A near impossible literacy test Louisiana used to suppress the black vote

The point is that the questions are phrased ambiguously such that a reviewer can credibly claim that a "correct" solution is wrong.

Take question 20:

> Spell backwards, forwards

Is "backwards" the object, with "forwards" describing how to spell it — as in, "Spell the word 'backwards', forwards"?

Or is it being used as an adverb, telling you how to spell the word "forwards" — as in, "Spell backwards the word 'forwards'"?

Wow, I hadn't even thought of that for that question. Disgustingly genius. The person administering the test can simply tell the person who took the test the opposite interpretation of however they answered, and that's it for their ability to vote.

Kind of like modern App Store review. Google must have employed some history majors

What's even worse about this is this test wasn't given to everyone who wanted to vote, only those who gained their right to vote after the civil war.

White people were "grandfathered" in, literally.

It reminds me of the Simpsons episode with the spelling bee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sn5wyBDxn4

> "Your word is 'weather'."

> "Which one? Can you use it in a sentence?"

> "Certainly! 'I don't know whether the weather will improve.'"

(obviously the joke doesn't work as well written out)

A prime example of why "unionization" is good: You only need two people to do this differently and be told the opposite by the administrator (preferably the same one but not necessarily) and you've proved that it's BS.

That's all theory of course and in practice I bet people did talk about this afterwards and figured out it's BS and it didn't help either way. But it's easy to "find out" (and then try to do something about it) if you stick together. But if nobody sticks together on it and tries to do better for themselves by themselves, everyone does worse for themselves in the end.

Great, and now that you realize this you also realize why all these other right-wing schemes to suppress the vote are also unconstitutional. If you put some random jerk in a position to deny someone the right to vote based on ID card or signature rules, you have created a system for discriminatory disenfranchisement.

I think I've already got a pretty good handle on the modern-day disenfranchisement techniques, thank you.

With the comma the second interpretation seems inapplicable to me.

It’s awkward, sure, but other questions use commas in that way. Question 19, immediately prior:

> Draw in the space below, a square with a triangle in it, and within that same triangle draw a circle with a black dot in it.

In that case, “a square with a triangle in it” is fairly unambiguously the object, which would make the sentence construction “[verb] [adverb], [object]” — exactly the same as the second interpretation of “Spell backwards, forwards”.

It seems inapplicable to you, but it will probably seem very applicable to the test administrator who doesn’t want people like you voting.

"Me fail English? That's unpossible!"

> But it's easy to "find out" (and then try to do something about it) if you stick together.

You're kind of describing the civil rights movement.

Also the Simpsons scene with the Smokey Bear statue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-q-3fPYw_Y

> "Only who can prevent forest fires?" [You] [Me]

> Bart selects "You".

> "You pressed 'You', referring to me. That is incorrect. The correct answer is 'You'!"

And forgetting the KKK

Another possible solution is "backwards, forwards".

Without quotation marks, this task is inherently ambiguous.

Reminds of the Spelling Bee scene in the Simpsons:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWyYTJKOtDU

And by "spell", do they mean just rewrite the word(s), write the word(s) with a s p a c e between each letter, or go to the examiner and spell it verbally?