Voting Rights U.S

Question 1

As of Oct 20th, how many states have enacted how many voting rIghts infringing laws just this year?

Answer 1

18 states have enacted 30 laws which infringe upon people’s right to vote.

Question 2

On Oct 2021, what was for the third time blocked by Senate republicans?

Answer 2

Republicans for the third time blocked a comprehensive voting rights bill which aimed at thwarting efforts by states to infringe upon people’s right to vote,.

Question 3

What are the ideas circulating around washington regarding senate operations and rules as a result of the tgird blocking of a conpregensive voting rights bill?

Answer 3

The classic idea of getting rid of the fillibuster, although Biden does not support this whatsoever but there is talk of limiting how many times a fillibuster may be conducted. There is also talk of stopping the fillibuster for this particular occasion of voting rights.

Question 4

What is one cause for the Supply Chain Crisis?

Answer 4

Our economy pre pandemic (and consequently the supply chain) was set up to follow a trend whereby services dominated spending at a steady rate. The pandemic has created a situation whereby spending on goods is growing while spending on services is dwindling. dominatedSince services make up 70% of U.S spending,

Question 5

In South Carolina, what is a form of gerrymandering which has persisted to this day which has already been called unconstitutional by supreme court precedent?

Answer 5

Malapportionment, which sees wide gulfs in district populations across legislative and congressional districts. Malapportionment was struck down in the supreme court in 1964’s Reynolds v. Sims and Wesberry v. Sanders.

Question 6

What lawsuit has the ACLU and NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed in the October 2021?

Answer 6

They are alleging that South Carolina is attempting to use malapportionment to run down the clock in the 2022 general election. It remains to be seen if the five justices are willing to uphold Reynolds v Wesberry.

Question 7

How bad was malapportionment in the 60s?

Answer 7

In 10 states, the largest House District was more than 2x that of the smallest district in terms of population. In Texas it was 4x, in Michigan it was a startling 7x.

Question 8

How was malapportionment done in the 60s, or better put, how was it planned and organized?

Answer 8

Malapportionment was made so that minorities would be packed in Urban cities into huge districts while rural whites were given smaller but equally coercive voting positions in greater amounts. For example, if you lived in Vermont’s smallest House District in the 60s, your vote counted about 868x more than that of the resident in the smallest town district.

Question 9

What was the decision re

Question 10

What is redlining, put most simply?

Answer 10

The systematic denial of various services to residents of specific, often racially associated, neighborhoods or communities, either explicitly or through the selective raising of prices.

Question 11

What is reverse redlining?

Answer 11

Reverse redlining is when a lender or insurer targets nonwhite or blockbusted neighborhoods to charge them more than in a non-redlined neighborhood where there is more competition, only to approve loans or insurance to nonwhite borrowers to artificially restrict the supply of real estate available for loanable funds and charge them higher interest rates.

Question 12

Who coined the term redlining?

Answer 12

Sociologist John McKnight

Question 13

What is redlining known as in academic literature?

Answer 13

It falls under the category of credit rationing.

Question 14

When did redlining begin?

Answer 14

When the US passed the National Housing Act of 1934 it came to the fore and was subsequently bolstered by the establishement of the Federal Housing Administration in 1934 as well.

Question 15

How did the FHA start redlining?

Answer 15

It was pioneered by Homer Hoyt, the FHA’s Chief Land Economist, as part of an initiative to develop the first underwriting criteria for mortgages.

Question 16

What is underwriting?

Answer 16

underwriting is the process a lender uses to evaluate the risk of giving credit

Question 17

What was really the icing on the cake?

Answer 17

In 1935, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board asked the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation to look at about 250 cities and create “residential security maps” to indicate the level of securitu for real estte investments in each city.

Question 18

Was the HOLC doing this intentionally?

Answer 18

It didnt look like it was a coordinated effort but rather the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation had to adhere to the private sector’s racism.

Question 19

How did the FHA explicitly contribute tot the practice of redlining?

Answer 19

Private organizations needed to create maps designed to meet the requirements of the FHA’s underwriting manual. The FHA instructed banks to steer clear of areas with “inharmonious racial groups.”

Question 20

How did the FHA explicitly contribute tot the practice of redlining?

Answer 20

Private organizations needed to create maps designed to meet the requirements of the FHA’s underwriting manual. The FHA instructed banks to steer clear of areas with “inharmonious racial groups” and encouraged munipalities to enact racially restricitive zoning ordinances.

Question 21

How much in federally insured home loans did African Americans receive between 1945 and 1959?

Answer 21

2% of all federally insured home loans.

Question 22

Was it only banks and mortgage lenders who were redlining in the mid 20th century?

Answer 22

Property insurance companies were also greatly active in redlining practices after ww2.

Question 23

What was some action taken in the 70s?

Answer 23

The National People’s Action was founded in 1973 to broaden the fight against divestment. and mortgage redlining in neighborhoods all around the country.

Question 24

Who was targeted by the NPA?

Answer 24

The Federal Home Loan Bank Board , the governing authority over federally chartered Savings and loan Associations that held at that time the bulk of the country’s home mortgages.

Question 25

What is blockbusting?

Answer 25

Deceptive encouragement of white flight from neighborhoods in order to buy up real estate at a huge discount and then rent to low-income, usually black tenants.

Question 26

What was the major achievment if the NPA and its affiliates?

Answer 26

The disclosure of lending practices with the passage of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975. It also managed to, with this new data, to begin working on reinvesting in redlined areas. This helped gain passage of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act.

Question 27

What was the Fair Housing Act of 1968?

Answer 27

It was a piece of legislation which sought to fight the practice of redlining. It made it unlawful to discriminate in teh terms, conditions, or priveleges of sale of a dwelling because of race or national origin.

Question 28

Who enforced Fair Housing Act of 1968?

Answer 28

the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity

Question 29

What is the Equal Credit Opportunity Act?

Answer 29

It is a United States law that makes it unlawful for any creditor to discriminate against any applicant , with respect to any aspect of credit transaction, on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex marital status, or age. This law applies to any person who, in the ordinary course of business, regularly participates in a credit decision, including banks, retailers, bankcard companies, finance companies, and credit unions. Liability or punitive damages can be as much as 10,000 in individual actions and the leser of 500000- or 1% of the creditior’s net worth in class actions.

Question 30

What are the most persistently racially segregated communities?

Answer 30

City of Chicago, Detroit, Houston, and Atlanta.

Question 31

How much is the racial wealth gap?

Answer 31

Black families in america earn $57.30 for every $100 in income by white families, according to the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. For every $100 in white family wealth, black families hold just $5.04. In 2016, the median wealth for black and Hispanic families was $17,600 and 20,700 respectively, compared to white families’ median wealth of $171,000

Question 32

What does redlining effect?

Answer 32

Homeownership rates, home values and credit scores.

Question 33

What was the ruling arrived at in Reynolds v. Wesberry?

Answer 33

A ruling which established the principle of one person one vote, establishing the precedent that districting should reflect this ideology and just ratio. The courts compelled states to redraw their districts in an equal manner every decennial census.

Question 34

What is South Carolina doing in 2022 which is not a direct act of malapportionment but still counts as malapportionment?

Answer 34

Not obeying the precedent of redistricting every decennial, instead choosing to not provide a timeline for redrawing of districts, effectively ignoring changes in population that have occured over the span of a decade. This hands off approach is an indirect way of malapportioning which can be found to have no actual intent.

Question 35

What are the exact stats on South Carolina’s malapportionment strategy?

Answer 35

The state’s first congressional district is 12% overpopulated, with 818,893 residents, and teh 6th congressional district is 12% underpopulated with just 646,463 . The 45th house district is twice as large as three other districts.

Question 36

What is the Purcell principle and how has it been used to undermine voting rights and pro-voting rights legislation?

Answer 36

The Purcell principle states that state governments or any other elected legislative body may not change election procedure last minute.

Question 37

What was Rucho vs Common clause in 2019?

Answer 37

It effectively closed the door on Supreme Court review on political gerrymandering questions, stating that the court has no say in such political questions and they are better left to political branches. In making this argument, conservative justices evinced quiet skepticism towards Reynolds v. Sims and Wesberry v. Sanders.

Question 38

In 1991, what was resolution 687 by the UN Security Council?

Answer 38

687 was a resolution to end sanctions on Iraq once compliance was obtained and to move unanimously to rid Hussein of any WMDs. The United Stateds did not agree to 687, and neither was it even going to think about Article 14 which sought to de-nuclearize remove WMDs from the WHOLE Middle East.

Question 39

What message did Colin Powell deliver to the UN security council regarding the invasion of Iraq?

Answer 39

Colin Powell essentially said that U.S military force is not subservient towards any international jurisdiction, that there were no need topics to discuss because the U.S had made its own decision, ending with “If the rest of the Council wants to catch up with us, we might stop briefly to sign on the dotted line.”

Question 40

How determined was Bush in invading Iraq?

Answer 40

He did not care what the UN agreed upon, he said that even if Hussein leaves the country, even if he demilitarizes, the United States will still go to war with Iraq and install teh regime of its preference.

Question 41

What is an interesting relationship between Iraq and North Korea as regards U.S military strategy and global consciousness?

Answer 41

Once the U.S declares Iraq as the axis of evil, one begins to wonder why North Korea has not been given the same treatment as iraq. The lesson which resounds globally is that North Korea has WMDs and is protected by them. The only way towards self determination in the world of this rogue state seeking hegemony is to develop WMDs, which will lead to perpetual wars as the United States has been fond of “preventative wars” as far back as the 50s.