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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 2018)
Page 2 The Skanner September 19, 2018 ® Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now What the Supreme Court Nomination Would Mean for Black Women Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor Jerry Foster Advertising Manager W Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2017 MERIT AWARD WINNER The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2018 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS ! • L i ke u s on F ebo m me • nts TheSkannerNews o k • learn • co in y o u r c o m m u n y toda ac it Updated daily. y • Opinion nt • lo c a l n e w s • eve Check out: TheSkannerReport.com Your One-Stop Hub for Community Newspapers Throughout the U.S. ith the confirmation process underway for Judge Brett Ka- vanaugh’s nomina- tion to the Supreme Court, Black women have certainly been voicing our opposition. There’s no sugar-coating it: confirming Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court would be di- sastrous for Black women. To begin, Kavanaugh has made it clear that he doesn’t support the right to abortion enshrined in Roe v. Wade — though seven in 10 people in this country do, as well as nearly eight in 10 Black Amer- icans. We know that many states, if they were allowed, would ban abortion immedi- ately. In a handful of states, only one abortion clinic re- mains, and in others, women are forced to travel long dis- tances, delay care, and pay out-of-pocket. Whether the right to abortion is turned over to states or outlawed, or the court instead allows extreme restrictions, the im- pact will be fall hardest on those who already struggle to get care — and Black women could be the most harmed. As DC Congresswoman El- eanor Holmes Norton has noted, Black women are more likely to need abortion care, due to greater barriers we face in accessing comprehen- sive sex education, contracep- tion, and basic health care. Research shows that when a woman wants to get an abor- tion but is denied, she is more “ Black women are the largest constituency in the United States that has no repre- sentation on the Supreme Court likely to fall into poverty, less likely to have a full-time job, and twice as likely to be a vic- tim of domestic violence. Forcing a woman to con- tinue a pregnancy after she’s decided to end it is a violation of her basic human rights — forcing a Black woman to do so in a country that places so little value on Black life adds incalculable insult to injury. Kavanaugh’s record seems to La’Tasha D. Mayes Exec. Director, New Voices for Reproductive Justice indicate that he’d be perfectly comfortable forcing pregnan- cy on Black women, while do- ing little to ensure that Black women’s children will grow to be healthy, treated equally, and thrive — unlike Antwon Rose Jr. in Pittsburgh and Nia Wilson in Oakland. Kavanaugh has also sided with bosses to want to deny their employees’ birth con- trol coverage based on the employer’s personal or reli- gious beliefs. Here, too, the stakes are higher for Black women. We are more likely to be struggling economical- ly, therefore less likely to be able to “buy our way out of the problem.” While the threat Kavana- ugh poses to reproductive health has dominated much of the news, Black women have all those and even more concerns when it comes to this nominee. As the NAACP has pointed out, “Our voting rights are on the line. Fair housing and affirmative ac- tion are on the line.” Every- thing that matters to Black women is on the line. All these issues are connect- ed – they are intersectional. Being treated fairly at work, in lending, in school, and else- where, as well as voting rights and access to reproductive healthcare, including abor- tion, help ensure that Black women and our families can be healthy and live with dig- nity. Now is the time for us to work together — across is- sues and geography — to de- fend ourselves, our families and our communities. Let’s be honest — the Su- preme Court has rarely been a friend to Black women. Af- ter all, it was the invisibility of Black women in discrimi- nation jurisprudence that led Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw to first coin the term “inter- sectionality.” But the Supreme Court certainly has the power to greatly harm or potential- ly improve the lives of Black women. We need to watch closely and be sure our that we speak in our own voice and those we elect to serve us trust Black women. Black women are the largest constituency in the United States that has no representa- tion on the Supreme Court – we’ve never had a Black wom- an Supreme Court Justice. That is not to say that Justice Clarence Thomas is standing up for the health and rights of Black men — he’s not — but judicial representation mat- ters. It would be incredible to see a Black woman, more than one Black woman, sitting on the highest court in the land. Black Voting Rights under Attack in America F rom 1880 to 1965, there was an all-out assault on preventing African Americans from voting by having their right to vote deemed invalid. The Fifteenth Amendment prohibited bla- tant disenfranchisement on the basis of race or prior en- slavement, but many South- ern states came up with a slew of new and innovative alter- native techniques to disen- franchise Blacks after Recon- struction and during the “Jim Crow” era, such as enacting a poll tax and introducing lit- eracy tests as a means to keep Blacks from voting. While the traditional tech- niques of violence by the Ku Klux Klan and the awful prac- tice of voter suppression be- came more recognizable and outdated, individuals devel- oped creative new and crafty methods to challenge Black people’s right to vote through legislation that is impacting Black people right now in 2018. With the very important and heated midterm elec- tions coming up in Novem- ber, roughly 4,000 eligible Harris County voters, mostly African Americans located in Houston’s historic Third Ward, recently had their vot- ing rights attacked by an inde- pendent operative who used an antiquated Texas state law to legally challenge their vot- Jeffrey L. Boney NNPA Columnist ing status. Back on July 30, Republican activist Alan Vera filed a chal- lenge to the Harris County Registrar’s Office, disputing the voting status of roughly 4,000 Harris County voters. The majority of the challeng- “ Voters also had their voter regis- trations sus- pended with- out warning es made included P.O. Boxes, UPS stores and other mailing service centers, but consisted of standard addresses as well. After his challenge was filed, the Harris County Registrar’s Office sent out letters to the individuals that Vera chal- lenged, informing them that their voter registration status had indeed been challenged and that they needed to prove that they were truly eligible to vote within 30 days. And there lies the problem with this disturbing issue. The Harris County Reg- istrar’s Office sent out the letters to the roughly 4,000 challenged Harris County voters well within the 90-day blackout window that is cus- tomary before the November midterm election. On top of that, approximately 1,700 of the 4,000 challenged Harris County voters also had their voter registrations suspend- ed without warning. According to Ann Harris Bennett, who serves as the Harris County tax asses- sor-collector and voter reg- istrar, the voter registration suspensions came as a result of a software glitch, and she encouraged everyone to not be alarmed or worried about their voting rights under her watch. “There was a minor glitch in the software that we are required to use from the Sec- retary of State,” said Bennett. “This issue did not just impact Third Ward, but it affected individuals all across Harris County. We quickly assessed the situation and corrected the problem once it was iden- tified. Please rest easy and know that I will be protecting the integrity of the voter rolls of the citizens of Harris Coun- ty.” Bennett states that after hearing about the letters, every single Harris County voter immediately had their full voting status restored to normal. This snowball effect of at- tacking the voting rights of unsuspecting Harris County residents began when Re- publican activist Alan Vera filed a challenge using an an- tiquated Texas state law that allows any registered voter to challenge the registration of another voter living in the same county. According to Sec. 16.092 of the Texas Election Code that was enacted in 1986: A voter desiring to chal- lenge a registration must file with the registrar a sworn statement of the grounds for the challenge that: (1) identifies the voter whose registration is being chal- lenged; and (2) states a specific qualifica- tion for registration that the challenged voter has not met based on the per- sonal knowledge of the vot- er desiring to challenge the registration. Texas State Senator Bor- ris Miles says that Republi- can-led groups like Empower Texas, True the Vote and the King Street Patriots are be- hind efforts like these to dis- enfranchise the Harris Coun- ty residents. Read the rest of this commentary at TheSkanner.com