we can only we can only just
hope they do. I almost said pray, And I still have to catch
myself. I'm I'm still exercising after thirteen years of being an atheist, I'm
still exercising a lot of this what happens Christianity automy. Yeah, you know,
it's I mean, this kind of stuff. People people in the large
majority of people in Mississippi, ALBM aren't talking about this. They they they
they might not even they don't might not even ever come across this headline.
If they do, they don't care. This to them, it is something
that should happen. And it's good because they're so ingrained into thinking that,
uh, these things are normal and how things should be to them, Addressing
this issue in the way that we are with with you know, alarm and
and addressing it with with emotions of you know, this is frightening and I
can't believe this is happening, and this is unjust to them. That's that's
leftism, and that's that that's the enemy, and that's wokeism, and and
that's the enemy. And and uh, they they see a certain segment of
the population talking about this in a in a worried way, and to them
that that just tells them they don't even need to care about this. This
is an issue, do you know what I'm saying. So the majority people
in Mississippi, I don't think what even bat and I, uh, this
is the majority of people I grew up with, you know, family members
and people who spent the majority of my life with. To them, this
this kind of stuff doesn't even matter, you know. I've got to say
that, being from Louisiana right next door, I remember in the early nineties
there was a big uproar about getting one black majority district in Louisiana state with
almost thirty percent I mean not as not as heavily populated with a black population
as Mississippi, but still very significant. And it was more of a well,
you know, we allowed them vote. I mean, they should just
mind their place. You know, that's that's good enough. They can go
vote, you know it doesn't matter if we just distribute them. We have
these you know, districts drawn out looking like spaghetti throwing on a map.
But you know, this is what we do to dilute their votes. But
yeah, I didn't the vote. They can carry on their thing, and
we're going to carry on. Hours two, Jim crucis yep, yes,
exactly. Now we're seeing more and more people in bold than wanted to touch
on one thing. I don't see them pushing this because I know they have
the option of saying, you know, you guys had your chance. Now
we're going to go to outside sources and do this the right way. I
don't see that happen because at the end of the day, I think they
want to see this happen. So I think they're going to look at it
and say, well, you gave us one black majority, you gave us
one that has close enough. We'll call it. We'll call it even.
But the truth is is, if you look at the last fifteen elections on
that one that they're talking about, the only one that a democratic majority was
actually voted in was one where they had a guy who was cruising the mall
for underage girls and was kicked out of the State Supreme Court twice disbarred.
So I mean, if that's the one where you can actually get enough people
for a black majority, can that's really not good. That's pretty that's that's
underhanded jerrymandering. At baar Men Gosh, I think that he wore ten Gallon
had to defind that mistake, and I think that he did. Are you
still scared of the United States? I'm still scared of the United States.
I would repeat what I've said before. It's funny how you talk about leftism
or the left wing that you say, guy, you guys, you have
right on extremist right. That's it. There is no left over there.
Man. It's so weird to see the right wing of the USA fighting against
which one wants to be extremely extremists in their rightness, and the one that
prefers to be less extremist than it gets called left because of that. Nope,
you are still right wing and that's it. Yeah. What we call
left is center maybe just the one that every usually not even that it's not
in the total extreme of the right wing. It's left obviously. Yeah,
exactly if you're not completely dislike like, uh, you know, a Christian
national unless you're considered left, including other Christians. Yeah, so it's you
know, one of the things that I wanted to leave something that's on people's
mind. Why why voting matter and and what the history about you know,
voters rights activism really is in the United States. Uh, this, this
got a this like a few things I wanted to discuss, Like in a
Cooee, Florida, on November second, nineteen twenty, in what is now
the a Cooee massacre, fifty African Americans were voted, were murdered and a
brutal massacre because they wanted to exercise their legal right to vote. In May
seventh, nineteen fifty five, in your neck of the Woods, Uh Tim
Belzoni, Mississippi, Reverend George Lee, one of the first black people who
registered to vote in Humphreys County, used his pulpit too and his printing press
to urge others to vote. White official offered Lee protection on the condition he
ended his voters rights registration efforts, but Lee refused, and he was murdered.
August thirteenth, thirteenth, nineteen fifty five and Brookhaven, Mississippi, Lamar
Smith was shot dead on the courthouse lawn by a white man in broad daylight
while dozens of people watched. The killer was never indicted because no one would
admit that they saw a white man shoot a black man. Smith had organized
blacks to vote in recent elections. Want to leave one more. September twenty
fifth, nineteen sixty one, Liberty, Mississippi. Herbert Lee, who worked
with civil rights leader Bob Moses to help register black voters, was killed by
a state legislature who claimed self defense and was never arrested. Louis Allen,
a black man who witnessed the murder, also was later killed and then also
gotta do one in the Alabama this is what we talk about. August twentieth,
nineteen sixty five, in Haneyville, Alabama. Jonathan Merrick Daniels, an
Episcopal seminary student in Boston, had come to Alabama to help with black voter
registration in Louds County. He was arrested at a demonstration, jailed in Haneyville,
and then suddenly released. Moments after his release, he was shot to
death by deputy sheriff. I can't pretend I'm surprior always Mississippi, so I
you know, haven't grown up there anytime I look at the state the state,
like they'll do like statistics for each state, What state has the lowest
average income level, what state has the lowest education level, what state has
the lowest quality of life? It's always, I mean, you can you
don't even have to guess anymore. It's a joke. It's always going to
be Mississippi. And this is why. This is why, and and and
just the very fact that Alabama is completely disregarding an already very conservative court when
it comes to like, Wow, you went a little bit too far with
your sting them right, your spaghetti drawn together maps. This is crazy.
And I just want to mention to our dear viewers, this is not nineteen
fifty three. We are in two thousand and twenty three. But if you
want to see more content from this year and what else we gotta say,
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