Racist Relic Caught Creeping Into New Texas Voter Suppression Bill | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

Rachel Maddow looks back at how the phrase "purity of the ballot box" in the Texas constitution was used as the basis for excluding Black Americans from all-white primaries, and shares video of Texas State Rep. Rafael Anchía calling out Texas State Rep. Briscoe Cain, Republican chair of the Texas State House Elections Committee, for including that phrase in the new Texas voter suppression bill.
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73 comments

  1. They just love it do they not? Hating black people. Its like Christmas to them, waking up excited every morning ready to hate black people.

    1. This race bating is shameful when we all know it is a reliability issue with fair voting. I can’t believe how almost 1000 people jump on the race card; that is disgusting, grow up and learn to stop the division.

    2. I am so sorry. Im mexican…Arpaio Trump both made it just bout legal to hate us out in the open. The way blacks have been treated is so evil sinful & made from monsters makes them demonic. And they just dont see it! But we do we know ! More importantly God sees & knows. Black people & other people of color are sitting in the white house. And in their state capitals city & county offices. Are authority figures teachers & universities like president Obama was. Let us run this race together w our heads up & with love over hate.

    3. Instantly thought of Ed Norton’s prison bro in American History X. “I don’t even know what a n- is, but we gonna hate ’em anyway!”

  2. It is sad that so many of our elected officials are in fact racist, no matter their words proclaiming they are not. Words are cheap, it is the actions a person takes that shows their true heart, and how they really think. I am thankful to my parents for never instilled such nonsense in me.

    1. @ArgentumEmperio Haiti is a poor place to use as an example. Its history is bad, its one of the poorest places on earth. Its Dictator ruled and the worst place i have ever been in my life. It’s just awful! No one should have to live like that.

    2. @YouDontKnowMe No, but they are trying to eliminate all mail in voters even the elderly, crippled, military on assignment, people on long stay hospital visits. After DeSantis signed his bill, Republicans realized that they cut off their own base.

    3. @Faylene Gostanian no, that is not true…. they reform says that you have to apply for Mail in Voting and it is Not automatically sent out. There has to be a reason. That is far from “they are trying to get rid of”
      The truth matters!

    4. Yep, Maxine waters is the most racist of them all, however racism is a 1 way street only done by white people…

    5. @jcman240 Any color can be racist and the blacks most certainly are racist but for a very good reason.

  3. Language matters. Please note they wanted to preserve the “purity” of the ballot box, and not its “integrity”.

    1. @Douglas Matthews Let us be clear about what you are saying. Who are you calling a Nazis, because that is not a term you should throw around lightly.

    2. @T. Dmytryshyn it’s thrown around pretty lightly I’ve been listening to it for the last 4 years you don’t remember

    3. @Amanda Wilcox It’s a sarcastic remark about black people having to deal with a legal system based in white supremacy. It probably violated somebody’s constitutional rights, and I send thoughts and prayers. I did check out the justices serving on the Texas Supreme Court though. It’s not the black supreme court.

    4. Could it even be possible that that Briscoe Cain is as ignorant as he states he is? Is that possible for a person with his responsibilities? He stated that this particular passage was discussed with his colleagues. It seems like it isn’t a matter ignorance of historical context as it is his ability to gloss over this issue, maybe even to the point of feigning innocence while knowing that, regardless, this bill will pass in a form that satisfies some questionable values.

  4. When they say, “We want our country back,” _this_ is what they mean. They want “their” country back to a time when there were two sets of water fountains, and _certain people_ knew their place.

    1. @ireman570

      You didn’t answer the question so no, you must NOT understand what your comment meant lol.

      WHAT AM I ACTING “SELF ENTITLED” TO?

    2. @William Pierre Its not about voter ID. They want certain people to not have rights at all.. Get your facts straight.

    3. @Junie Jake shut up with your lies. You guys are proving you are just like your ancestors.

  5. RACHEL, THANKS FOR THE BREAKDOWN OF VOTING HISTORY! THANK U FOR REAL NEWS AND FACTS!

  6. “No, I didn’t know that…Those are very troubling things.”

    The ability of serious people with serious faces to stand up and tell serious lies would be impressive, were it not so pathetic 🤠

    1. I’d never seen an image of Cain before, but knew I’d heard the name, and had an image of dim, confident, middle-aged fat thug. (Yes, I know I shouldn’t stereotype.) He was banned from Twitter after threatening Beto O’Rourke with his “AR” and refusing to take down the tweets. “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis” (O’Rourke’s 1st and middle name.) Edited to be clear about weapon – Beto O’Rourke assumed AR15, as I did.

    2. And to have so much power; it is monstrous how these cretins get away with being minsters in suits.

  7. It took a second, after taking off his hood, for Rep. Cain to realize just where the line of questioning was going.

    1. @Tranja Vanadbia SOUND FIMILIAR, TROLL???
      Trolls take shifts writing mainly in blogs on LiveJournal and Vkontakte, about subjects along the propaganda lines assigned. Included among the employees are artists who draw political cartoons. They work for 12 hours every other two days. A blogger’s quota is ten posts per shift, each post at least 750 characters. A commenter’s norm is 126 comments and two posts per account. Each blogger is in charge of three accounts

      An employee interviewed by The Washington Post described the work:
      I immediately felt like a character in the book 1984 by George Orwell — a place where you have to write that white is black and black is white. Your first feeling, when you ended up there, was that you were in some kind of factory that turned lying, telling untruths, into an industrial assembly line.

      Russian newspaper Vedomosti links the approved-by-Russian-authorities strategy of public consciousness manipulation through new media to Vyacheslav Volodin, first deputy of the Vladimir Putin Presidential Administration of Russia

    2. @Henk Smit Probably ferocious, for those whose whiteness is a key component of personal identity.

  8. Why do I get the feeling that young man knew exactly what it was about but he feigned Ignorance. They always do.

    1. Racism is being taught from Generation to Generation,
      Never ending. Only the master can make changes, by
      destroying the wicked, and saving the righteous.

  9. Just look at the Karen’s boiling inside they can’t take it . Oh and let’s not forget about the brother trapped in the sunken place .

    1. Things they don’t want us to know. My mother used to say,
      everything comes to light sometime.

    2. 38 Sioux were executed the same week that Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. There is a lot that we choose to ignore in history, and we need better educational standards so future generations are aware of tragedies and never forget the struggles that many different people fought through to get where we are. We still have a ways to go, but we must keep fighting for progress.

    3. They are went to school but this generation is not the same people, they don’t care what, they used from their Country, I hope this waken Americans people, it is not all, some of them are learning some of them are Devils, they brought up a group of Evil and they loved it they very crazy because they have Voodoo. They just don’t care, why we care what!!

  10. Thank you Rachel for this piece I would have never known this. Never learned this in school and I am 75 years old. Appalling

    1. I grew up in Texas and went through our Texas History classes. I don’t remember this being covered at all. Granted, that would have been around 1970, so that’s part of the reason. We still had segregation then.

    2. @Lynn Betts Do you mean segregation was legal in Texas in 1970? Because we still have segregation now (caused by socioeconomics rather than law)

    3. @Maargen Bx While it was supposed to be illegal, we didn’t have forced busing of blacks into primarily white schools till I was in the 9th grade. I remember, as Earl Campbell was bussed to our jr. high and that was the year we won the city 9th grade championship. The next year, the black high school was closed, and black students were split between the 2 other high schools.

  11. They all know what they’re doing. They’re just going to keep pretending for the gullible dummies who don’t get it yet.

    1. The gullible dummies are all for what they are doing.
      The only thing they are afraid off, is the light that good journalists shine on these things.

    1. Of course he knew. Pathetic example of a human being. The back-up singers were a disgrace and should be ashamed of themselves. Bet they go to church on Sunday and praise the Lord, hypocrites.

  12. He knew what it meant!!! That’s why he used the phrase. Don’t fall for that “Oh my God, really? I am shocked!!! I had no idea” crap. He absolutely knew. That’s how they speak in code and they hope we don’t know.

    1. Well they still dress up in Nazi costumes but there’s nothing nefarious about it.

  13. I am so disgusted I have hardly words. Seeing what is happening to my country, and my home, and feeling stunned and frightened.

    1. No need to be afraid.
      What is happening, is that the evil in the hearts of these people is being brought to the light, so it can be dealt with.
      Just be true at the ballot box, and in discussions with those near you.

    2. The Democratic lawmaker asking the questions did a great job, he made Briscoe Cain look like a 3rd grader who got caught doing something stupid. The big difference is the 3rd grader will learn from his mistakes.

    3. And employers want to go to a place like this house smart could the people who live in Texas be? Just look at who they elect the office for an indication of your hiring pool

    4. Chief Justice John Roberts said racism doesn’t exist in voting in the south anymore and remove the US governments ability to oversee their elections. Let’s see how well that goes with the racist MAGA trash running things

  14. Purity. Let each and every one of them backing this bill take a purity DNA test and we’ll see just how pure they’re not

    1. Except we don’t care how “pure” they are or are not…that concept has no relevance to anything.

    2. And really, what does purity even mean in human beings?? We are all one species. There is no such things as “purity” of blood.

  15. When history is inconvenient, deny, deny and deny. Knowing the truth can be embarrassing at times but so liberating. mst

  16. Thank you so much, Rachel, for bringing these details to light on a national stage.

  17. Look at how his mouth goes to the side like he just got caught. He knew what that word mean. He is surprise that he got caught. He knew all these history. And take a look at the people standing behind him, they knew too.

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