General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsInstead of reparations, make black votes count more than white votes
We used to count black Americans as 3/5 of a person. For reparations, give them 5/3 of a vote.
you want to shut down a conversation about race, just say the word reparations. Even black Americans are divided over the idea that money can compensate for the vestiges of an evil institution that ended 150 years ago; only 60 percent think the government should make cash payments to descendants of slaves. White Americans, on the other hand, have reached a consensus: In a YouGov poll taken shortly after the Atlantic published Ta-Nehisi Coatess viral feature, The Case for Reparations, 94 percent were opposed.
Yet a year of protests over disparate law enforcement practices, a decade of particularly sharp income inequality and centuries of imparity in America show that racial reconciliation is impossible without some kind of broad-based, systemic reparations. Recognizing the original sin is simply not enough; we must also make moral and material amends for our nations treatment of African American citizens. But if a pecuniary answer cant fix the structural disadvantage and it cant what can?
Weighted voting.
Thanks to a compromise between Southern slaveholders who wanted enslaved blacks counted in the population, for the sake of boosting Southern congressional representation, and Northern whites who didnt, the framers enshrined the three-fifths clause in the Constitution. This agreement set the census value of a slave as 60 percent of the value of a free person. Even after the 13th Amendment neutralized the political (and moral) compromise by abolishing slavery, Jim Crow laws, which contravened the 14th Amendments guarantee of equality, stopped blacks from voting. The just answer today is to invert that ratio. If black Americans were once counted as three-fifths of a person, let each African American voter now count as five-thirds.
<snip>
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/21/we-used-to-count-black-americans-as-35-of-a-person-instead-of-reparations-give-them-53-of-a-vote/
TexasProgresive
(12,158 posts)Yes this is sarcasm. I would have no problem with giving African Americans a super vote.
ileus
(15,396 posts)Hell how about reducing whites to 1/5....that'd get their goat.
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)Is it only those descended of slaves? Or any?
What about other minority groups?
Native Americans?
How do we certify who is "black enough"? Self identification, DNA, or? What stops the Rachael Dolezals?
What fractional vote do mixed race persons get?
I was raised understanding I was half Native American and Half Filipino, but I recently did the Ancestory.com DNA test and it says I am 22% African.... whats my vote fraction?
sarisataka
(18,767 posts)would you settle for an 11/9ths vote?
former9thward
(32,071 posts)Who would determine who is black? A government agency for racial purity? How much would Obama's vote be worth? His daughters? Would people be able to self-declare? If so, all whites have some African DNA in them. Just another attempt to divide our society.
cali
(114,904 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,360 posts)The one I've seen, for instance, President Obama's, lists his father as 'African', his mother as 'Caucasian', but says nothing about him. Does an African father, from an area that had nothing to do with slavery in the USA, count for these purposes?
And that's an early 60s birth certificate. Have certificates in all states continued to have entries for 'race' for the parents? Have any declared a 'race' for the actual child, which is what we'd need here?
The piece seems more like a "think of a really out-there idea, and then others will seem more moderate" attempt, rather than something to be taken seriously. Or an exercise in law and policy for students to argue out.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)disenfranchising others isn't going to set the record right, and this system would be rife with abuse
ileus
(15,396 posts)ncjustice80
(948 posts)GGJohn
(9,951 posts)Who else would you disenfranchise?
ileus
(15,396 posts)name not needed
(11,660 posts)It's the only way to be sure.
ryan_cats
(2,061 posts)X_Digger
(18,585 posts)And I've been reading some doozies, let me tell ya.
linuxman
(2,337 posts)Is this satire, or are people really this fucking dumb?
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)WillowTree
(5,325 posts)Never gonna happen. Not even worth discussing.
GusBob
(7,286 posts)Waste of space
ncjustice80
(948 posts)Unfortunately, I don't know how to get that law passed. The rethugs KNOW it would be electoral suicide to vote for it. Maybe once we take control of congress again we could jam it through???
Codeine
(25,586 posts)GGJohn
(9,951 posts)You're in favor of disenfranchising a certain segment of the population?
Are you sure you're on the "right" website?
JanMichael
(24,890 posts)Tinkering around the edges is a losing proposition. The regressives have the money the police and every piece of power now to screw over poor people specifically non-white poor and non-poor non-white people. Try disproportional votes and they will kill us all.
No fuck the Socialists too. They only want tinkering as well, I know I was one. We need more than that.
And yes I am a white guy that is not "poor". I hate this system more every year I live even though I know I benefit from it.
MillennialDem
(2,367 posts)been totally screwed - they have.
But how you define black? 1/2 or more? the 1 drop rule? What about African immigrants?
Also, I'm not trying to do a Bill O'Reilly "don't redistribute my stuff!!!111 I work hard! Herp!" but I'm white and both of my parents were born in Europe and came here in the 1950s as young children so shouldn't my vote count just as much if not more than a white Southerner's but less than a black American's? The same goes for reparations or affirmative action...
I think honestly the only fair way to do it would be
1. a complete redistribution to scratch. Ie let's say the net wealth of the US economy is $30 trillion and there are 300 million people in the US (for simplicity's sake). That's $100,000 per person. So sell everything and give everyone $100,000 then say go all over again. Of course those who are (were?) rich at the start will still pull up because of their high education and business connections
OR
2. socialism. Even then, the current rich would still have advantages here so would likely get better jobs in terms of pay scales and/or benefits.
Either would still even things out quite a bit, but would not correct everything.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)former9thward
(32,071 posts)KentuckyWoman
(6,692 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)Let the Native Americans decide what to do with their country!
eridani
(51,907 posts)I personally think that monetary reparations could start with making up for so many people of color being cut out of New Deal programs.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)jmowreader
(50,562 posts)Banning gerrymandering would work better.