I’m not racist, I have lots of friends who are pale
The Washington Post has a ridiculously amazing article on people who think that the “tan tax”, a provision of the health care reform bill charging a 10 percent surcharge on the use of tanning beds, constitutes racism against — yeah, that’s right — pale-skinned people (or is it pigment-challenged Americans?):
The case can seem deceptively simple: Since patrons of tanning salons are almost exclusively white, the tax will be almost entirely paid by white people and, therefore, violates their constitutional right to equal protection under the law.
But does the argument have any merit? Not remotely said Randall Kennedy, a professor at Harvard Law School specializing in racial conflict and law. “There is no constitutional problem at all, because a plaintiff would have to show that the government intended to disadvantage a particular group, not simply that the group is disadvantaged in effect…. To say that this health rationale was a mere pretext for wanting to stick it to white people is completely implausible.”
-Marc
Photo by Flickr user Whatshername? used under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
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