Earlier this month, the Supreme Court further hollowed out the Voting Rights Act, continuing a decades-long project of dismantling the legal infrastructure that protected Black suffrage. Observing the responses to the decision, The Nation’s Elie Mystal noted the distinct tenor of celebration from conservatives delighted at the possibility of vanquishing Black political power through gerrymandering.
Now the right-wing media ecosystem appears ready for the next phase of the project. If Black political gains are to be rolled back, then the historical basis for those gains must also be discredited. The Civil Rights Movement cannot remain a sacred democratic triumph if modern conservatives hope to argue that anti-discrimination laws represented a constitutional mistake.
