ATL Civil Rights Leaders: White Man We Are Not Going To Allow You To Separate From Us

AJC: Lowery challenges Sandy Springs on Voting Rights Act

There is so much distortion and propaganda surrounding the drive by some voting regions around the nation to remove themselves from Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.   This targeted propaganda is a fear campaign meant to convince the masses who listen to the propagandists rather than do their own research that "the clock is turning back".

I have spent the past week listening to "Black talk radio" more than I usually do so that I can analyze how the Bishop Long scandal is being rationalized.   In the process of listening in I have heard the phrase "Take Back America" that is used by the Tea Parties being promoted as the Raison d'être by the "Progressives who are Democrats who are Black" to operate their "ideological unity enforcement operations" among the Black rank & file.  If Black people don't vote for the Democratic party in the upcoming elections - our gains will be turned back.  If they who operate under the guise of civil rights protections rest, believing that the White racist (who just happens to be only right wing White conservatives, housed in the Republican party) are fooled into complacency as they believe that systematic racism has been checked and they need not be vigilant against it - we as Black people will find ourselves "re-marginalized".


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For those of you who are not familiar with metro-Atlanta -  Fulton County Georgia is the county that encompasses the city of Atlanta.   Atlanta resides in the middle to south of the county.   In recent years the northern part of Fulton county have transitioned from unincorporated areas that received their municipal services from the county over to chartered cities that collect their own taxes for these services that they provision to the people in their immediate area.  For years the people in the northern portion of the county had complained that they have the dual combination of high taxes and sub-par service.  Instead of protesting, begging the Fulton County board to provide them with better services they did what most "fully self-actualized people" must do beyond complaining - they chose to do it themselves.  The critics point out that the growth of these "White cities" is a direct result of the recent "Republican majority" Georgia state house and senate.  Indeed the "Southern Strategy" took more than 40 years to finally tip the balance in Georgia.

Let's turn back to the broader impact that their incorporation had on greater Fulton County.   They lost the greatest funding source of their "redistribution" efforts.  Understandably the elected officials from the south and Atlanta stood opposed to the incorporation efforts which had to be approved by the Georgia state legislature.  They knew that this would cause financial problems in those districts that received a net inflow of resources.  Some of these people drove home the racial aspects of this move toward incorporation, making the case that "White folks" wanted to separate themselves from the more diverse southside of the county.

Enter the city of Sandy Springs.  It is the new city that was formed a few years ago that borders Atlanta to the northwest.   There was some talk of incorporating this land into the city of Atlanta in the past.  Atlanta provided them water and sewer services.    Atlanta and Fulton County lost revenues as Sandy Springs started assembling their own services under the guise of a city.  Several firemen and police that had been directly employed by Fulton were laid off.   Many immediately were rehired by the new city governments that were formed.

With Sandy Springs as a brand new city they withdrew from the pre-clearance sanctions of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.  They argued as did the new city in Texas that triggered the Supreme Court ruling - "We were not around during the time of systematic racial prejudice in voting.  We don't believe that we should be bound to these sanctions.   We choose to look forward."

Section 5 mandates that any region that is under sanction must first petition the US Justice Department for permission to make changes in their voting related policies before implementing them.  Changing polling locations, changing the distribution of election machines to a given polling place.   Anything that if done with malicious intent might serve to suppress the vote of a targeted population.

I have no problem with those who are functioning as civil rights operatives showing skepticism.  This is what they should be doing.  I have a problem when they use lies and fear to spread their message and when they selectively scrutinize - mostly because of their own ideological biases.

1. A talkshow host asked the Black man who is leading the charge against Sandy Spring's opt-out if "How many bubbles in a bar of soap"-type questions that must be answered prior to voter registration could come back as a result the removal of Section 5.  Shamefully the guy said "Yes". This is a lie.  The broad statutes of the V.R.A. is what bans this and poll taxes and grandfather clauses.  By confusing the issue the theme of "Black people are under attack" is driven.
2. If we review he past 5 elections in metro-Atlanta - more procedural violations of voting operations have been committed in Fulton County and the cities of East Point and College Park which have caused Black people to wait in line or not show up on voting polls than anything that they can show that Sandy Springs has done by malicious intent
1. Long lines seen in East Point and College Park which had a "suppressive effect" on Black voters is a fact.  With each county having their own voting administrators who are regulated by the Georgia Secretary of State - if there was any violations that impacted Black voters it came from the "favorable people" that ran the county elections.   We see here and so many other places that the best way for a local incompetent administrator to gain cover is to rattle the chains of RACISM as the reason for situations that more logically are traced back to their own incompetence.
2. Fulton County Georgia agreed to sign a consent decree due to violations of voting rights policies as they dumped registration cards. 

My bottom line is that these dogged civil rights activists are so busy watching what "White folks" do that they are not "managing their own business" where the problems are more likely to hurt Black people - WHERE WE LIVE IN OUR HIGHEST CONCENTRATIONS.

I listened to an organization that stated that they are looking for "Black victims" of voting rights violations in Sandy Springs.   A new "Rosa Parks" if you will.  The point that they fail to make is that a Black resident of Sandy Springs did not accidentally move there.  They purposely opted to not live in other areas, many chose to move closer to their jobs and avoid the traffic jams.   This civil rights group are asking these Black residents to be on the lookout for even the smallest slight so that they could be the featured litigant which topples Sandy Spring's exodus from sanction by Section 5 pre-clearance. 

The Use Of The Law As A Weapon

Take a step back and make note of how the left is constantly driving to remove the stain of a felony from a person's record.  They see the suppressive effect that this has when it comes to employment and residential options.   They take the opposite viewpoint, it seems, when it comes toThe Use Of The Law As A Weapon using sanctions put forth by the federal government to live in perpetuity.  They argue that "these areas have been shown to be racist in the past.  We need to keep an eye on them so they don't act upon their intrinsic ways".   As with other mall cops - those who show hyper scrutiny against their adversary fail to make note of the violations that are taking place elsewhere which have more negative impact upon them.  

In my analysis it is their struggle - in and of itself that serves as a political movement for the civil rights operatives.   I have to credit the Obama/Holder Justice Department for listening to the facts around Sandy Springs and approving their waiver. 

Minding Your Own Business

My theme of "competency development" comes into play here.  

The days in which the City Of Atlanta and other cities in which these civil rights operatives have promoted the present power structure in place yet with their own biases they can focus people's attention OUTWARD - are over.   Bottom line - Why did you become a city and/or promote "favorable people" into power if ultimately you have no interest in becoming a self-sustaining entity?

After having obtained the seats of power in these places they need to shift from ACTIVISM over to MANAGEMENT.   If you want to retain your relationship with your resource distributor among high - dissolve yourself as a city entity and your newly unincorporated state will entitle you to these resources.  This requires that you give up the nominal positions of power that you have.   Instead they wish to retain the power and their right to the redistributed money.

The big loser in all of this are the Black rank & file who live in the areas that have the "mission accomplished" signs planted all over.   Instead of holding the people in power over their communities accountable - they run a protection racket against their "permanent friends".

The local chapters of the NAACP, the SCLC and the "Poor People's Campaign" have grown increasingly silent about the matters of local consequence in direct proportion to the election victories of their "permanent friends".   For example more people stand to protest the upcoming trial of Troy West - the White man who beat up the Black woman in the lobby of the "Cracker Barrel Restaurant" than we say any protests about the taser related deaths of Black people (at least 2) in Dekalb County.

It should be depressing to all to see that a White man who has no attachment to the government has more power to trigger a rally than a local government's actions are able to do so.