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Florida's Shame and the Limits of ChangeSome people can only stand so much change at one time
November 5, 2008 - "Change" was in the air last night, as president-elect Barack Obama observed in his acceptance speech at Chicago's Grant Park. But on the eve of Obama's history-making victory, some corners of the country were approaching change cautiously. In the state of Florida, veering hard-blue for Obama and a House-seat pick-up, "change" looks to have been a case of "two steps forward, one step back". Without taking anything away from the extraordinary fact of Obama's election, where Americans of all backgrounds pushed past the boundaries of old, superficial race prejudice to elect a mixed race 44th president, it would be premature to start linking arms and singing "Kumbayah" just yet. Florida's Amendment 1, for one instance, referred to by Miami Herald columnist Fred Grimm as "an IQ test for the Florida electorate," went down in defeat last night. A largely symbolic initiative, its passage would have formally repealed a 1926 anti-Asian amendment, one of several so-called Asian Land Laws introduced by "Yellow Peril-era" Asian exclusionists barring "aliens ineligible for citizenship" -- which effectively targeted Asians, who were specifically and solely "ineligible for citizenship" by virtual of nationality and race -- from buying and owning real estate. Opponents of the amendment argued that it was unnecessary because that 1926 rule was no longer enforceable, but also positioned it to suggest that the law could apply to illegal immigration or some vague future "terrorists". Along with the proposed amendment's confusing wording, the arguments ("lacking even a smidgen of intellectual support," Grimm observes) were apparently enough to convince a majority of Floridians to specifically opt to keep an outdated, unenforceable artifact of anti-Asian racism as an official part of their state constitution. It's a little like discovering a rule in your books, say, prohibiting Blacks from voting. Hey, obviously ancient history, given that we just elected a half-Black president. Still, maybe we better keep it around "just in case". You never know when it might come in handy for the next batch of folks we don't like… As Grimm predicted, though, this vote that should have been a no-brainer was probably in trouble from the start. "Less than 60 percent voter approval will qualify us as a gaggle of dolts," he wrote. "Therefore, I predict Florida voters will reject Amendment 1. Never underestimate our essential doltness." Not incidentally, Florida also joined California, Arizona, and Arkansas last night in passing a bumper crop of panicky amendments against various aspects of gay families. Florida's amendment -- a gay marriage ban -- passed by a whopping margin, at 62% to 38% according to CNN's projections, with 99% of precincts in. Change is a terrific buzzword, but it seems that people can only take so much change at one time. Allowing the 1926 anti-Asian law to stand, impotent and hateful, should be considered a mark of shame on the state. 'Nuff said.
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