Hi folks. Today I’m taking you on a tour of Opposite Land, where wrong is apparently right and our tour guide is Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr. who has a wrong idea that she thinks is right. She’s accompanied by former President Donald Trump, whom she fervently supports [1] and the subject for today’s tour is her support of Georgia’s new and arguably racist voting law, which she believes is a continuation of her uncle’s legacy.
Did someone drop her on her head when she was a baby? And what is she doing working for Fox News?
The Georgia voting law that was recently passed by the state’s Republican-controlled Senate, SB202 was signed into law by GOP Governor Brian Kemp, Newsweek [2] reports. Democrats, civil rights leaders, and voting rights activists have fought staunchly against this law, arguing that it will lead to voter suppression and will negatively impact minority voters.
But King, for some reason, thinks this law will give Black people a sense of identity, and she said so in an interview with Fox News.
“You’ve heard me say that the laws that are being passed across the country, especially in Georgia, might be a little too little too late,” King said. “They should have done something to — in my opinion — at the last election to make sure that people had opportunities to be identified.”
She has unpleasant memories from the Jim Crow [3] era but doesn’t seem to realize this measure will become a major stumbling block for poor Blacks.
“We fought against Jim Crow, insisting ‘give me my identity. See me as a human being equally,'” she said, referencing the voter ID requirement in the new law. Then she claimed, incorrectly, that voters previously cast their ballots without any identification required.
“And going back to Jim Crow and reminding us of the racism in those days and the segregation, it was bad, very, very, very bad. I know it was. I lived it,” King said. “Our home was bombed. I’ve got a dead daddy and a dead uncle who can attest to how bad it was. But they said come together. Martin Luther King Jr. [said] learn to live together as brothers and sisters and not perish together as fools.”
King’s thoughts are in stark contrast to those of her cousin, Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s youngest daughter who’s also CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
“#SB202 is not a ‘voter integrity’ bill. It is a voter suppression bill propelled by unfounded assertions of widespread voter fraud,” she noted Tuesday on Twitter. “And it’s not just about voter i.d.’s. Be sure to read and understand the bill before blithely commenting about it. Research matters.”
#SB202 [4] is not a “voter integrity” bill.
It is a voter suppression bill propelled by unfounded assertions of widespread voter fraud.
And it’s not just about voter i.d.’s.
Be sure to read and understand the bill before blithely commenting about it.
Research matters.
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) April 6, 2021 [5]
This new Georgia law implements a number of changes, including stricter voter ID requirements. It also prohibits election officials from mailing out absentee ballot applications; shortens the amount of time voters have to request absentee ballots; decreases the number of ballot drop boxes. It even makes it illegal for individuals and organizations to distribute water and food to people waiting in lines to vote.
Republicans are claiming the new legislation is needed to secure elections in the state, even though there’s no evidence to suggest Georgia’s elections were previously insecure.
Trump’s baseless conspiracy theory that purported the 2020 election was “rigged” or “stolen” by Democrats spurred the new law. Trump and his supporters were continually stuck on repeat regarding these evidence-free claims and have never produced any data or documentation to support their claims.
Trump and his cronies filed dozens of lawsuits, all of which failed in state and federal courts and even judges appointed by the former President and other Republicans rejected the allegations. Right after President Joe Biden was elected, a key agency of the Department of Homeland Security that was led by a Trump appointee characterized the election as the “most secure in American history,” adding that “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
Heck, even Bill Barr, Trump’s own attorney general, said last December that there was “no evidence” to support claims of large-scale voter fraud. A host of recounts, including three in Georgia, reaffirmed Biden’s victory.
Trump’s claims of a stolen election have been widely, and effectively debunked, but they quite obviously led to a panic, which led to this intrusive and inherently racist new law in Georgia. Anyone with a brain can see it will hamper Black voters and I really can’t understand why Alveda King would support such a law that, if anything makes it more difficult for people to stand up for themselves.
But that’s just me.
Fox's Alveda King spins voter ID laws as a continuation of the civil rights movement: "We fought against Jim Crow insisting 'give me my identity.' … So now to say you don't need an ID, you don't need an identity, why do you need an identity … please see me. Please know me." pic.twitter.com/jersLQX31R [6]
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) April 8, 2021 [7]
Alveda King and Ainsley Earhardt agree that voter ID laws are the continuation of MLK's legacy, because "we want to be identified as citizens of the United States of America who helped to build a grand nation." Ainsley adds, "your daddy and your uncle fought too hard for that." pic.twitter.com/yfRLZXCtSQ [8]
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) April 8, 2021 [9]