This video, with responses to the question, “Are voter ID laws racist and suppress the black vote?”, is fascinating and revealing. It demonstrates that racism includes well-meaning whites who patronize blacks and think they have to make things very simple so that “those people” can understand them.

In my experience racism among conservatives sometimes (by no means always) takes the classic and more obvious form. Among liberals however, it often takes the paternalistic form of “you can’t take care of yourselves so you must depend on us to take care of you, and that’s how we earn your votes.” Both are racist and demeaning in their own ways. 

Of course, voter suppression may be happening in some other ways. The point here is that it’s possible to actually demean and belittle people as being less intelligent and capable, even when we imagine we’re being progressive and justice oriented.

See Randy's novel Dominion, as well as Benjamin Watson's book Under Our Skin.

Photo by Fabien Bazanegue on Unsplash