A chain letter

I can picture the comments.

I'm going to be real, just for a second. The Constitution, and logical extrapolations therefrom, are no guarantee of your rights. Read it and find a reference to sex…there is none. Yet women (who fit the definition of citizen) needed an amendment to get the right to vote. And when they did, Black women should have gained that right as well, yet they didn't.

Hate to tell ya, but your rights exist within the context of the social agreement currently active.

Subject: Camille Cosby's Speech (this is an important must read)
Date: Sun, September 7, 2003

Below you will find a speech that Bill Cosby's wife gave at a function. Everyone please read this and pass it on to as many African Americans you come in contact with.

Camille Cosby just made a reference about the Voting Rights Act in her most recent open letter on racism. This is extremely important.

We are quickly approaching the 21st Century and we were wondering, and when I say 'we', I mean others of us out there who wonder if everyone else out there knows what the significance of the year 2007 is to Black America?

Did you know that our right to VOTE will expire in the year 2007? Seriously! The Voters Rights Act signed in 1965 by Lyndon B. Johnson was just an ACT. It was not made a law.

In 1982, Ronald Reagan amended the Voters Rights Act for another 25 years. Which means that in the year 2007 we could lose the Right to vote!

Does anyone realize that African Americans are the only group of people who require PERMISSION under the United States Constitution to vote! In the year 2007, Congress will once again convene to decide whether or not Blacks should retain the rights to vote (crazy but true).

In order for this to be passed, 38 states will have to approve an extension. This is ludicrous! Not only should the extension be approved, but also the ACT must be made a law. Our right to vote should no longer be up for discussion, review and/or evaluation.

We must contact our Congress-persons, Senators, Alderpersons, etc., to put a stop to this! As bona fide Citizens of the United States, we cannot "drop the ball" on this one! We have come too far to let government make us take such a huge step backward. So please, let us push forward to continue to build the momentum towards gaining equality.
--------------------

The Voting Rights Act was extended in 1970, 1975, and 1982. See http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title8/cvr00019.htm

Please pass this on to others, as we are sure that many more individuals are not aware of this. I urge all of you that are able to contact those in government that have your vote and make them aware of our combined concern for this issue.

One voice!…..One Vote! You cannot complain if you do not participate…..local, State & national…

When I received this one I had no choice but to pass it on. Please do the same.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on March 10, 2004 - 5:19pm :: Race and Identity
 
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I'm always suspicious of Internet chain letters, so I googled the Voting Rights Act and came up with message about just this rumor on the NAACP (Detroit branch) webpage: http://www.detroitnaacp.org/politics/voting.asp...

In part it says (edited for space):

Rumors are running rampant (mostly via the internet) that when provisions of the Voting Rights Act expire in the year 2007, African Americans will lose their right to vote. This rumor is completely false!

The majority of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and specifically the portions that guarantee that no one may be denied the right to vote because of his or her race or color, are ... permanent.

These �extraordinary remedies� (allowing the U.S. Attorney General to send in people to register voters when the local authorities refused to register Americans because of the color of their skin and allowing the U.S. Attorney to send federal observers to monitor elections) are the only portion of this important Act that is, at risk of not continuing to be the law of the land.

African Americans are not going to lose their right to vote in the year 2007 when certain provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 expire.

Posted by  don (not verified) on March 10, 2004 - 8:56pm.

Cool. I'll send that link back down the chain.

Although my additional comments weren't wrong.

Posted by  P6 (not verified) on March 10, 2004 - 9:04pm.

On delving into this a little further, it appears that the chain letter itself is a hoax, according to hoaxinfo.com, sent out in Feb. 2001. The email uses several comments out of context from a piece that Camille Cosby wrote in USA Today in 1998 concerning the murder of her son Ennis, which can be read here: http://www.cultural-expressions.com/thesis/cosby.htm

Posted by  don (not verified) on March 10, 2004 - 9:11pm.

I actually find Camille Cosby's original comments much more thought provoking and to the point than those of the author(s) of the chain letter.

Posted by  don (not verified) on March 10, 2004 - 9:17pm.

You know you're having way too much fun watching me be wrong here, don't you? :-)

I remember that essay. I had a long email conversation with David Horowitz behind it that convinced me of his intellectual bankruptcy.

Posted by  P6 (not verified) on March 10, 2004 - 11:33pm.