I live in Canada . You know who my neighbor is. We have a saying that we are like a mouse sleeping beside an elephant. If the elephant rolls the wrong way it's game over for the mouse.
The U.S. has been a good neighbor since the war of 1812. President Trump has given us cause to worry about our relationship.
But this isn't where this post was supposed to go. I have always been interested in the American people and their government. I have tried to understand how their system of government works.
One thing has always puzzled me. Why is the African American vote so low? What exactly does voter suppression mean? Do the African Americans have nothing to gain by voting.? Would they not have some power if they voted as a block?
Today I found out.
I have heard all these terms used before but their meaning escaped me until I listened to an interview today.
There are many laws that have been passed which very efficiently prevent African Americans from registering to vote. I've heard the term poll tax but had no idea what it meant or what it did. Pay to vote? That was news to me. Of course, many people don't have the money to pay a poll tax and why should you have to pay money to vote ? So many African Americans did not vote. Now here's a kicker. If you didn't pay your poll tax it accumulated. So later on you ended up with a large tax bill because you didn't vote. Nuts!
Various eligibility laws were passed. African Americans were neatly cut off at the pass because they had the poor schools and school systems so could not pass the eligibility test.
Another trick was to demand identification like a drivers licence. Many African Americans didn't have driver's licences. Well, get one you say. Problem? They had to drive 50 miles to a licensing bureau.
So over the years there has always been roadblocks set up to limit African Americans from registering to vote.
So today I came to understand why African Americans don't register to vote and then go out and vote.
