The community of Canyon Creek was ranchland rich with limestone and cedar trees when Jim Crow held sway in the South. The first house wasn't built until the late 1980s and not even a hint of discrimination attaches to this little slice in suburbia.
The people of Canyon Creek didn't sprout from the ground. They moved there from other places. They're not clean of the taint of racism that infests their state.
President Obama won more than 48 percent of the vote in November in this overwhelmingly white community northwest of the state capital.
Which means he lost that community. I don't see how this disproves racism.
Much has changed across the South and elsewhere in the country, not least of which is Obama's election, Gregory Coleman, the district's lawyer, has told the court.
Not a single state in the Deep South voted for Obama. The states covered by this law are covered for a reason. They can't use the fact that those of us in the rational parts of the US overruled them to argue that they should no longer be kept in check.
"It's insulting to me to be accused of having a racial bias just because you live in Texas," said Zimmerman, an engineer.
Then change your state. Don't blame us for pointing out the obvious. When your Governor and at least one of your Representatives is threatening secession because the US elected a black President you can't claim that racism has been eliminated.
Evidence amassed at congressional hearings showed that hundreds of discriminatory proposals were rejected by the Justice Department or withdrawn when government lawyers raised questions.
They bury this, proof that the law is still necessary, right at the bottom.
|