MarxIsGod
27th May 2003, 19:18
In a recent (May 19) article in the New York Times, Martin Luther King III co-authored an opinion piece that called the Help America Vote Act (which is based on Florida's voting system) a "racist" piece of legislation. Essentially, it requires all states to centralize and computerize their voter registries. Then, the names are cross-checked with a national database and anyone whose name, gender, and date of birth roughly match those of a convicted felon are marked for removal. King says this is racist because, simply put, there is more commonality among Black/Hispanic last names than there is among Caucasian/European last names. While I can certainly see an objection to the removal process as a whole, the idea that it is racist simply because Black last names have more commonality is, in my opinion, ridiculous. The aforementioned article does make some valid arguments against the act but I found this particular claim to be absurd.