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submitted 1 year ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org
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[-] alyaza@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

By these people not voting, we assume that they are OK with how things are going in their state. In which case, they asked for it.

people have already chimed in but, as just one example of how not-clearcut this is: Florida essentially refused to implement a policy which was democratically passed that enfranchised felons. Florida has over 1 million felons, a disproportionate number of whom are black and would otherwise likely vote Democratic. when they finally had to implement the policy, they made it much harder for felons to be re-enfranchised (against the will of voters)—such that in practice, the state maintains a ban on voting while being a felon which disproportionately impacts Democratic voters. you cannot seriously blame people for the situation the state is in, except in a very abstract sense.

[-] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Unless I'm mistaken, the vast majority of the people who own houses, and therefore stand to lose them, are middle-class white people with no criminal record, not black people or felons.

[-] alyaza@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago

i have absolutely no idea what point you're trying to raise here when the context of the conversation is whether the people of Florida, collectively, deserve to suffer for voting in the wrong guy when:

  1. the vast majority of them explicitly didn't vote for the guy, and;
  2. large—and literally decisive—numbers of them were legally disenfranchised from voting against the guy and continue to be disenfranchised under Florida law. DeSantis won the gubernatorial election in 2018 by approximately 32,000 votes against a million felons, many of whom are Black.
[-] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago

My argument is that the people who now stand to lose their homes are not the same people who have been disenfranchised.

Black felons did not vote for DeSantis, but the wealthy white law-abiding homeowners who are now losing their homes did vote for DeSantis, unless I'm mistaken.

[-] alyaza@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

My argument is that the people who now stand to lose their homes are not the same people who have been disenfranchised.

then that's a fundamentally incorrect understanding of the situation and of how class and race disparities are going to play out during the climate crisis. white, middle-class homeowners aren't going to lose their homes—and if they do they're just going to move because they have the capital to do that even at a loss. the people who are going to lose their homes, or who will be stuck in their position even if they need to leave will overwhelmingly be Florida's working poor and minority groups. this has been the story of every natural disaster in that part of the country. take, for example, Hurricane Harvey:

Among black Texans impacted by the storm, 60 percent say they are not getting the help they need. That compares to 40 percent of Hispanic respondents and 33 percent of white respondents.

Half of respondents with lower incomes say they’re not getting the help they need, compared 32 percent of people with higher incomes. The survey classified people into two income groups — those making double the poverty-level income and those making less than that threshold. Twice the poverty level is an income of $24,280 for a single person and $50,200 for a family of four.

Meanwhile, 27 percent of Hispanic respondents affected by Harvey said their previous homes remain unlivable. Twenty percent of black respondents and 11 percent of white respondents said their previous homes cannot be lived in. And 27 percent of Texans earning lower incomes say their previous homes aren’t safe, while only 9 percent of higher earners said the same thing.

this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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