Native, Black, And Gay America Has Had A World Wind of a Week at The Highest Court in the Land
This weekend the nation celebrates its Independence Day. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing the colonies’ separation from Great Britain.
Two weeks ago, the United States celebrated its 2nd Juneteenth National Holiday, June 19th, set aside to create atonement for the transatlantic slave trade. In that same week, the SCOTUS created the precedent for three southern states to create more space for Black votes. As we experience new ways of bridging the very obvious demographic gaps in our political systems, we still find specific instances that show the United States is swiftly moving backward.
In a 6–3 decision on the case Moore v. Harper, the justices determined state courts can strike down or weigh in on election laws set by the state’s General Assembly. A group of North Carolina GOP lawmakers had asked the court to embrace a sweeping legal theory called the independent state legislature doctrine, which holds that state legislatures have absolute control over election rules. So in reality, it is not like there are too many white people voting — they said it is racist against Black Americans. SCOTUS is responding to a grandfathered, white-privileged rule that says the candidates can choose their voters, isn’t this how we all got here?
Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election due to the Electoral College not due to not the majority of Americans not wanting her to become their next Commander-In-Chief. We covered the historical backlog of where that rule originates from.
The suppression of one group will always make the other group SEEM more powerful. Privilege destroys the competition, on which capitalism thrives. Can we still be considered a true democracy when the voters are not in control of who is elected to govern them? In other election races like for Mayor or Governor, it is not set up this way. The way we vote in local elections and statewide elections is arguably fairer or more accurate from voters to representatives. The Supreme Court is a part of our system of checks and balances. They are all appointed by the Commander-In-Chief and approved through Senate congressional hearings. Our Senators are pretty important races as well because though they are not lifetime appointments, their position is to filter out the right kinds of lifetime appointments. We can thank the grim reaper, Mitch McConnell for all of the conservative judges lining the lower courts.
Before the week of the SCOTUS decisions, Sen. Tim Scott attacked former President Barack Obama via the ABC network tv show, The View, to bring race-based conversations regarding Black men and women’s access to the American system to a more national consciousness. The right-wing reporting stations claimed the View attacked Scott when in reality he was invited on the show to engage in a necessary public conversation started by Obama on a podcast the week before. In the mainstream media, which we studied for our upcoming Special Report, Attacked: How U.S. Media Ecosystems Curate Hate Crimes, we’ve noticed a very narrative trend. The average American scores at and around the Eighth-grade reading level. The right-wing media preys on this fact. Most Americans are not adept in legal jargon, or political fanciness that creates that professional feeling of American politics. Slavery was a time in America when white Southerners promoted pro-whiteness in areas it never existed — how is it that anti-literacy laws exist at the same time, so not only did they want to own people, they wanted to keep them inferior because only an idiot would not run away.
But this is our country nonetheless. Scott’s comments did not land well. He tried his best to claim that he was the rule and not the exception even when host Sunny Hostin called out herself and Whoopi Goldberg as being fellow exceptions to the rule. The actuality of the American Dream had to be chased down by specific groups of Americans due to the historical financial history. Black America was enslaved, they remain the only sub-group to be forced into hard labor without any monetary affiliation.
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution create the understanding that slavery, and work without pay, go against the American values of life., liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is why the reaction to the 2023 conservative SCOTUS anger not only the previously enslaved ancestry populations but the overall majority of Americans. Women have been demoted to secondary-class citizens. The 19th Amendment, fought by suffragettes and abolitionists, did not only free women, it freed all citizens who did not previously have the right or access to the political changes of the United States. Reading comprehension is a fundamental tool. When done correctly, you learn to discern. Theories and facts are different. Opinions and judgments are the same. ‘Pov‘ and ‘how I think are the same. Research and data analysis is the same. Ignorance exists when folks stop asking questions and to question is to THINK INDEPENDENTLY.
The Divided States of America is when White Americans vote against their community and financial interests because they opt to follow racist leaders, like Mitch McConnell, who denied Barack Obama an opportunity to choose another Supreme Court justice but assisted Donald Trump in rushing Amy Coney Barrett into a lifetime seat. Why is there always a conservative group in the interest of dividing Americans? How do these groups how so much more power than the majority of American voters? Because it’s a democratic corporation. In the 2020 Census, results from population changes yielded new seats in Congress, seats that were won by Marjorie Taylor Greene and the rest. White Americans and Latinos checked a box that said “others” and created the ethnic demographic of white Hispanic. The Fox News stories do not waste time explaining those real number changes; it’s easier to scare voters into hating each other by deeming them the others.
In reality, the United States is no longer conservative. There are millions of LGBTQ community members, there are millions of Americans in interracial marriages, there are millions of immigrant Americans, and there is a conscious consensus that we will not sit around and let a handful of white people create an unlivable dystopian nation. Today is a good day to check your voter registration and do some research about the historical political changes that landed us all here.
About Tahyira Savanna: Tahyira is a lifestyle journalist and writer. Her interest includes human stories and introspection. She interviews everyday people doing their part to make our world happier.
Follow her on Twitter @TAsterisk and Instagram @iletthegoodtimesroll
