The Voting Rights Act is meant as a harpoon to the Great White Whale of systematic racism in the United States. And we're using that Moby Dick metaphor lightly: the people who drafted this act were sane; Captain Ahab was a little less so.
The ultimate goal of the Civil Rights Acts of the mid '60s was to work to bring about racial equality in the United States, and equal access to voting would, hopefully, give voters of disenfranchised races more power to affect change.
Questions About Equality
- Are the Federal Government and State Governments given equal power under this act?
- Should the Federal Government and State Governments have an equality of power?
- Is access to voting enough of an assurance of equality on its own?
- Did the Civil Rights Acts of the '60s ensure racial equality?
Chew on This
There are two different kinds of equality that are important to understand. The first is equality to access, such as: every American born citizen is legally able to run for president at some point—everyone has the right, and nobody can technically stop you from doing so. The second of these, always more difficult to hit, is equality of results, which is where systemic discrimination always comes into play. Your race, your economic status, where you live, all of these can fundamentally change how hard it is to succeed or not, regardless of what laws are on the book preventing or ensuring your access.
Building off the previous topic, the Voting Rights Act is far more concerned with equality of results. Equality of access, in theory, should have been ensured with the 15th Amendment, but due to a web of local prejudice and loophole dodging results were effectively denied for a century. Laws need to look past how to promise equal access, but ensure equal results as well.