Voting Rights

Along with the Supreme Court's rulings on DOMA and Prop 8, they also struck down the Voting Rights Act section on preclearance, which made it so states with a history of discriminatory voting practices could not implement changes affecting voting without obtaining approval from the Department of Justice. This section has made things difficult for states to do things to improve voting in states such as moving voting locations, but this has also prevented those same changes that have deterred voting from certain people and groups like voter ID laws or moving voting locations from majority black communities to majority white communities. Now, I do believe that the United States has gotten better with racial equality but at the same time it has gotten worse as well. (if that made sense at all haha) I mean it is true America has elected its first black president and segregation has been all but eliminated, but people still make racially motivated comments (has any other president ever been called or pictured as a monkey in public protests?) and government laws also still incriminate racial (studies have shown that drug laws tend to affect more blacks proportionally and harsher). Another issue that has also recently upset me is the new voter ID laws that many states are passing that require voters to provide picture ID when voting which studies have shown affect blacks and Hispanics more than whites. I understand what voter ID laws are "supposed" to do but I have seen and heard too many racial slurs and bigotry in my lifetime to truly believe we as a country have turned the corner enough to justify the Supreme Court's ruling on the Voting Rights Act. Tell me what you think though on racial equality in America?