Baseball, Apple Pie, and Voter Disenfranchisement: Staples of America Culture
Attempts to disenfranchise Black voters is as American as apple pie, but considerably less sweet. Since the abolition of slavery, the question of how to increasingly curtail voting rights of the Black electorate has been on the minds of lawmakers across the country. One of the most successful results of these sinister intentions has been the revocation of voting privileges from felons. Despite its racist roots, lack of consistency across states, and anti-democratic effects, no one can say that felony disenfranchisement proves that the justice system is broken because disenfranchising the Black community is exactly what it was designed to do.
It’s indisputable that felony disenfranchisement is rooted in, and continues because of systemic racism. One must simply turn back the pages of any decent history book to see why. Following the ratification of the 15th Amendment- the addition to the Constitution that prohibited the violation of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude- the former Confederate states met in order to determine new ways to disenfranchise the Black population. In state Houses across the American South elected officials held on the record conversations about how to best legislate their racism. Virginia delegate R.L. Gordon frankly stated in 1868 when delegates from across the state gathered to draft the Virginia Constitution, “I told the people of my county before they sent me here that I intended, as far as in me lay, to disenfranchise every negro that I could disenfranchise under the Constitution of the United States, and as few white people as possible…” The men had a plan to criminalize as many Black people as possible in order to disenfranchise as much of this community as possible. Though it may seem a brazen violation of the aforementioned 15th Amendment, the Supreme Court didn’t see it that way. As long as the policies were race-blind in their framing, they could be race-focused in their function. And function they did.
The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 struck down many of these simultaneously race-blind and race-focused policies, but arguably the most detrimental practice still stands: felony disenfranchisement. While the issue has always disproportionately affected Black Americans, the issue of mass incarceration has exacerbated the problem. To illustrate, at the time of the infamous Virginia Constitutional Convention- just one of the many meetings of its kind taking place at the time- only six white people out of every 10,000 were in prison compared to 29 Black people out of every 10,000. Today of the 6.8 million people in prison, 34% of them are Black, making Black people five times more likely to be imprisoned than white people.
But the fact remains that the criminalized population is the group that truly suffers under the heel of voter disenfranchisement, a population that is disproportionately comprised of individuals from the Black community.
Though rooted in racism, mass incarceration’s adverse effects stretch outside the realm of racial discrimination as well, with policies varying widely from state to state. For example, a few states allow currently-incarcerated individuals to vote, like Vermont, while other states revoke voting rights indefinitely. Other states, like good old Virginia, do not allow individuals with felony convictions to vote until their rights have been restored by the Governor. This process can appear quite daunting for someone who’s attempting to reassimilate into American society. The confusion caused by the inconsistencies of policies can cause disenfranchisement beyond the intended scope; citizens unconnected to the case can be caught in the crossfire. At times the wrong names have been purged from the voter rolls, disallowing individuals unrelated to the cases to lose the ability to vote, according to the Felony Disenfranchisement Report.
But the fact remains that the criminalized population is the group that truly suffers under the heel of voter disenfranchisement, a population that is disproportionately comprised of individuals from the Black community. This is not a coincidence, as history proves.
Across the country, a total of 6.1 million people are disenfranchised due to a current or completed felony conviction.
One in 13 Black Americans has had their voting privileges revoked, a practice that has crippled the political power of an entire population. In key swing states, this can have a monumental effect. For example, in 2016, more than one in five Black Virginians were disenfranchised. Across the country, a total of 6.1 million people are disenfranchised due to a current or completed felony conviction. To put that in terms of political power, Hillary Clinton lost the three states that cost her the 2016 election (Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania) by a margin of 79,316 votes. This shows that, at its heart, felony disenfranchisement is anti-democratic — vital voters were rendered voiceless in a country that’s supposed to be run by the people. If, in most states, formerly- and currently- incarcerated individuals are unable to hold their representatives accountable it renders them powerless. This is in spite of the fact that the U.S. Census counts prisoners as residents of the area in which they’re incarcerated, and therefore they are still considered in terms of seats in the House of Representatives — a concept known as prison gerrymandering. This practice is hauntingly reminiscent of the slavery era practice of counting enslaved people in the census in terms of a region’s voting capacity, while not granting them basic human rights, or even basic humanity for that matter. With the next Census coming in 2020 it’s imperative that this issue is addressed immediately.
All in all, it’s quite clear that the practice of felony disenfranchisement is rooted in racism and is anti-democratic in practice, and should be abandoned entirely if America truly intends to be a representative democracy. Everyone deserves a voice, and has a constitutional right to one, in this democracy, and we must act to end policies that seek to rob them of it, especially felony disenfranchisement.
