Outcome-focused antiracist policy succeeds where intent-focused policy fails

Evidence

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 not only banned these seemingly race-neutral policies, which had almost totally disenfranchised southern Blacks, but also required that all changes to southern voting laws now be approved by a federal official, who would ensure that they would not “have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color.” The intent-focused Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not nearly as effective as the outcome-focused Voting Rights Act of 1965. In Mississippi alone, Black voter turnout increased from 6 percent in 1964 to 59 percent in 1969. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 989

Categorization

• XREF: The intent-vs-outcome contrast plugs directly into the reader’s three-way scheme; it also foreshadows today’s ‘disparate impact’ debates over voting and affirmative action.
• SEED: The 6-percent-to-59-percent Mississippi turnaround is a powerful stat for any essay on why effects, not stated intent, must govern antiracist law.