Houston Chronicle - Don't need Voting Rights Act? Who are they kidding?

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/robison/3997606.html

June 24, 2006, 9:05PM
Don't need Voting Rights Act? Who are they kidding?

By CLAY ROBISON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

U.S. Rep. John Carter of Round Rock has either been marooned on Mars most of his life or is frighteningly oblivious to reality. Or, maybe, he was just being disingenuous last week when he tried to justify why he and other Republican Texas congressmen helped block House action on renewal of the Voting Rights Act, a law designed to remove barriers of racial discrimination in elections.

"I don't think we have racial bias in Texas anymore," Carter said. Preposterous!

Maybe he missed the news a few years ago about the black man, James Byrd Jr., being dragged to death in East Texas by three white thugs in a pickup truck.

And maybe he didn't hear the story about the Hispanic boy who, only a few months ago, was brutalized and left near death at a party in suburban Houston, the victim of an attack with strong racial overtones. He certainly hasn't been reading some of my e-mail after I write about immigration, and maybe he hasn't been reading his own.

Only a couple of weeks ago, in Carter's own town, just north of Austin, a bailiff was fired for allegedly using the word "wetback," within earshot of students hauled into court for skipping school to attend pro-immigration rallies.

To be sure, Texas has come a long way from the days of Klan dominance and lynchings. Racially motivated murder and mayhem are much rarer, thanks to a more tolerant and diverse population, and African Americans and Hispanics have made great strides in the state's political system.