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

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319 points rcarmo | 3 comments | 21 Oct 24 21:29 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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jiriknesl ◴[22 Oct 24 08:33 UTC] No.41912334[source]▶
I know, from a human rights point of view, this is very problematic. But imagine, if only people who can really understand written text, who can calculate, who understand how legal system works, who have basics of logic could vote.

Of course, those tests shouldn't be that ambiguous, but if they were phrased a bit more clear, these would be very simple. At the same time, English has changed in the last 50 years. That phrasing might have been common back then.

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1. krapp ◴[22 Oct 24 09:33 UTC] No.41912651[source]▶
Any test you can imagine would still be used to favor the rich and powerful, and to oppress and disenfranchise undesirables.

It doesn't matter how rational it seems. Government - particularly the racist oligarchy that is the US government - cannot be trusted to act with rational benevolence.

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2. tombert ◴[22 Oct 24 16:22 UTC] No.41915905[source]▶
Why shouldn't illiterates and nincompoops have a say?

There are politicians that I think are morons (without naming specifics, think about any politician that you think is dumb), and that only morons would vote for, but morons live here too, and they're affected by the laws as well. Shouldn't they have some say in how things are run?

I know the "two wolves and a sheep choosing dinner" argument, but I think giving some voice to everyone is pretty important. People deserve to have their voices heard.

3. krapp ◴[22 Oct 24 19:30 UTC] No.41917817[source]▶
If you don't want "illiterates and nincompoops" deciding the course of civilization, the solution is better education and a stronger sense of civic duty (both of which are currently anithetical to American culture,) not the creation of a caste system whereby only some arbitrarily defined intellectual and cultural elites get to vote.

History is filled with the graves of governments ruled by such policies - since education and literacy were the sole privilege of nobility for much of civilized human history. It didn't work out well for the ruling class or the peasants.