Racism in 2012: Lazy

Lazy, shiftless, don't want to work.  It's been what the well-off like to say about the less well-off for a long time.  It's said of identifiable minorities most often, including white ethnics, or just "white trash."  But it is most often said (even or especially by those white ethnics) of racial minorities--principally African American, but also Latino--especially Mexican.

Lazy blacks, lazy Mexicans with their siestas--all part of the racial stereotypes.  Those stereotypes have often been used politically to deny them equal rights.  Being disadvantaged by virtue of policies that went hand in hand with such stereotypes led to new policies that get bunched together under the name of "affirmative action."

But the idea of affirmative action was quickly turned into a new name for taking advantage of race--a form of injustice, and of laziness.  In 2012 this attitude has been exploited through the GOPer primaries, notably in Newt Gingrich's culture of dependence, and the food stamp president.  It blew apart the current general election campaign by being so baldly and boldly stated in those Mitt Romney remarks in the notorious fundraising recording.   There the language was of dependence and feeling justified in dependence by feeling like a "victim."

But the actual vocabulary of laziness has recently emerged in a new context: justifying the GOPer state voter suppression laws, particularly voter ID.

It arose in Pennsylvania in the radio interview I quoted, when state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe said: "I don’t believe any legitimate voter that actually wants to exercise that right and takes on the according responsiblity that goes with that right to secure their photo ID will be disenfranchised. As Mitt Romney said, 47% of the people that are living off the public dole, living off their neighbors’ hard work, and we have a lot of people out there that are too lazy to get up and get out there and get the ID they need. If individuals are too lazy, the state can’t fix that."

On Monday this was echoed in another state with a voter ID law currently in litigation: South Carolina.  A TPM reporter wrote: "A lawyer for South Carolina said on Monday there are plenty of reasons voters would be able to sidestep the state’s voter ID law if a panel of federal judges allows it to take effect this year, but laziness is not among them."  To be fair, the reporter doesn't quote the lawyer as using the word "lazy," but his statement implied it.

Let's put aside for a moment that obtaining the kind of IDs these states require often means that eligible voters must spend money and lose money from taking time off work in order to prevent the state from taking away their voting rights.  Let's instead think for a moment about the burden of responsibility here.  The state has imposed a barrier to voting, with no actual justification--they haven't come close to proving that a problem exists, or that remedy actually addresses such a problem. But they've added a new requirement anyway.  And so it becomes the fault of eligible voters if their voting rights are violated.

Yes, if those black folks weren't so lazy they could learn to pass the literacy test, and make enough money to pay the poll tax. 

Historically these efforts were used to prevent black Americans from voting.  And sure enough the result of these laws has been widely forecast as preventing black Americans from voting.

But now there's evidence that the impact may be even greater in preventing or discouraging Latino voters from voting.  As many as ten million, or half the eligible voters.  Voter suppression efforts through demanding proof of citizenship just to register have been going on all year and continue in Florida.  According to this study, the effect may be enough to flip the state.

But it's more than politics.  It's racism, once again institutionalized.  In 2012.