"Literacy" test for the right to vote in Louisiana 1964

[packman]

Complete 3 page test and article at:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/06/28/voting_rights_and_the_supreme_court_the_impossible_literacy_test_louisiana.html

[Afromania]

1. complete and utter fucking bullshit, 10 minutes my ass.

[ffr]

2. I know of at least one tRumpster who'd fail this test.

And many of those that are a little more intelligent than that, might get tripped up by it too.

It's a double-edge sword.

[ATL Ebony]

18. The first that comes to mind is the "moran" guy. No wonder they hate POC -- they're too intelligent

and amplify tRumpsters' ignorance.

[ck4829]

3. I have a college education and working on a second degree, I've tutored ESL students, and...

am bilingual... and I don't think I could do this in ten minutes.

It's incredibly ambiguous and it punishes you for over-thinking, and if the person looking at the test was a real tool, the ambiguity would also work against you as well ("nothing more, nothing less, it said draw a cross, you drew a t, no vote for you" ).

[gratuitous]

13. The ambiguity is a feature, not a bug

That way, the elections person administering the "test" can decide who passes and who fails without even looking at the test. I'm going to guess that there was also no way for a person to appeal a denial of his right to vote, and they weren't allowed to keep a copy of their "failed" test as evidence of bias.

Unless that person wanted to be known to the powers that be as a troublemaker. Or uppity.

[ck4829]

15. Indeed.

[DonaldsRump]

4. It's actually riddled with typos, missing punctuation, and incorrect grammar!

What a bunch of evil hypocrites to do this. And not very bright ones at that.

[DetlefK]

5. No. 6 has two answers, No. 10 lacks "a priori" information, No. 19 ...

No. 19 does not have enough drawing-space to properly draw the answer.

And I didn't understand No. 30. Maybe a word is missing from the question.

Oh, and you have 10 minutes for this test. That's 20 seconds per exercise and anybody with teaching-experience can tell that this is not enough for such an exam. With all the drawing and writing you need about 20 minutes.



Give that exam to any high-schooler and about a third of them would fail.

[JoeStuckInOH]

6. I smell covfefe, here. Too many typos & errors. You sure this particular test is real?

Or is this just an exaggerated example? I'm not saying LA wasn't racist in the 60's ... hell, they were lynching people. But this test rates as utterly absurd. Even by racist 1960's standards. Heck, this would be absurd for 1860's standards.

[TeamPooka]

7. The absurdity of the test is why it exists

[JoeStuckInOH]

8. Yeah, but this is Mel Brooks / Monty Python level rediculousness embodied on a test.

I'm highly skeptical.

[packman]

9. Article cited as real -

Test used in Supreme Court ruling

[TeamPooka]

10. Southern Whites went to great lengths to keep Black people from voting. Why don't you believe that?

[Orrex]

14. That's kind of a shitty thing to post

Maybe you should consider editing or deleting.

[TeamPooka]

16. You are the one who admitted he was skeptical the test was real. Perhaps you should not display

your historical ignorance so boldly.

[mountain grammy]

22. That's

r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s-n-e-s-s Spelling has to count on this thread.

[EL34x4]

20. Yep. My BS detector is pinging as well. (n/t)

[Madam Mossfern]

11. Ah,the old

Paris in the the Spring gambit.
I don't think anyone could pass this - how can you draw a curved line that has a straight part?
Or maybe I misunderstood that question?

I have a post graduate degree.

[TeamPooka]

17. That's the point. No one can pass and get to vote. That is the desired outcome of the people who

designed the test.

[yardwork]

19. "One wrong answer denotes failure of the test."

This is how African Americans, uppity women, and other undesirables were prevented from voting. The person administering the test failed everybody they wanted to fail.

[ATL Ebony]

21. K&R This small bit of reality/history smacked so hard it brought tears to my eyes.

For 2 reasons: (1) that my southern ancestors were made to feel so inferior based on this test alone; and (2) the blood shed for the right to overcome this injustice and people still don't exercise their right to vote.