Would you pass?

[michaelboy]

We attended a presentation yesterday at the Underground Railroad Museum in nearby Flushing, OH.

Part of this involved an experiment with the audience attempting to fill-out a reproduction of a literacy test given in 1964 to potential Louisiana voters who could not prove at least a fifth grade education. If one question was missed, it was deemed a failure and consequently you were not permitted to vote.

Not one person in our entire group was able to pass within the allotted 10 minutes.

Obviously, the intent of this test wasn't to insure voter integrity and fairness but was really designed to be something much more treacherous.

Comments

[tactilemuse]

I really tried too and still couldn't get it done in that time frame let alone know that all my answers were right. Disgusting, insidious, horrific.

[michaelboy]

The room was full of highly educated participants and everyone struggled. It amazes me how unkind humans can be.

[tactilemuse]

I wish I could give the cruel people of the world even a fraction of the empathy I feel drowned by most days. How can you feel like we’re all better off when we’re all helping one another to succeed? (Big heavy sigh.)

[ofearthandstars]

It's really depressing, isn't it?

[michaelboy]

So insidiously unkind and unfair.