Gerrymandering: Racist or political?

Gerrymandering: Racist or political?

I believe all this gerrymandering started because the republicans are fearful of losing the House in the midterms and wanted to limit the damage. The northern democrats had shown the way. What limited the southerners was that the Supreme Court had allowed political gerrymanders and the Voters Rights Act granted racial ones. The Voter Rights Act created majority minority districts – mainly in the south – to give blacks a larger voice in their states. Now that this Court has ruled racial gerrymanders unconstitutional there is a legitimate concern that many southern black congressmen who represent majority minority districts will go the way of the dodo. 

It seems that when republicans carve up the majority black district is that the democrat representative will lose. To guarantee this in the state of Tennessee, Nashville has been carved up into five separate districts while Memphis is now in three. Ironically, in both cases the democrat representative was white – Jim Cooper in Nashville and Steve Cohen in Memphis. This gave the legislature cover in saying that the gerrymander was political (which is allowed) not racial. Incidentally, the same can be said for Virginia. In its quest to get rid of its republican representatives, the state’s democrats foisted a map on the voters that changed the political composition of the state’s delegation from six democrats and five republicans to ten democrats and one republican. To accomplish that the democrats carved up the two districts with the greatest percentage of black voters. Although neither district is over 50 percent black, both have black representatives. However, the new map dilutes the black percentages and one new district is over 50 percent white. Both black representatives might find themselves replaced by whites. So the liberals in Virginia should be accused of trying to get rid of the black congressmen – but they won’t.

I was amazed, but not surprised, that this point was missed by the media and seemingly by national black politicians as well. Hakeem Jeffries had the democrats committed an astounding $40 million to flip the seats in Virginia. Jeffries who is black was not accused of racism because it endangered two black Virginia congressmen. Instead, he went all out to insure that Viriginia’s seats in the House were democrat rather than republican indicating that party affiliation not race was the deciding motivation. When the republicans in Tennessee did the same, they were called racists even though that sole democrat representative was white. Truth be told, since the overwhelming majority of blacks are democrat any gerrymander will be considered racist but If blacks were republicans, the district would still have been broken up. 

Jeffries went to Alabama to protest redistricting by that state’s republican majorities. Of course, he yelled “racism” when he was doing exactly the same thing in Virginia. Jeffries has vowed a democrat redistricting offensive aimed at creating 12 new democrat districts – race be damned. After the loss in Virginia he said “We remain undeterred. Our effort to forcefully push back against the Republican redistricting scheme will not slow down. We are just getting started.” He then said “We will ensure the people decide who controls the Congress not MAGA extremists desperate to rig the midterm elections.” Of course this is BS. Through his gerrymander attempts he is trying to do exactly the same thing. But it is ok for the democrats to do it – so say the democrats. 

One of my closest friends is a staunch democrat and hates Trump with a passion calling him “racist” at every opportunity. He told me with a straight face that he favored the redistricting in Virginia even though it eliminated the two majority minority districts. He also called the Tennessee gerrymander racist because it diluted the black vote. Well didn’t Virginia dilute the black vote? No he said because they are democrats and the new map actually enhanced their vote since it would diminish the chance of a republican winning. He also said that he hoped the two black Virginia representatives would be savvy enough to be re-elected. But if they were replaced by white democrats, then it was too bad. I could not persuade him to see the contradiction.

What I find interesting is that in at least two states, Mississippi and South Carolina, the two black congressmen that are threatened with gerrymandering are veterans, Bennie Thompson in Mississippi and Jim Clyburn in South Carolina. It is apparent from statements by the republicans in both states, that they want them gone. Even Tim Scott has said “The Black person—yes, look at me, I’m still Black—who ideologically is aligned with their state or their district can win anywhere.” The same can be said of Byron Donalds in Florida. It not whether

Thompson or Clyburn has ingratiated themselves with white voters in their districts. On the national level both are loyal democrats. Take Sanford Bishop in Georgia. Bishop is known for delivering constituent service to all in his district which has been both majority minority and majority majority. He gets praise for being the congressman for all in his district. Yet he too is a loyal democrat and votes with his party leadership the vast majority of the time. So when the Georgia legislature seeks to redistrict him out of his seat, it will probably succeed because the bottom line is that his voters want a representative that is serving their needs both on the local and the national scenes – not just one or the other.

I admit that I am ashamed of my state for carving up Memphis for political gain and disenfranchising its black voters. I am in favor of compact districts that do not split up counties. I wish that all congressional districts everywhere would be drawn like the AI Tennessee map I posted before. But that is not to be. 

My daughter, who lives in Northern Virginia, asked me if all this gerrymandering was political or racist? It is obviously political when we look at democrat states like Massachusetts. But in her state of Virginia, it is apparent that the democrats are willing to sacrifice minority representatives if it means increasing democrat congressional seats. So Virginia has altered my perception of what is going on. Tim Scott sounds like he would get rid of Clyburn in order to get one more republican representative – and Tim Scott is no racist. I answered my daughter by saying that even if it is racist, it is political.