Usually, I try and focus on these for Mondays, more or less to start the week, and figured when there is an eventful week, I might do one or even two more. Yet, this is the third day in a row, I think, that I'm doing one of these, and the fourth time in five days.
Forgive me, but it has definitely been an eventful week. We still are living with the aftermath of Sandy - and my parents still do not have power.
Some Final Thoughts On The Election of 2012
Historical Evidence Of Racism Behind The Red States vs. Blue States Divide? - I saw an interesting picture on Facebook of something that I have long suspected. It had this caption on the bottom: "The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same".
The illustration was actually a series of maps. The first map was from relatively early in American history, under the heading "SLAVERY, 1859", in the days before the Civil War. It showed the divide between "slave states" and so-called "free states". What you notice is that the entire "Solid South" states were all slave states, as everyone already knows. I do not have to list them all, but they included all of the 13 Confederate states, as well as those that were slave states, but did not break away (Oklahoma, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware - and it should be noted that West Virginia would break away from Virginia to remain with the Union).
We all know how the Civil War went, and that Lincoln abolished slavery in these United States with his Emancipation Proclamation. Racial equality was established by law, and secured with Amendments in the Bills of Rights.
Or was it? Those white supremacists stinging from the loss in the war between the states took power before too long, and found a way to circumvent this focus on greater fairness. As they took power, they found a way of basically ensuring that blacks would remain, in essence, inferior, both in social mores, as well as by law, although this was done with relative subtlety, at least in comparison to the outright notion of ownership of people during the days of slavery.
This became known as Jim Crow segregation, and most people know what that entailed. But just in case you are unfamiliar, it was a series of laws (they varied somewhat from state to state, yet there are strong similarities in the spirit behind the laws) designed to keep the races strictly segregated. To those ends, there were separate entrances to public facilities, including restrooms, beaches, restaurants and public buildings. Neighborhoods remained segregated by race. Racial mixing was prohibited in as many ways as was possible, including dating, and especially marriage. Also, and this is important, there were laws in place which, in effect, prevented the vast majority of blacks from voting.
These laws were challenged, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, in one of the most famous, or perhaps rather infamous, cases in the entire history of the Supreme Court. It was known as "Plessy vs. Ferguson", and in essence, it recognized the Constitutionality of Jim Crow segregation, finding the loophole in the implied white supremacy by claiming that, legally, the races could remain "separate, but equal".
Of course, there was no equality in reality. White supremacy remained, backed up by the laws, although there certainly were other factors that contributed to the practice of segregation, as well. There were commonplace practices that were not strictly enforced by law, yet remained the reality. It was expected in many places that blacks give way to whites on a sidewalk, for example. In homes, blacks were often expected to enter a white person's home by the backdoor. Also, there was intimidation, pure and simple. There were lynchings, and there was the Ku Klux Klan, who sometimes attacked people's homes, and sometimes left burning crosses at night, as a reminder of where they were, and what they were up against.
In a very real sense, the social norms reinforced the implied favoritism of whites over blacks that was just underneath the surface of the segregation laws. It was not slavery, but it was the next best thing that white supremacists could think of. It also proved to have considerable staying power. These laws began, more or less, in the 1870's, shortly after the end of the Civil War, and after the South was rebuilt. They lasted until well into the twentieth century, until they were finally repealed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, with his Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Louisiana still tried to pass a segregation law as late as 1965, so we're not talking about ancient history here. I was born in 1974, so we're talking about roughly a decade before I was born, that these laws were still in effect, and that racial segregation was the law of the land in numerous states. Perhaps that would suggest that this is not entirely irrelevant in the present day.
The next map on the Facebook illustration is a map, titled "Racial Segregation, 1950". It shows the states that practice out and out segregation in almost every aspect, and these include all 13 of the former Confederate states, as well as Missouri, Oklahoma, Missouri, Maryland and Delaware, and West Virginia. It should be noted that the nation's capital city, Washington, D.C. also practiced segregation like this. It was a solid block of states where segregation in almost every aspect of life was the law of the land.
There are also states where, according to the map, segregation is "permitted in varying degrees" (meaning that they had laws on the books promoting some form of segregation - most commonly against interracial marriages), and these include Wyoming (hardly a southern state), Arizona, New Mexico, and Kansas, where the famous "Brown vs. Board of Education" case was based, which was the beginning of the end of the notion of "separate, but equal", reversing "Plessy vs. Ferguson", and essentially began the dismantling of the legal structure of state sanctioned segregation, commonly known as Jim Crow.
Mostly, those biggest proponents for the continuation of segregation were known as "Dixiecrats". These were Southern Democrats, and they voted solidly for the Democratic Party in election after election, thus earning the name of the "Solid South". These segregationists were mad as hell when segregation was abolished, after fierce resistance. Some people were able to adjust, and went with the flow of the winds of change. Others, however, remained resistant, and the bitterness towards the perceived intrusion of the national government into what were seen as state's affairs was not forgotten. Many Dixiecrats switched parties, and their allegiance went to the Republican party. The "Solid South" remained relatively solid in voting tendencies, only now, it favored the Republican party, in election after election. President Johnson knew as much, claiming, after he signed the bill into law, that this would cost the Democrats for a very long time to come.
How right he was. For the most part, the "Solid South" still remains, at least in voting tendencies. There still remains considerable lingering resentment for the intrusion of national "big" government into what are seen as local affairs. Often times, this has been used by unscrupulous individuals to abuse the system and find loopholes to work their way around legislation and measures instituted by the national government to protect people. For example, the EPA is often viewed as a bureaucratic monster, intruding on small businesses and stifling the economy, although they have tried to protect ordinary Americans from obvious environmental abuses such as illegal dumping and such. This is not some small point. It is probably, in fact, having the finger on the pulse of what divides us as a nation.
So, we get to the final map listed. It is called "Presidential election, 2012" and it shows the results, state by state on the map using the famous (or infamous?) color code of blue states for Democrats, and red states for Republicans. Of course, we see some similarities to the other maps, with some few exceptions. The south remains solid, although now in favor of Republicans (almost half a century after Lyndon Johnson's acts). All of the former Confederate states are in red, except for Virginia and Florida (Florida remains officially too close to call, although supposedly, Romney's team were conceding it to Obama). Among the other out and out Jim Crow states, which include Oklahoma, Missouri, West Virginia, all also are red. Maryland and Delaware, however, are now consistently blue, and may have become more associated with the Northeast, which traditionally tends to consistently vote blue. Out of the other states that used to have some segregation in the law books (but were not considered out and out Jim Crow states) -these include Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Kansas - all but one (New Mexico) voted in the red.
Indeed, it seems like the political divide of the past (and we are going back hundreds of years now, to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, prior to the Civil War, when slavery proved such a divisive issue since the days of the Revolution) still seems to be relatively intact. "The more things change, the more they stay the same" seems to apply, does it not? If we look at it historically, there remains evidence that racial attitudes still might affect voting tendencies, and these maps served to illustrate that point.
Am I exaggerating, or perhaps finding something that is not there? Well, Mitt Romney was accused of some racist remarks here and there, like the time when he went to Israel and claimed that Israelis were successful and Palestinians were less so because of "culture". Paul Ryan, just days before the election, claimed that an Obama victory would bring the United States closer to the end of it's traditional "Judeo-Christian" values. Romney also had a supporter at one of his rallies who wore a t-shirt that read: "Put the White back in the White House".
Finally, here was conservative FOX political pundit Bill O'Reilly's comment post-election: "The white establishment is now the minority!"
I'm not the biggest Obama fan, but I think
there is a bit of validity to these trends, if you look at history. Maybe this
division is older than we might initially think? Predates the Civil War,
actually. It has not remained exactly the same, of course, yet it remains
undeniable that the geographical tendencies might suggest certain differences
in mindset.
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Bill-OReilly-says-whites-are-now-very-much-in-the-minority---VIDEO-177626941.html
Massachusetts - On a lighter note, it seems that, if you are interested in running for President, you had better either be from another state than Massachusetts, or change your address, if you are from there. There have been numerous prominent candidates from the state who unsuccessfully ran for President, but did not win. They include Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, who was killed after winning the California primary, Ted Kennedy in 1980, who lost in the Democratic primaries to incumbent President Jimmy Carter. It also included Paul Tsongas in 1992, who lost to eventual President Clinton. Michael Dukakis, John F. Kerry, and now Mitt Romney all actually gained the nomination from their party, only to lose in the general election. No candidate from Massachusetts has won the Presidency since
Yesterday's Storm
It proved not so bad, actually. It was snowy and the roads were bad last night, but the temperatures rose overnight, and the snow was mostly gone off of the roadways by morning, so the morning commute was not too bad. It should be noted that it became the first winter storm to receive a name - Winter Storm Athena. But the weather forecast for this area seems actually pretty decent for the upcoming weekend, with much warmer, more inviting and enticing temperatures, for which we can be thankful.
Around The World
Iran - Iran remained silent following Pentagon claim that Iran had opened fire on a US drone, sixteen miles outside of it's borders, as it flew over the sea. The United States claimed it would continue sending such drones in the future.
Syria - President Assad swore that he would live and die in Syria, come what may. He also denied that there is currently a civil war in his country. He defined it, rather, as "terrorism through proxies". In the meantime, further violence erupted in northeastern Syria.
http://news.yahoo.com/assad-no-civil-war-syria-090408706.html
http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-president-says-not-leave-country-110437744.html
Israel - After getting into some hot water for accusations that he tried to sway the US election in favor of GOP candidate Mitt Romney, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Obama to congratulate him on his re-election, and promised to cooperate with him in the future.
Many critics felt that he had put good relations with the United States in jeopardy, as they accused him of taking sides too transparently.
"The alliance with the United States is firm," Netanyahu assured.
http://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-phone-obama-pledges-cooperation-220537147.html
Mexico - The United State is not the only nation trying to adjust it's energy policy. The new incoming government of President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto is trying to make changes to Mexico's energy policy, and opening it up to further private investment. However, it faces possibly very strong opposition in Congress.
http://news.yahoo.com/sweeping-mexico-energy-reform-may-stumble-congress-230017291--finance.html
United Kingdom - According to a recent poll, almost half of British people would vote in a referendum to leave the European Union (EU), and less than a third would opt to stay in the EU.
http://news.yahoo.com/nearly-half-britons-want-eu-exit-poll-162910606.html
Ghana - A mall in the nation's capital of Accra collapsed on Wednesday, and the death toll has now risen to eighteen people. They have detained a municipal works employee accused of granting permission for the building to be built without a construction permit, and they are seeking the engineer and architect.
South Africa - Opposition parties to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) have submitted a motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma. They claim that corruption and unemployment have risen under his watch. It was triggered by the violence from the mine strikes that wound up killing dozens of people earlier this year.
http://news.yahoo.com/safrica-opposition-submits-no-confidence-motion-141800542.html
Malawi - After considerable condemnation for a gay law moratorium that had, in effect, illegalized homosexuality, the Justice Minister-Attorney General has ordered police not to arrest anyone for any homosexual acts. Now, he is being hailed as courageous by many around the world.
New Zealand - The nation's government said that it would not sign the second stage of the Kyoto agreement, which was an international agreement by many nations, designed to take measures in curtailing climate change.
http://news.yahoo.com/zealand-wont-sign-kyoto-2-climate-treaty-070407501.html
China - In a huge ceremony yesterday, there was a once in a decade shift of power from outgoing President Jiang Zemin to new President Hu Jintao in a huge, official, Communist Party ceremony yesterday. he claimed he would fight what many believe to be the biggest problem facing China today: corruption.
No comments:
Post a Comment