Wong, 1

Steven Bradley Wong

English 113A
Professor Batty
14 December 2014
Common Discrimination
The Voting Right Act became a law in the United States on August 6, 1965. Before that
law signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, all the black people had a hard time to get their
rights to vote. There were lots of issues that kept coming up to held them to vote. By using
several medias (such as political cartoons, songs, etc), there were so many people that were
trying to criticize this racism act. Furthermore, I am going to discuss one of the political cartoon
that talk about a racism act. I believe that this political cartoon was made to criticize the racism
act about the inequality in gaining the rights to vote in the United States.
The political cartoon that I want to discuss shows us a condition when the citizen wants
to vote at an election day. In the picture, we can see a white man is taking an escalator straight
to the voting cubical. Meanwhile, the political cartoon also shows a black man is standing on a
track to the voting cubical. In the cartoon, the black man seems very sad and shocked knowing
that he must overcome lots of challenges before he could vote. The artist of this cartoon shows us
that the African American must pass several requirements such as a literacy test, poll tax, etc.
The picture simply want to tells us that there was an inequality in order to gaining the
rights to vote in the United States before August 6, 1965. Even in the cartoon, we could also see
that there is a sherrif with his dog waiting for the black man. The sherrif (and even the dog)
seems very ready if the black man tried to pass them. It shows us that it is very possible and
usual for the police officer to put the African American into the jail with no reasons at that time.

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In addition to the explanation of this inequality, there are also some other challenges that
appear in this political cartoon. However, each of the challenges that the African American race
must overcome came from both government and society. For Instance, the government
established the Poll Tax, the Literacy Test, and the Grandfather Clause. Meanwhile, the society
came up with the Klu Klux Klan.
The first challenge for African American is the existence of the groups and the society
that keep active and pro with the racism. For example, the Klu Klux Klan (which also shown
by the artist) which was founded in 1866. It was originally made for a political purpose. After
they lost some of their elections, they started an underground campaign against the Republican
leaders and voters (white and black people). But, as the time goes on, this club attacked the black
people at the southern state which were the minorities.
The number of people that joined the club also made it became bigger and stronger. A
data said that the members of this club exceeded four million people nationwide during the
1920s. The large amount of members that spread out the nation did somehow affect the society
to act similar to them. Of course the blacks were outnumbered and suffered from it.
Another examples come from the story of Brent Staples in his essay Black Men and
Public Spaces. Staples as a black man also feels discriminated by the society. He acknowledge
that it is common for people to have a bad perceptions about a black male. Especially if they met
the black males in a narrow streets, bad neighborhood and during the night time. He tries to
accept the fact that people become more protective when he is near to them. In his essay, he tell
his experience when he was walking at an intersection during the nighttime. He realized that
suddenly all the car that stops at the intersection locked their cars from the inside while he was
walking on the side of the cars.

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Staples also tells us his experience when he was waiting for an interview and he went to a
jewelry store. Suddenly, the owner excused herself and returned with an enormous red
Doberman Pinscher. He then look around and greeted her goodnight. In the end, He realized that
people are scared to him for being suspicious. Therefore, he believe that by being less
suspicioous could make other feel more comfortable being near him. In the end, Staples chose to
whistle a song that full of colorful tune that will make hims less suspicious everytime he walks in
a bad area or during a nighttime. By knowing the experience from Brent Staples, now we know
that what society do tends to affect the Black Male daily activity.
Next, as an impact of the societys perspective, there come also the other challenge. In
the cartoon, we can see that white guy smiles and acts like nothing bad is happenning. The white
guy seems like thinking that it is fine for the society to treat the black guy like that. This action
become a proof that the white people tends to think that they are on the higher level than the
black people. The Slave Master relationship between them also became the foundation that
support this idea. Moreover, the artist of this political cartoon also describe the path with an
escalator (for the white man) and a track (for the black man). I believe that by doing so, the artist
want to show us that the Master (the white man) tends to need only a little effort to get
something that he wants. Meanwhile the Slave (the black man) needs so much effort to achieve
something.
Next, there are also some challenges that came up from the government. For Instance,
there is a Poll Tax which also shown in the cartoon. According to Smithsonian National
Museum of American Historys website, Poll Tax is a law that required all voter in a specific
area to pay for several ammount of money before the voter allowed to vote. Therefore, the
government could cut off lots of poor American people from the voter list.

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In Addition, the government also made the Literacy Test. This is a test that examines
whether a person has the skills to read and write or not. By doing so, the government want to
make sure that all the voter own the literacy skills to understand the law. Unfortunately, there are
so many uneducated American during that time. Therefore, again the government cuts off lots of
people from the voter list.
Even though the Poll Tax and the Literacy Test does not seems consist of racism act,
it still become a big challenge for the African American during that time. Unfortunately for the
African American, here comes the next racism act by the government that related to the Poll
Tax and the Literacy Test. The government passed a Law called the Grandfather Clause.
This law means that all voter could be exempt from the Poll Tax and the Literacy Test is
their grandfather had voted before. This law affect the chance for White American who does not
pass the both test allowed to vote. Meanwhile, it will less likely happened to the African
American because there are only some of their Grandfather that were allowed to vote before.
Therefore, as the time goes on, the tensions between the African American and the White
American become keep increasing.
Overall, this political cartoon has a lots of information that could show us about a racism
act between White American and African American during the voting time. In the end, I could
conclude that the artist of this political cartoon perfectly explain the true condition during that
time.

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Works Cited
Staples ,Brent. Black Men and Public Space. One Hundred Great Essays.Third ed. N.p.:
Joseph Opiela, 2008.182-86.Print
Klu Klux Klan. History Channel. n.p. n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
Voting Rights Act. History Channel. n.p. n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
Segregated America Smithsonian National Museum of American History. n.p. n.d. Web. 13
Dec. 2014.

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Appendix

Political cartoon Retrieved from:

http://anjaneescartoons.blogspot.com/2012/03/week-1.html