MONDAY, MAY 4, 2026
No wider than I-85: Should "minority" populations be guaranteed (or afforded) something resembling "proportional representation" in the House of Representatives, our hapless lower House?
Let's consider the example which has recently been under review:
Since the state of Louisiana is almost exactly one third black, should the state devise its congressional map in such a way that two of its six House districts will likely be represented by black congressional reps?
A person could teach it flat or round. Concerning one point, there's little doubt:
Starting in the 1980s, the effort in various states to create "majority minority" House districts produced some districts which were extremely strangely shaped. During the 1990s, the strangest looking (and most famous) such district was almost surely North Carolina's District 12.
The leading authority on the district recounts that part of its history here:
North Carolina's 12th congressional district
North Carolina's 12th congressional district is [currently] a congressional district located mostly in Charlotte as well as surrounding areas in Mecklenburg County represented by Democrat Alma Adams. Prior to the 2016 elections, it was a gerrymandered district located in central North Carolina that comprised portions of Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Lexington, Salisbury, Concord, and High Point...
The district was re-established after the 1990 United States census, when North Carolina gained a [twelfth] House seat due to an increase in population. It was drawn in 1992 as one of two minority-majority districts, designed to give African-American voters (who comprised 22% of the state's population at the time) the chance to elect a representative of their choice; Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibited the dilution of voting power of minorities by distributing them among districts so that they could never elect candidates of their choice.
In its original configuration, the district had a 64 percent African-American majority in population. The district boundaries, stretching from Gastonia to Durham, were so narrow at some points that it was no wider than a highway lane. It followed Interstate 85 almost exactly. One [Democratic] state legislator famously remarked, after seeing the district map, "if you drove down the interstate with both car doors open, you'd kill most of the people in the district."
Or something like that. We'll return to this topic, and to that alleged quotation, at a later date, perhaps tomorrow.
How strange was this district's configuration at this point in time? For some reason, the leading authority fails to display a map of the frequently lampooned district during that early era.
That said, you can see a map of the district as it was initially drawn simply by clicking to this site. If you can defeat the New York Times paywall, this news report from May 1993 includes a map of the state—a map which shows the shapes of the two majority black districts.
(Headline: "2 Strangely Shaped Hybrid Creatures Highlight North Carolina's Primary.")
During the 1990s, North Carolina's District 12 produced a lot of humorous commentary. It also became the star of several major court cases, a situation which obtained right up through 2016.
Decent people were trying hard (and successfully) to increase black representation in the House of Representatives. That said, how do we the people want to proceed from here?
Inquiring minds will want to seek the answer to that question. There's also a fair amount of partisan warfare in the air concerning this astoundingly complex topic. At times, this may produce a bit of heat in the relative absence of light
Go ahead—click those links! People who were good and decent were in fact trying hard to deal with the painful backwash of our profoundly unfortunate racial history.
This topic has been around for decades. Where do we go from here?
"Should "minority" populations be guaranteed (or afforded) something resembling "proportional representation" in the House of Representatives, our hapless lower House? "
ReplyDeleteWhen the alternative is no representation at all, or grossly disproportional representation, then it really doesn't matter what the shape is of the districts created to allow minorities to participate in government. Aesthetics are secondary to voter participation and fairness in a state that is largely minority but gerrymandered to give non-minorities a disproportionate slice of the districting.
This aspect of fairness should be obvious to Somerby. He shouldn't have to ask such questions. That Republicans seek unfair advantage is also obvious, unfair, and something that they should be ashamed to be doing, and yet they have no shame. Somerby seems oblivious to that aspect of this situation.
Non-humorous or regular shaped districts are not the goal of districting. The goal concerns voters and their ability to participate fairly in our government. No one should give a damn what the shapes of the districts are, as long as that goal is achieved.
The way Somerby has framed this issue makes no sense.
No. The shape of the districts is not 'aesthetics.' It is of the essence of political representation, determining to what extent the people of a given district share a common set of issues.
DeleteAnd since you seem to define 'fairness' as having the race of Congressional representatives be in the same proportion as the racial distribution of the voters, then you must think it was terribly unfair to white voters when Obama was elected.
Have you ever taken a peek at Gentleman Gym Jordan’s district?
DeleteHector, don't confuse the outcome of an election with the proportion of registered voters of a particular race and party. Your implicit assumption is that only black voters would vote for a black candidate. I doubt that has ever been true anywhere.
DeleteWhen you define voters of a shared district as people having common interests, that cannot be solely based on race. Otherwise all Republicans would be white, while in reality there are white Republicans and white Democrats, rich and poor white people whose race does not dictate their interests or needs on all topics. The same is not as true for black voters. They tend to share racial, social and political interests more cohesively and they are more likely to be in the same demographic group in terms of income and education. You can assume greater similarity of interests based on race for black people than for white people, especially when there are different ethnicities and cultures in the white group (Irish, Italian, Hispanic, Polish, Scandinavian).
I define fairness as not gerrymandering so that black voters can never elect a black candidate (the same for Irish, German, Italian, etc groups). If Hispanics can never elect an Hispanic candidate, no matter how unified in their choice, then that is unfair districting.
I personally doubt whether the ability to vote based on local issues relevant to a district outweighs the ability to elect a minority candidate when a majority of the voters prefer that candidate. I would like to see districting stopped, or have it be based on random assignment to districts. I do not see why the approach being used to select Governors in states shouldn't apply to districts within states (ranked choice voting).
Listen: republicans are not saying blacks cannot have representation; on the contrary, republicans and Grand Wizard John Roberts just feel that blacks should be represented by republicans in Congress. So everyone should calm down
DeleteThere will be zero black Republican reps after this fall, and maybe a couple Dem blacks left in the south. What the fuck is wrong with you people? It's 1958 all fucking over again.
Delete7:59: In reality we have not had real democracy until VRA. Grand Wizard John Roberts lost the hood, kept the robe, however, It turns out Jim Crow laws were fine all along. Who knew.
Delete“The shape of the districts is not 'aesthetics.' It is of the essence of political representation, determining to what extent the people of a given district share a common set of issues.”
DeleteThen why, Hector, did the Supreme Court allow partisan gerrymandering, where districts are drawn in highly bizarre ways to ensure votes?
"Hector, don't confuse the outcome of an election with the proportion of registered voters of a particular race and party."
DeleteYou seem to have completely misunderstood my post. I suggest you re-read it.
Where do we go from here? We continue fighting racism in the South, even when it comes from the Supreme Court and we keep fighting. This is a temporary setback. Somerby's pretense that this is not racism but some "astoundingly complex" sort of technical problem is noted. How did anyone ever trust Somerby with the hearts and minds of young black children?
ReplyDelete"Starting in the 1980s, the effort in various states to create "majority minority" House districts produced some districts which were extremely strangely shaped.'
ReplyDeleteCome on, now. Racial gerrymandering did not start in the 1980s. I:f put the start of it around 1876.
So to summarize, if districts are drawn so that a majority of voters are black, that's 'racial gerrymandering.' If districts are drawn to ensure the majority is always white, then that's fine. Is that it?
Yes, the Louisiana case was brought by white voters who felt disenfranchised by being drawn into a majority black district. The Supreme Court found in their favor. But white Democratic voters drawn into majority Republican districts are SOL, as are black democrats. The ridiculous irony is that gerrymandering is fine as long as it’s partisan, and yet the argument is made that black voters mostly vote for Democrats, so creating a majority minority district is technically a partisan gerrymander by this definition. But the Louisiana legislature is majority Republican, so they cannot be mandated to gerrymander in ways they don’t want to. Got that?
DeleteIt's the same as the Trump is King ruling. There is an out for a Democratic President being King as they will rule whatever a Dem does is not an "official" duty, while everything the Felon and his cronies do is.
DeleteDemocratic voters and especially Democratic elected officials and candidates are already slagging the Democratic Party (DNC). I saw comments by one such complaining that the Democrats are hated by Democratic voters (with very low %s in polling). Only by looking closely at the graph could you see that the polling questions was favorability toward Democratic members of Congress, not the party itself or Democrats in general.
ReplyDeleteAll of us, Republican and Democrat, who think Trump needs to be constrained and removed, are disappointed because our members of Congress have not taken steps to solve the problem of Trump. That is what Democrats hate about the Democratic party. Our reps aren't doing their jobs, and neither are the Republicans. Naturally, the right translates such numbers into Democrats in disarray stories about how all voters hate the Democrats. That isn't true but it IS one reason why Kamala Harris didn't win and Trump wound up in office. We need to stop hating our own party.
Racism has never left America, despite the rhetoric from day one.
ReplyDeleteThe entire discussion is predicated on the idea that race is a person's most important characteristic -- his/her defining characteristic. If we can dump DEI, we can again move in the direction of color-blindness. The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.
ReplyDeleteThank you, John Roberts.
DeleteThose white voters must not be discriminated against.
There are 67 black members of the US Congress. 62 are Democrats, 5 are Republicans. It appears that a defining characteristic of the Republican party is the absence of black representation. The "color blindness" is the Republican party is in full view there.
Delete"in the Republican party"
DeleteThere are 535 members of Congress. The representation among Congressional Democrats by African Americans closely resembles their numbers as a fraction of the US population. Blacks are underrepresented among Republicans in Congress by a factor of greater than 10:1 comparatively. So much for attributing their numbers to DEI. The Republican party is a racist institution.
Delete...most important characteristic...
DeleteNot most important characteristic, but certainly an important characteristic. Grand Wizard John Roberts has already declared we are a color-blind country. Go fuck yourself, dickhead.
I think we all knew how Somerby would react to this.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who isn't a bigot, or isn't perfectly fine with bigotry, left the Republican Party over a quarter of a century ago.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, why are we discriminating against white folks who would much rather drink from their own water fountain?
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