Skip to main content

A "quick history lesson" on racism in the U.S. via a Facebook post

Yet again, the Republican Party is attempting to "rebrand" themselves as a more tolerant party by looking at the (ancient) history of the two parties. Just last night, I saw this post on Facebook:

"Quick history lesson:

13th Amendment: Abolished slavery
100% Republican Support
23% Democratic Support

14th Amendment: Gave citizenship to freed slaves
94% Republican support
0% Democratic support

15th Amendment: Right to vote for all
100% Republican support
0% Democratic support"


For the record, the 13th Amendment passed in 1865, which was 148 years ago. The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, or 145 years ago. Lastly, the 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870 - 143 years ago. Let's look at these three years, shall we?

1865

- Abraham Lincoln was president, and later assassinated

- The New York Stock Exchange opened its first permanent headquarters

- The Salvation Army was founded

- The first edition of Alice in Wonderland was published

- Great Britain delegated the worlds first maximum speed laws

- Patrick Francis Healy became the first black person to be awarded a PhD.

- The Civil War ended


1868

- The House of Representatives voted to impeach President Andrew Johnson.

- The University of Illinois opened.

- The opera Hamlet premiered.

- The first professional woman's club (Sorosis) formed in New York City.

- The University of California was founded.

- The city of Reno, Nevada was founded.

- Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina were readmitted to the United States.

- Golf recorded its first hole-in-one.

- The first traffic lights were installed in London.


1870

- Construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

- Donkey was first used as the symbol of the Democratic Party.

- Virginia was readmitted to the United States.

- The first sorority was established (Kappa Alpha Theta).

- The first motion picture was shown to a theater audience.

- Mississippi was readmitted to the United States.

- Texas was readmitted to the United States.

- The Christmas holiday is declared as a federal holiday in the United States.

- Postcards were first used in the United States.


Quick history lesson - these three amendments were passed a long time ago. A few things have changed in the past 143+ years. Then again, this is recent history to many of these far-right conservatives. They attain many of their beliefs from a book which was written over 3,000 years ago. When a party attempts to rebrand themselves with events that took place nearly 150 years ago, even the chiefest among them has to know they're in trouble.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/14thamendment.html

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Boycotting jukeboxes because of TouchTunes

I love music and enjoy hitting the bar(s) over the weekend, so naturally, when the mood strikes me, I've never been coy about playing some songs on the jukebox. This past Thursday, a friend of mine turned 50, so several friends of her's, including myself, all met up to celebrate the occasion. At around 9:30, a friend of mine and I both chipped in $5 to play some songs on the jukebox. Four hours and 231 skips later, we gave up on hearing the songs we had selected, and went home knowing we had just wasted $5. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to me (and many others), and due to that, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes. Why? The scam known as TouchTunes. You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTun...

The difference between "looking" and "checking out"

I may be way off with these numbers, but it's my approximation that at least 75% of individuals whom are involved in a serious relationship feel it's perfectly acceptable to "check out" members of the opposite sex they're not involved with. Meanwhile, approximately 25% either don't feel this is acceptable or aren't sure about the matter. I hadn't thought about this matter for a while, but since I've been dating a woman for about 8 months, the topic has been pondered about some. When reading or hearing others discuss this very issue, I often times hear comments similar to the following: "It's human nature to look." "There's nothing wrong with checking others out. I'm sure he/she does it too!" "It's fine to do it. Just don't tell your boyfriend/girlfriend about it or do it in front of them!" "It's natural to find people attractive." When observing the array of comments, I i...