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Thread: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

  1. #1
    Senior Member Senior Member Idaho's Avatar
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    Default Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    You have ten minutes to complete. Any errors are an automatic fail

    In the rural counties where most folk lived, you had to go down to the courthouse to register. The Registrars Office was only open every other Monday for a couple of hours, usually in the morning or afternoon. You had to take off work — with or without your employer's permission — to register. And if a white employer gave such permission, or failed to fire a Black who tried to vote, he could be driven out of business by economic retaliation from the Citizens Council.

    On the occasional registration day, the county Sheriff and his deputies made it their business to hang around the courthouse to discourage "undesirables" from trying to register. This meant that Black women and men had to run a gauntlet of intimidation, insults, threats, and sometimes arrest on phony charges, just to get to the Registration Office. Once in the Registrars Office they faced hatred, harassment, and humiliation from clerks and officials.
    From here
    "The republicans will draft your kids, poison the air and water, take away your social security and burn down black churches if elected." Gawain of Orkney

  2. #2
    Clan Clan InsaneApache's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    I remember my dads wife telling me this still went on when we first met about 12 years ago. I was surprised tbh.
    There are times I wish they’d just ban everything- baccy and beer, burgers and bangers, and all the rest- once and for all. Instead, they creep forward one apparently tiny step at a time. It’s like being executed with a bacon slicer.

    “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”

    To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise.

    "The purpose of a university education for Left / Liberals is to attain all the politically correct attitudes towards minorties, and the financial means to live as far away from them as possible."

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    Iron Fist Senior Member Husar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    I saw this yesterday as a test from another state, Louisiana or so.

    Either way it's a literacy test made by illiterate people. If it takes a German to tell you that your English literacy test has a double "the" in question 25 and is missing a "have" in question 30 (Just the ones I saw glancing over it, there might be more) then you are hardly literate yourself.

    And if you then take this test made by illiterate people to test the literacy of others, you are a failure.
    There's not much that is more ironic than a literacy test that shows the one who made it couldn't even check his or her own grammar and spelling.

    Oh and question 28...it's not a curved line if it has a straight spot. Most likely they even mean level or horizontal in which case they who made this fail at more than just grammar and spelling unless there is some rule in English (that I'm not aware of) that says "straight" can double for "horizontal".
    Last edited by Husar; 06-29-2013 at 12:34.


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    Beauty hunter Senior Member Raz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    Quote Originally Posted by Husar View Post
    Either way it's a literacy test made by illiterate people. If it takes a German to tell you that your English literacy test has a double "the" in question 25 and is missing a "have" in question 30 (Just the ones I saw glancing over it, there might be more) then you are hardly literate yourself.
    "Paris in the the spring" is actually a popular optical illusion - it's meant to trip you up if you're not careful as it's easy to miss the second "the". I think most people who didn't learn english as their first language will naturally be a little more careful when using it, hence you noticed the trick very easily.

    But... yeah... otherwise it's a poorly-worded and ambiguous test at best. Really sad that this sort of thing was used to present a false equality. Equality was never really about equal treatment, rather more about equal opportunity. It's nice to know that this is in the past though - makes me wonder where the more developed societies will be in the future. I think we're kind of socially stagnated until humans bind a little more into a homogeneous society. I swear we need to become robots - it's the only way forward, not backward. Upwards, not forward.

    I'm too tired and sober for this discussion. Please excuse me.

    Edit: And always twirling!
    Last edited by Raz; 06-29-2013 at 13:28.
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    The Black Senior Member Papewaio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    The test is trapped so that they could fail you as they pleased.
    Our genes maybe in the basement but it does not stop us chosing our point of view from the top.
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    Clan Clan InsaneApache's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    "straight" can double for "horizontal".
    Depends on which part of the UK, oop north, straight can mean square, as in building. If that helps.
    There are times I wish they’d just ban everything- baccy and beer, burgers and bangers, and all the rest- once and for all. Instead, they creep forward one apparently tiny step at a time. It’s like being executed with a bacon slicer.

    “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”

    To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise.

    "The purpose of a university education for Left / Liberals is to attain all the politically correct attitudes towards minorties, and the financial means to live as far away from them as possible."

  7. #7
    Iron Fist Senior Member Husar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    Quote Originally Posted by Raz View Post
    "Paris in the the spring" is actually a popular optical illusion - it's meant to trip you up if you're not careful as it's easy to miss the second "the". I think most people who didn't learn english as their first language will naturally be a little more careful when using it, hence you noticed the trick very easily.
    No, I'm just thorough.

    Quote Originally Posted by InsaneApache View Post
    Depends on which part of the UK, oop north, straight can mean square, as in building. If that helps.
    Well, I forgot whether Alabama is in the north or the south of the UK...
    And what would a curved line with a square part in one point look like?

    As Pape mentions the instructions are not clear enough so they can make of it whatever they want.
    To stay in character though I'd say they're too dumb to express what they want.


    "Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu

  8. #8
    Ranting madman of the .org Senior Member Fly Shoot Champion, Helicopter Champion, Pedestrian Killer Champion, Sharpshooter Champion, NFS Underground Champion Rhyfelwyr's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    It took me a minute to get what even the first question meant. Whoever came up with that test should be banned from voting. And reproducing.
    At the end of the day politics is just trash compared to the Gospel.

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    Clan Clan InsaneApache's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    Quote Originally Posted by Husar View Post
    No, I'm just thorough.



    Well, I forgot whether Alabama is in the north or the south of the UK...
    And what would a curved line with a square part in one point look like?

    As Pape mentions the instructions are not clear enough so they can make of it whatever they want.
    To stay in character though I'd say they're too dumb to express what they want.
    Well to be be fair to me, of which I invariably am, you did inquire into how one English word could roughly equate with another one. As the polite fellow that I am, I just made an example of how a colloquialism may come into play.

    As they say; never let a good deed go unpunished.
    There are times I wish they’d just ban everything- baccy and beer, burgers and bangers, and all the rest- once and for all. Instead, they creep forward one apparently tiny step at a time. It’s like being executed with a bacon slicer.

    “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”

    To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise.

    "The purpose of a university education for Left / Liberals is to attain all the politically correct attitudes towards minorties, and the financial means to live as far away from them as possible."

  10. #10
    Part-Time Polemic Senior Member ICantSpellDawg's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    Aweful. They all make sense, but are unrelated to the right to vote. Laws against these things for that purpose are a good thing.
    "That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there."
    -Eric "George Orwell" Blair

    "If the policy of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court...the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned the government into the hands of that eminent tribunal."
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  11. #11

    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    10 minutes for 30 questions? Could one have gotten extra time upon demonstrating a disability?
    Vitiate Man.

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    The glib replies, the same defeats


    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



  12. #12
    smell the glove Senior Member Major Robert Dump's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    So I would not be able to vote, which is pretty much the same as what I do now.

    Suffrage was in the bible. It is only fair that we are allowed the opportunity to decide not to vote, which is why Jesus suffrage for our sins
    Baby Quit Your Cryin' Put Your Clown Britches On!!!

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    Member Member Tuuvi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    Passed the test in two minutes. I really don't see what's so wrong with making sure that people are able to understand what their getting into before letting them vote.







    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    I kid. I imagine the people who wrote that test where laughing hard, it's a really sick joke
    .
    Last edited by Tuuvi; 06-30-2013 at 05:48.

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    One of the Undutchables Member The Stranger's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    did u also read the article? if not, please do so, its not just about the test, but more so the context i think.

    if you have read the article, and still dont think something is wrong, i suppose there isnt much left to talk about, and I wish you a good day.

    We do not sow.

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    Member Member Tuuvi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    I was joking, check the spoiler in my post
    Last edited by Tuuvi; 07-01-2013 at 03:45.

  16. #16
    One of the Undutchables Member The Stranger's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    Quote Originally Posted by Tuuvi View Post
    I was joking, check the spoiler in my post
    ah i missed the spoiler :P or u edit that in later?

    We do not sow.

  17. #17
    The Black Senior Member Papewaio's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    Quote Originally Posted by The Stranger View Post
    ah i missed the spoiler :P or u edit that in later?
    He did edit in later. Not sure if it was the spoiler. But from a time frame world view the edit was 7 minutes after his post and 4hrs before yours.

    FYI He got me too.
    Our genes maybe in the basement but it does not stop us chosing our point of view from the top.
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    Old Town Road Senior Member Strike For The South's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    This was meant to fail black people.
    There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford

    My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.

    I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.

  19. #19
    smell the glove Senior Member Major Robert Dump's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    Quote Originally Posted by Strike For The South View Post
    This was meant to fail black people.
    No, it was meant to empower them through tough love.
    Baby Quit Your Cryin' Put Your Clown Britches On!!!

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  20. #20
    Senior Member Senior Member Idaho's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    It's pretty amazing that any tried at all. Seeing as the offices would be patrolled by clansmen and you had to give your address and that of your extended family. Those KKK wouldn't just scare people, they would murder with impunity.
    "The republicans will draft your kids, poison the air and water, take away your social security and burn down black churches if elected." Gawain of Orkney

  21. #21
    Banned Kadagar_AV's Avatar
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    Default Re: Could you pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test?

    I get that that test is somewhat of a joke (although it of course wasn't meant as one).

    However, I cant help but feel that some sort of test to see if the voters can understand information, and has informed themselves, would be a good idea.

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