Jonathan Blanks reflects on the history of black disenfranchisement, coining his "new nigger rule" inspired by comedian Paul Mooney:
A NNR is a legal or administrative procedure which is enforced with benign pretense, yet has the demonstrable effect of abetting racism, prejudice, or otherwise just screwing the black guy. Historical examples include, but are not limited to, the Grandfather Clause, poll taxes, and literacy/constitutional knowledge tests to vote.
Goldie Taylor offers some of her own historical context:
"Show me your papers!"
Major Blackard, then just 19 years old, dug into his trousers in search of his wallet. He padded his jacket, but could not find his billfold.
"Sir, I done left my wallet..." Blackard said. Before he could finish his sentence, the young man was posted against the brick wall, cuffed and taken to the St. Louis city jail. Unable to prove his identity, he would spend the next 21 days in a cramped, musty cell. That's where his older brother Matt found him, beaten and bloodied. Matt returned with Major's employer later that day, wallet and identification card in hand, to post bond.
The year was 1899. Major Blackard was my great, great grandfather.
As Taylor notes, lack of personal identification was one of the methods used in the aftermath of slavery to force black people back into a broad system of involuntary servitude through the criminal justice system. The 13th Amendment may have abolished slavery, but as Douglas Blackmon explains in his book, Slavery By Another Name, the system that succeeded it in the South was in some ways just as pervasive and frequently brutal. Whatever legal claim to equal citizenship black people had was made irrelevant in practice. The point of such practices was to prevent emancipation from altering the established racial caste system--to deny black people access to political power, entrepreneurship and self-government.
Responding to the president's decision to release copies of his original birth certificate yesterday, Michael Scherer wrote that the birthers wouldn't be satisified because "seek an emotionally satisfying outlet for their fury at their country’s decline, the decade-long collapse in the credibility of its institutions, and the rapidly changing demographic makeup of its leadership."
I think America's demography is changing less rapidly than people think--or rather, that internal shifts in how we view racial identity will perpetuate the status quo for longer than we anticipate. But I do think there's a connection between the obsession with the president's birth certificate and the broader trend at the state level of instituting strict immigration laws that, like Arizona, have the de-facto effect of forcing Latino residents to carry around proof of citizenship at all times.
The unfounded rumors regarding the president's citizenship that lead to demands for his papers, and the Arizona-style immigration laws that would force Latino Americans to retain theirs at all times, reflect a creeping suspicion among some whites, at a time of job loss and austerity, that non-whites are gaining at their expense in a zero-sum battle for political power and resources. Hardcore birthers, (as opposed to those who have simply been misled by sources they trust) can't be sated because they believe Obama has no such claim. Likewise, for many Arizona-style immigration laws are an attempt to restrict access to American abundance to those who are "truly deserving," but their effect on those who genuinely are American citizens but are not white is minimized because their claim is believed to be weaker anyway. This is deeply frustrating because of how a sensible immigration policy could lead to mutual gain both for Americans and immigrants, but that realization has yet to take hold. As a country, we are increasingly demanding that non-whites literally prove that they "belong here," that they have a legitimate claim to American prosperity.
This thread runs throughout history. When America wants to restrict opportunity and remind minorities to stay in their place, it asks for their papers.
