I firmly believe that the term “racism” has reached the point where it is essentially meaningless, at least in a formal “words have meaning” sense.
In essence, people know that being racist is bad and that it involves something between one race and another. In attempt to establish the high road, they label their opponents as that bad thing, never understanding what the term means.
The most recent example is North Carolina’s voter ID laws. These laws, so say the opponents, are examples of racism. The data shows that minorities and the poor are most likely to be burdened by voter ID requirements. And therefore, laws demanding ID are “racist”.
Hardly.
I suggest something different. I suggest that the very thing that leads to poverty is the thing that leads to an individual not having an ID.
When turned 16, the VERY day I turned 16, I took my driver’s test and passed. I obtained a license. When the plastic came in the mail, my father sat me down and explained what a driver’s license meant. He taught me that I needed to never leave home without it, ever. That it needed to be correct and up to date. When I moved, it needed to reflect that move.
Further, when I turned 18, he did the same thing with my social security card and birth certificate. He taught me where they were kept, where I should jeep them and how I could obtain replacements in the event they were lost.
In short, a picture ID, a social security card and a birth certificate are mandatory elements to a fully functioning citizen in the United States. To not have one of these things was seen as unacceptable and delinquent.
So I ask you, what is more racist?
- Expecting that a fellow man be responsible enough to live in modern society in the EXACT way and manner that my father taught me and I my son?Or
- That we diminish expectations of modern life based on race?
Given that minorities and the poor suffer more from lack of ID, is the ideal solution to:
- Pass laws that make such reasonable and responsible behavior meaningless
- Admit that we don’t have dads teaching sons that keeping ID, birth certificates and SS cards is a reasonable requirement of all responsible people.