Unmasking “ignorance”

ABSTRACT

Recent years have seen rising public talk around voting access and voter suppression, particularly as linked to marginalized and disenfranchised populations. In this reflection, we assess varied such public conversations and identify an interesting narrative encapsulating both those arguing voter suppression as a rising concern and those minimizing such claims. Organized around “ignorance,” this metanarrative does the rhetorical work of containment.

KEYWORDS:

• Race
• racial containment
• whiteness

Notes

1 Clark Birdsall, attorney, qtd. in Michael Wines, “Illegal Voting Gets Texas Woman 8 Years in Prison, and Certain Deportation.” New York Times, February 10, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/us/illegal-voting-gets-texas-woman-8-years-in-prison-and-certain-deportation.html.

2 Wines, “Illegal Voting.”

3 Sandra E. Garcia, “Texas Woman Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Voter Fraud Loses Bid for New Trial,” New York Times, June 13, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/us/texas-woman-voter-fraud.html.

4 Jack Healy, “Arrested, Jailed, and Charged with a Felony. For Voting.” New York Times, August 2, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/us/arrested-voting-north-carolina.html.

5 Reports name nine of the 12 as Black. See, for instance, Lynn Bonner, “Felony Charges of Illegal Voting Dismissed for Five NC Residents,” News & Observer, August 13, 2018, https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article216584335.html.

6 See, for instance, Devan Cole, “Texas Voter Says He Waited ‘A Little Bit Over Six Hours’ on Super Tuesday to Vote,” CNN Politics, March 4, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/04/politics/texas-voter-hervis-rogers-long-line/index.html.

7 As quoted in Jen Rice and Paul Debenedetto, “‘It's Worth It’: The Last Person in Line at TSU Waited Six Hours to Vote on Super Tuesday,” Houston Public Media, March 4, 2020, https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/election-2020/2020/03/04/362610/its-worth-it-the-last-person-in-line-at-tsu-waited-six-hours-to-vote-on-super-tuesday/

8 Peniel Joseph, “Long Voting Lines Put Voter Suppression Front and Center,” CNN, March 4, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/04/opinions/texas-primary-super-tuesday-voter-suppression-joseph/index.html; Jason Lemon, “Hours-Long Super Tuesday Voting Lines in Texas County Lead to Accusations of ‘Voter Suppression,’” Newsweek, March 4, 2020, https://www.newsweek.com/hours-long-super-tuesday-voting-lines-texas-county-lead-accusations-voter-suppression-1490560.

9 Karrin Vasby Anderson, “‘Rhymes with Rich’: ‘Bitch’ as a Tool of Containment in Contemporary American Politics,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 2, no. 4 (1999): 599–623, www.jstor.org/stable/41939546.

10 Jeffrey A. Bennett, “Containing Sotomayor: Rhetorics of Personal Restraint, Judicial Prudence, and Diabetes Management,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 104, no. 3 (2018): 257–78, https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2018.1486033.

11 Anjali Vats and LeiLani Nishime, “Containment as Neocolonial Visual Rhetoric: Fashion, Yellowface, and Karl Lagerfeld's ‘Idea of China.’” Quarterly Journal of Speech 99, no. 4 (2013): 425, https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2013.833668.

12 Stephen M. Underhill, “Urban Jungle, Ferguson: Rhetorical Homology and Institutional Critique,” Quarterly Journal of Speech, 102, no. 4 (2016): 402, https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2016.1213413.

13 Dominique Mosbergen, “Crystal Mason, Sentenced to Jail for Illegal Voting, Says She Refuses to Be Intimidated,” Huffington Post, October 1, 2019, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/crystal-mason-illegal-voting-voter-suppression_n_5d92e363e4b0e9e76051ee3e?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFWZa0BapXk797HN8s_6N3X9RoB_Xmfnj1FNdhY8nTLCCTsToBtv92TKID7yP5k2VJWZjgoOn5tVwn1zfaqcF93Xy00nSZnhWEjd9D4Fy3t7RyiO3A5OdGKKS6FUA63M2xia1mEmjOpxNg3i9BUy6RlCb_y9ka5ffM_YUmyaU7Ca.

14 Farah Stockman, “They Served Their Time. Now They’re Fighting for Other Ex-Felons to Vote,” New York Times, May 11, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/us/voting-rights-felons.html.

15 Bonner, “Felony Charges of Illegal Voting.”

16 Healy, “Arrested, Jailed, and Charged with a Felony. For Voting.”

17 Anna M. Tinsley and Deanna Boyd, “Prison-Bound? Grand Prairie Mom Sentenced to 8 Years for Illegal Voting Loses Appeal,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, November 29, 2018, https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/election/article222302160.html.

18 Wines, “Illegal Voting.”

19 Gus Garcia-Roberts, “Texas Woman Sentenced to Eight Years for Illegal Voting Paroled, Faces Deportation,” USA Today, February 22, 2020, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/02/21/rosa-maria-ortega-texas-woman-sentenced-8-years-illegal-voting-paroled-and-faces-deportation/4798922002/.

20 Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Edinburgh University Press, 2014): 79.

21 See, for instance, William Cummings and Bart Jansen, “Long Lines Slow Voting at Polling Locations Across Texas and California,” USA Today, March 3, 2020, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/03/03/super-tuesday-long-lines-reported-polls-texas-california/4946817002/; Edwin Rios, “California Voters Face Long Lines, Glitches, and Dysfunctional Voting Machines,” Mother Jones, March 3, 2020, https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/03/california-primary-lines-voting-machines/.

22 Zach Despart, “Long Election Day Lines Prompt Commissioners Court to Review County-Wide Voting,” Houston Chronicle, March 12, 2020, https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Long-Election-Day-lines-prompt-Commissioners-15126709.php.

23 Michael Wines, “Why Did it Take So Long to Vote in Texas and California?” New York Times, March 4, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/us/california-texas-voting-lines.html, emphasis added.

24 Paul Simpson, qtd. in Alexa Ura, “Harris County's Cascade of Election Day Fumbles Disproportionately Affected Communities of Color,” Texas Tribune, March 4, 2020, https://www.texastribune.org/2020/03/04/harris-countys-texas-southern-university-voting-delays-what-happened/.

25 Madlin Mekelburg, “Fact-Check: What Caused Voting Delays in Texas on Super Tuesday?” Austin Statesman, March 9, 2020, https://www.statesman.com/news/20200309/fact-check-what-caused-voting-delays-in-texas-on-super-tuesday.

26 Paul Debenedetto, Lucio Vasquez, Haya Panjwani, and Madison Alvis, “Super Tuesday Plagued by Hours-Long Wait Times in Parts of Harris County,” Houston Public Media, March 3, 2020, https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/election-2020/2020/03/03/362534/super-tuesday-plagued-by-hours-long-wait-times-in-parts-of-harris-county/.

27 Todd J. Gillman, James Barragán and Maria Méndez, “‘No One Should Wait Six Hours to Vote,’ But in Texas, Thousands Did on Super Tuesday,” Dallas Morning News, March 4, 2020, https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2020/03/05/no-one-should-wait-six-hours-to-vote-but-in-texas-thousands-did-on-super-tuesday/.

28 To be clear, there was considerable news coverage that called for needed changes.