While Democrats claim that voter ID laws are racist and President Joe Biden even went so far as to refer to Georgia’s new election reform law as “Jim Crow on steroids,” many strong and independent black leaders are standing up against those accusations.
Quick Facts
The battle over voter ID laws has intensified in recent months as states move to make elections more secure, while Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would eliminate voter ID requirements altogether.
Democrats claim that voter ID requirements disenfranchise black voters as they do not have the same access to personal identification, such as a driver’s license, passport, or another accepted photo-secured document, as whites do. This argument has also been adopted by major corporations such as Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball (MLB), who both sounded off on Georgia’s recent election law to strengthen voter ID requirements, with the MLB going so far as to move its upcoming All-Star game out of Atlanta, a majority black city.
Meanwhile, many black leaders have been angered by these suggestions and argue that black people are just as able to obtain photo ID as white people.
Mark Robinson, a Republican and former factory worker who was recently elected the first black lieutenant governor of North Carolina, spoke at a congressional hearing on voting rights, where he strongly refuted the Democratic narrative. “It’s time that we modernize our election system in this country and stop playing all these silly games based on race, and please stop using me as a black man as your pawn — and yes, I said it — [to] push your agenda,” Robinson said. “I’m sick of it.”
He continued,
“Am I to believe that black Americans who have overcome the atrocities of slavery, who were victorious in the civil rights movement, and who now sit in the highest levels of government cannot figure out how to get a free ID to vote? That we need to be coddled by politicians because they don’t think we can figure out how to make our voices heard? Are you kidding me?”
Robinson described the “For the People Act,” the recent House bill that would ban the use of all voter ID requirements, as a “partisan, unconstitutional power grab.” He stated, “We need to stop it at the insinuation that somehow the people in Washington, D.C., know better than the people in North Carolina. You do not. And we will not tolerate it.”
Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, had a similar take on the suggestion that black people don’t have the wherewithal or ability to obtain a photo ID. Testifying before the Senate, he said,
“What I find extremely offensive is the narrative from the left that black people are not smart enough, not educated enough, not desirous enough of education to do what every other culture and race does in this country: get an ID. True racism is this: It’s the projection of the Democratic Party on my proud race. It’s called the soft bigotry of low expectations.”
Former University of Georgia and NFL star Herschel Walker told Just the News, “My grandfather today, if he was alive, would be 117 years old. He had a driver’s license. In today’s world, you have to have an ID to do anything.”
A group of black leaders, including Owens, recently co-penned an op-ed to explain their opposition to the idea that today’s requirement for voter ID during elections is somehow racist. They wrote,
“According to liberal orthodoxy, all Blacks think alike, and all Blacks support Black Lives Matter, and all Blacks oppose the recently enacted Georgia Election Integrity Act. To the contrary, a recent Rasmussen Reports poll found that 69% of Blacks and 82% of nonwhite minorities support voter ID. Another poll taken even more recently by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that a full two-thirds of Blacks in Georgia support voter ID. The data seems clear: A majority of Black Americans support voter ID laws. Why then do opportunistic activists like Stacey Abrams pretend the entire Black community stands behind them and the radical Democrat Party? Why do they pretend that Black people are either opposed to voter ID or, even more offensively, that Blacks are incapable of obtaining IDs? The answer is in part because the elites, most of whom are white, have enabled them, taking it upon themselves to determine who the “leaders” of the Black community are and ignoring anyone else who suggests differently.”
The op-ed pointed out there are many black Republican leaders that liberal elites ignore, and they also noted that ID is required for many activities in society and not deemed racist. These activities include applying for a job, opening a bank account, going to the doctor, and even picking up tickets at a professional baseball game.
They further wrote, “We don’t need media-appointed Black leaders chosen for us. We definitely don’t need media-appointed Black leaders who care more about the Democrat Party and radical left-wing policy projects than they do the real needs and opinions of the Black community.”
Despite the claims of liberal and “woke” corporations, legislation like the “For the People Act” is not intended to protect voters, but to protect politicians and their tyrannical hold on power. These elites don’t care if making elections less secure hurts black people or if moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta hurts black-owned businesses. What they care about is securing control of the government — permanently.
The Democratic Party claims Republicans are the party of white supremacy yet they routinely show that they think black people need the Democratic Party to save them. The irony is that it was Democrats who supported segregation and Jim Crow laws and Democrats who are committed to spreading ideologies like Critical Race Theory that are fueling renewed segregation and racial distrust and disunity.
Black people don’t need the Democratic Party. What they need is for white liberals and opportunistic “advocates” to get out of their way.
