On May 7th, the Real ID program took effect nationwide—again. The development of the program came out of post 9/11 efforts to ensure domestic safety with high-level universal standards. The Act impacts the renewal of driver’s licenses, the ability to move through TSA, and more. Yet, in the case of Miami-Dade resident Janette Gantt Palmer, the requirements to obtain a Real ID show that they are far from equitable. Born in 1949, the height of Jim Crow in Aiken County, South Carolina, Janette has no birth certificate or passport. So, the Department of Motor Vehicles denied her renewal.
For 42 years, Janette served as a federal postal worker, and before her role, she drove school buses. In an interview with CBS News Miami, Janette says she went to the DMV with “every document she has, trying to verify her legal existence, including her social security card.” She even procured a “letter from the state of South Carolina saying they’ve searched through decades of records and there’s no proof of her.” Janette says this all while holding two expired Florida IDs.
As a resident of Miami-Dade, Janette Gantt Palmer is the constituent of Representative Ashley Gantt of House District 109, who happens to be her niece. Since Janette’s experience, Representative Gantt has been vying for political assistance, including filing for a 90-day extension on Janette’s need to have a Real ID and reaching out to House Members in South Carolina. With a lengthy process needed to obtain a birth certificate, it is unclear how this will play out.
The issue raised with Janette Gantt Palmer is not one regarding protocol and technological development—it’s about who is viewed as real through the lens of technology. If those of us who were once considered 3/5s of a human do not have documentation to prove to technology that we are real, we are rendered non-existent.
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