Yeah WHOOPTY FUCKING DO FOR THEM! Now they can truly have a say in FUCK ALL.
You call them Americans. For a couple of hundred years. Now: did a slave have US citizenship? I could be wrong but I don't think they did.
Now, without bringing stupid sensationalist bullshit into it, which might be hard for you, lets get real:
Is it right that people who pay taxes in what they believe to be a democracy have their ability to vote dictated by accidents of birth? No, it is not right.
Is it right that anyone is discriminated against in ANY way by accident of birth? No it is not
( BTW, before someone who cannot count past 10 with his shoes on wades in, accident means unplanned event, and since noone planned their skin colour previous to their birth, I think it is an accurate word, and does NOT imply that being any particular colour is a negative, since accident is used predominantly in a negative context in our day and age.)
That being written, let's look at this issue, if you like: Black US citizens (Don't write Americans, please, in this case at least, since the US is pretty fucking backward when it comes to civil rights in the Americas) were not being allowed to vote. They were taxed yet excluded from many activities and venues...
I'm not surprised they wanted to be equal. I'm surprised that they didn't do it sooner, with violence. I know I fucking would have. All they needed was the organisation. But let's not forget that once they brought their plight into media spotlight, it was white middle class people who took up their fight, just decent people who were not affected by the events but felt that to discriminate against someone for something that is not their choice is wrong. I couldn't agree more. And it's great to see how those poor black minorities used that new political freedom to bring political, economic and social equality to their people, and how it led to the end of the black ghetto in the great United States. Wait a minute... It didnt do any of that. They are still poor, underrepresented in goverment, and live in the shadow of immense covert rascism. Sometimes less covert than others.
But that's beside the point: I'm not arguing for a racial devide, and trying to equate my points with these photos is farcical at best. I'm happy that we don't live in a time when this overt rascism was the norm. And I'm guessing you are too. But here's a thing: if we did live back then, I would still think a racial devide is a crime, but I don't know that you would. You are a product of your surroundings, at least your outward persona here on forums is. As an example of such, I present, this thread: when you can clearly read that I am advocating a removal of democracy or at least it's more bullshit trappings, you throw a completely unrelated topic into the discussion that will garner you popular opinion, despite it being 1/ unrelated and 2/ fucking sickening.
Now, that kind of argument tactic is highly prevalent amongst your society, we see it from the lowest form of argument (convos such as this one, where you try to lambast my point with some throwbacks to your racist past) to the highest public address (Whole for-profit wars that ruin countries and lives being hailed as a war on terror and a strike for freedom). I guess it's pointless to argue with you, if it ever got to the point when you finally ran out of diversion tactics you would simply stick your fingers in your ears and start chanting "For Legs Good, Two Legs Bad"... oh wait, sorry "Murica, Freedom, Etc" ad naseum.
And since you made this a civil rights issue with you photos: Let's look at rights. It is your right to vote. It is also your right to not vote. Oh, plenty spin the line "Its your duty to vote" or "If you dont vote you dont have a say in things" but lets be realistic: voting perpetuates a system that everyone distrusts at some point, noone who is not a child believes this system to be just or accountable, and no real change has ever come from inside the political machine. To send a real point, and excersize your right, chose not to vote, if you all did it then you could send a real message.
Or don't, go ahead and vote for whoever's lies you like the smell of more. I cannot make you do something, nor would I want to. I hold many legal passports, but I have never voted. When there is a real choice on the table, maybe I will reconsider, but I refuse to choose between Lukewarm Bullshit and Fresh Steaming Bullshit.
PS: also, anyone who votes to the right is a fucking idiot, no exceptions, the past cannot be the future, it doesn't work that way. Shit is linear.
EDIT:
Damn BlindGuy look at those people wanting to vote despite your posts. Better take a walk around 1950s Alabama and teach them a lesson with all your white buddies.
I hadn't read the last couple of words: Sure mate, I guess I'm white... Not white enough to avoid being called a gyppo... and tbh, I don't know if I could have voted back then, did they use a colour chart or something to determine who was light enough to vote, or what? Did they just ask you shit like "Hey man, you wanna vote? You don't like watermelon do you?" or some other such rascist shit? I have no clue. If it was a chart, I might have passed, who knows... My old man's school pic shows him sat next to the aboriginal kids and he doesn't look out of place if I'm honest.
But as to going back to 1950's: I wouldn't mind, I'm colourblind, so I guess I would fit right in back then since it seems pretty monochrome.
