Article
11- Ending Institutional Support for Hatred
“1.
No government body, law, or regulation will sanction or reward racism
or ethnic hatred, religious bigotry, sexism, or other hatreds based
on linguicism (hatred or discrimination based on language) or
national or regional origin, whether intended or claimed to be
unintended.”
The
start of doctors' Hippocratic Oath is “First, do no harm.” For
most of American history, government deliberately did actively harm
nonwhites, and the US system was openly white supremacist. Besides
the obvious African slavery and genocide against American Indians,
the earliest immigration laws in the US restricted citizenship to
whites only. A racist immigration quota system was kept in place
until the late 1960s. Interracial marriage was banned and an
elaborate system of segregation put in place. Asians, starting with
Chinese, faced a series of Exclusion Acts. Native Hawaiians saw their
language banned as late as 1986, American Indians were punished for
speaking Native languages, and indigenous ceremonies were banned.
Social Security in the beginning did not cover farm workers or other
professions with a high number of Blacks, Latinos, and Natives. There
were special taxes aimed at Black businesses in the south, and
against Chinese and Mexicans in California (the Foreign Miner's Tax.)
Sometimes discrimination was simply petty, such as a ban on Manchu
hairstyles. Even most elementary schoolchildren know that nearly all
minorities faced bans or limitations on voting.
Some
of that discrimination continues today, with old fashioned
gerrymandering and voter ID laws squarely aimed at discouraging
minorities. Voting stations in inner cities are often old and
underserved, leading to long lines, or far away in rural areas with
mostly Blacks, Latinos, or Natives. At the same time, largely white
suburban polling stations are lavish and easy to access quickly.
Other
government sanctioned prejudices are far more recent than most
Americans realize. The US Department of Agriculture systematically
discriminated against Blacks and Natives, denied them credit and
disaster relief, had almost no minority employees, and delayed civil
rights claims as late as 2004.
The number of Black and Native owned farms dropped dramatically,
forcing many into low paying labor. The state
of Georgia currently
sells a special license plate that directly funds a white supremacist
group, the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
There are numerous de facto whites-only college practices, such as
legacy scholarships and admissions, that continue today.
Government
must no longer and never again be an institution for inequality or be
used by the bigoted to enforce their prejudices. This must be
safeguarded not only because of a long odious past, but because of an
equally ugly present, and a potentially ugly future. A number of
current presidential candidates call for a wall on the border with
Mexico, and some states have passed laws against the mythical threat
of Sharia law. A tide of intolerance could return, as it did after
September 11 when 80,000 males from 24 Muslim nations were forced to
register with the government. (Supposedly
done to prevent terrorism, not a single suspect was caught from this
profiling.) This article will act as a safeguard.
“2.
Nor shall any government fail to provide redress for longstanding
discrimination based on the previous.”
Those
who would try to use the previous clause to undermine government or
public efforts to end hatred and the harm it brings must be blocked.
One could easily see the ignorant, willfully blind, or maliciously
racist or sexist trying to use this article to claim Affirmative
Action or Title IX (aimed at preventing discrimination against women
in education) must end. Such an argument is not just false, it is
bigoted. Anti Title IX or Affirmative Action arguments assume that
all better jobs or benefits naturally “belong” to white males and
that women and minorities have inferior abilities.
This
clause goes beyond the previous one. The government is committed to
not only never causing or worsening bigotry, but to actively ending
such bigotries.
“3.
Any person or institution taking part in or promoting discrimination
based on the previous will result in that person or institution's
permanent inability to receive government jobs or benefits, including
licenses, grants, subsidies, retirement including pensions and Social
Security, tax deductions or credits, eligibility for public
assistance, student or business loans or credit.”
Much
like proposed Article 10, a bigot's First Amendment rights are not
being infringed upon by this proposal. All that is changing is that
such prejudices will no longer be supported by the state and public
money. A Klansman should not be a cop. A neo Nazi should not be
allowed to be a soldier. A Nation of Islam member should not be
teaching history at a public high school. For obvious reasons it is
dangerous and destructive to allow them to do so. Those dedicated to
the destruction of a large part of the people of this nation should
not benefit from its institutions, or be allowed to use those
institutions to harm others.
By
extension, the state and the public have the right to deny benefits
to members of the public based on their harmful actions. The obvious
precedent is drug laws. Federal law does not allow those with drug
convictions to receive federal student loans. One way this proposal
could be immediately used is to end public money going to groups
trying to “cure” gays of being homosexual.
Simply
having a private bigoted opinion will not result in being cut off.
But being a member of a hate group, media or other corporation
promoting and making money off hatred, or actively promoting
discrimination and hatred either as an individual, or part of a hate
group or corporation promoting hatreds, should lead to sanctions from
society and government against you.
The
biggest benefit to society will not be from preventing a militia
terrorist from getting military training, or even from keeping
racists off police forces. The biggest gain will be from blocking
corporations from profiting at public expense when they spread
stereotypes. Hollywood and news media will be
punished by this article far more than the far right, for they do far
more harm and spread far more hate.
Politicians also will face sanctions, for they will lose public
funding for a pattern of preaching bigotry.
Contrary
to some claims, changing behavior can and often does successfully
change even the deepest of bigoted opinions. Ending many forms of
legal segregation showed that. Whites who previously feared or hated
minorities discovered the world does not end when one shares the same
lunch counter. The percentage of Americans holding bigoted opinions
has dropped sharply. Where nearly nine-tenths of the public opposed
interracial dating and marriage in the 1960s, today less than a fifth
do. Racism can go the way of feudalism, as a system and mindset we
have to explain to students used to exist.
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