Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 24, 2012
July 23, 2012
July 25, 2012
Transcript:
Jim Crow: 'Sup, America! Y'all been feelin' the new love for voter suppression? I sure have! So come with me to check it out on my nationwide Jimmy Crow comeback tour! Firs stop - Alabama! Here is 'bama, the GOP passed a bad-ass new Jimmy Crow law to keep undesirables away from the polls! Voice: Here he comes! Jim Crow: Well, smoke my ribs! All-white fraud-busters! Voices: Jimmy! Jimmy! The return of Jimmy Crow.
Thanks to everyone who pointed me in the direction of ‘Jim Crow’ laws. Twenty years ago, I visited an old college friend in Atlanta Georgia and one day whilst he was working, I went to visit the Birthplace of Martin Luther King. There all the trips are guided, and I was the only ‘white’ on our particular tour and as we waited I sensed an unspoken hostility towards me. Before the tour started, the Guide asked where we all came from and why we had come. When I said I was from the UK (and found the concept of segregration within my lifetime absolutely shocking) with hostility just disappeared. My theory is that the others were concerned I was ‘troublemaker’ with preconceptions and intended just to make trouble. This (a several other incidents) made me realise how deep-seated and institustionalised racist behaviour is in large sections of white americans. From some of the posts here, it appears the situation has improved marginally, if at all.Yours saddenedMike