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Some people say that because there are no more racist laws, there’s no racism in the system. This is not a realistic belief. Changing laws doesn’t automatically change people.
Here’s how recently people have voted for the express purpose of keeping racist laws; I’m using laws against interracial marriage as an example. In the 1800s and 1900s, most states had laws against interracial marriage.
In the late 50s, a white man married a “colored” woman; in doing so, the couple, Richard and Mildred Loving, violated Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act. The police raided their home and arrested them as they lay in bed.
Are you picturing this? A couple is in their own bed, in their own house, and then the police bust in and arrest them for being Married-While-Not-Both-SameRace.
After several courts ruled that this law was totally okay, the Supreme Court eventually heard the case and ruled that it was unconstitutional for States to forbid interracial marriage. That was in 1967.
So. This means all the states amended their own Constitutions, right? And it was no longer written in State Constitutions that interracial marriage was illegal?
Nope.
Not only Nope, but do you know how long it took for some states to repeal their laws? As recently as the year 2000. And it wasn’t even close to unanimous.
Here are the final three States to repeal the law against interracial marriage, and the percentage of voters that opposed repealing the law:
Mississippi repealed the law in 1987. Only 52% of votes made up the majority. That means that 48% of Mississippi voters voted against interracial marriage in 1987.
Half of Mississippi was saying Keep the racist law. They did not want that racist law to go away; they wanted that racist law to stay. They were given a choice: racist law vs. non-racist law. Half of the state chose racism.
And just because the law was repealed doesn’t mean that the 48% were suddenly like, OMG racism is bad. The racists didn’t disappear.
Repealing racist laws doesn’t repeal racists.
South Carolina repealed their law in 1998. The majority was 62%. In 1998, 38% of SC voters voted against interracial marriage. And they didn’t disappear, either.
But here’s the kicker. Here’s the one that just doesn’t seem like it could possibly have happened so recently.
Alabama did not repeal the law until 2000. The majority was 59%. In the year 2000, 41% of Alabaman voters voted AGAINST interracial marriage.
THOSE 41%, IN THE YEAR 2000, WERE SAYING, WE WANT TO KEEP THE RACIST LAWS. DON’T TAKE AWAY OUR RACIST LAWS.
And that 41% didn’t disappear.
Despite the federal law having changed already, all of those people in those States (and many more in the years prior, between 1967 and 1987), voted to keep the racist laws in their state constitutions. They wanted to keep racist laws even after the federal government said they couldn’t enforce them.
They wanted to keep racist laws.
In the year 2000.
Because racism.
