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

(www.openculture.com)
250 points rcarmo | 1 comments | 21 Oct 24 21:29 UTC | HN request time: 0.205s | source
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inreverse ◴[22 Oct 24 04:48 UTC] No.41911288[source]▶
Leaving aside the topics of authenticity and the questions' historical context, it's interesting that the article claims that "most" of the questions are impossible, while >80% have a single clear interpretation. For example, "draw a line under the last word in this line."
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tptacek ◴[22 Oct 24 05:00 UTC] No.41911327[source]▶
Yeah? Which word do you draw the line under?
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happytoexplain ◴[22 Oct 24 05:14 UTC] No.41911387[source]▶
Is there a word trick here I'm missing? I can only interpret it in the face-value sense of underlining the last word, "line".
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tptacek ◴[22 Oct 24 05:15 UTC] No.41911396[source]▶
Sorry, no votes for you; it was "word".

No, wait, you needed to underline every occurrence of the word "line".

Again, no idea if this test is real, just, that's the gimmick.

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Izkata ◴[22 Oct 24 13:41 UTC] No.41914168[source]▶
> Sorry, no votes for you; it was "word".

If it was this, there would be quotes around "word".

> No, wait, you needed to underline every occurrence of the word "line".

If it was this, it wouldn't say "last".

This particular one is not ambiguous.

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1. mrguyorama ◴[22 Oct 24 15:55 UTC] No.41915581[source]▶
>If it was this, there would be quotes around "word".

And who would you argue this to? The guy giving you the test who has the freedom to fail you for any reason they want?

There's no appeals court. These tests were not tests.