VRA districts

[memphis]

How have we not move past the point of being obligated to make special segregated districts for minorities? If it happens naturally, as is the case with my home district of TN-9 or on the South Side of Chicago, great. But drawing a montrosity like NC-12 or FL-3, just so blacks can have "their" district is highly offensive to me. It's also totally screws the Dems by packing so many of our voters into one district. It doesn't make any sense.

[So the Heroes Fall]

How have we not move past the point of being obligated to make special segregated districts for minorities? If it happens naturally, as is the case with my home district of TN-9 or on the South Side of Chicago, great. But drawing a montrosity like NC-12 or FL-3, just so blacks can have "their" district is highly offensive to me. It's also totally screws the Dems by packing so many of our voters into one district. It doesn't make any sense.

And that is the main reason they are drawn.

But it kind of balances out such as in how we are now at least guaranteed one seat in Alabama and Louisiana for instance.

[Invisible Obama]

It may take another decade or so for VRA districts to start being more scrutinized and possibly phased out. On the other hand, there also needs to be more compactness in redistricting before that happens.

[krazen1211]

How have we not move past the point of being obligated to make special segregated districts for minorities? If it happens naturally, as is the case with my home district of TN-9 or on the South Side of Chicago, great. But drawing a montrosity like NC-12 or FL-3, just so blacks can have "their" district is highly offensive to me. It's also totally screws the Dems by packing so many of our voters into one district. It doesn't make any sense.

Minorities want their fair share of Democratic districts. If you're a Hispanic or Black Democrat it makes perfect sense.

[memphis]

How have we not move past the point of being obligated to make special segregated districts for minorities? If it happens naturally, as is the case with my home district of TN-9 or on the South Side of Chicago, great. But drawing a montrosity like NC-12 or FL-3, just so blacks can have "their" district is highly offensive to me. It's also totally screws the Dems by packing so many of our voters into one district. It doesn't make any sense.

Minorities want their fair share of Democratic districts. If you're a Hispanic or Black Democrat it makes perfect sense.

No. Black people don't want a special segregated ghetto seat anywhere. They want inclusion in politics. In 2010, our 18 year mayor ran in a primary against our white 4 year Congressman. Mayor's stump speech was all about how it was "our" seat. And he got his a$$ handed to him by the same black voters who had elected him mayor five times.
Segregation is what certain whites want, not what blacks want. Which is also why we have an endless cycle of blacks moving into white neighborhoods and all the white people running away to the point where it becomes a black neighborhood. Story of half the neighborhoods in my hometown.

[So the Heroes Fall]

You do realize this practice didn't really begin widespread until the redistricting cycle of the 90s, and thus about three decades after the passage of the VRA?

[BigSkyBob]

How have we not move past the point of being obligated to make special segregated districts for minorities? If it happens naturally, as is the case with my home district of TN-9 or on the South Side of Chicago, great. But drawing a monstrosity like NC-12 or FL-3, just so blacks can have "their" district is highly offensive to me. It's also totally screws the Dems by packing so many of our voters into one district. It doesn't make any sense.

Minorities want their fair share of Democratic districts. If you're a Hispanic or Black Democrat it makes perfect sense.

No. Black people don't want a special segregated ghetto seat anywhere.

That isn't what Black state legislators have advocated in state after state. For instance, in Missouri, Black Democrats and Republicans formed a coalition to maintain as Black as possible districts in St Louis and Kansas City.

They want inclusion in politics. In 2010, our 18 year mayor ran in a primary against our white 4 year Congressman. Mayor's stump speech was all about how it was "our" seat. And he got his a$$ handed to him by the same black voters who had elected him mayor five times.

The Democratic legislature of Tennessee "cracked" the Black communities in the Memphis area between the 8th and 9th districts to shore up a White Democrat in the 8th. The 9th retrogressed.


I don't think that is exactly the VRA argument the Democrats want to make.

[krazen1211]

How have we not move past the point of being obligated to make special segregated districts for minorities? If it happens naturally, as is the case with my home district of TN-9 or on the South Side of Chicago, great. But drawing a monstrosity like NC-12 or FL-3, just so blacks can have "their" district is highly offensive to me. It's also totally screws the Dems by packing so many of our voters into one district. It doesn't make any sense.

Minorities want their fair share of Democratic districts. If you're a Hispanic or Black Democrat it makes perfect sense.

No. Black people don't want a special segregated ghetto seat anywhere.

That isn't what Black state legislators have advocated in state after state. For instance, in Missouri, Black Democrats and Republicans formed a coalition to maintain as Black as possible districts in St Louis and Kansas City.

They want inclusion in politics. In 2010, our 18 year mayor ran in a primary against our white 4 year Congressman. Mayor's stump speech was all about how it was "our" seat. And he got his a$$ handed to him by the same black voters who had elected him mayor five times.

The Democratic legislature of Tennessee "cracked" the Black communities in the Memphis area between the 8th and 9th districts to shore up a White Democrat in the 8th. The 9th retrogressed.


I don't think that is exactly the VRA argument the Democrats want to make.

In Louisiana a black legislator did not want to give up her 88% black district and requested that GOP leadership maintain that district rather than crack her blacks.

[BigSkyBob]

You do realize this practice didn't really begin widespread until the redistricting cycle of the 90s, and thus about three decades after the passage of the VRA?

That's how "retrogression" works. Once heavily Black districts are constructed, it is "retrogression" to crack the minority communities in those districts. I didn't write the law, but, that is what it says.

[memphis]

How have we not move past the point of being obligated to make special segregated districts for minorities? If it happens naturally, as is the case with my home district of TN-9 or on the South Side of Chicago, great. But drawing a monstrosity like NC-12 or FL-3, just so blacks can have "their" district is highly offensive to me. It's also totally screws the Dems by packing so many of our voters into one district. It doesn't make any sense.

Minorities want their fair share of Democratic districts. If you're a Hispanic or Black Democrat it makes perfect sense.

No. Black people don't want a special segregated ghetto seat anywhere.

That isn't what Black state legislators have advocated in state after state. For instance, in Missouri, Black Democrats and Republicans formed a coalition to maintain as Black as possible districts in St Louis and Kansas City.

They want inclusion in politics. In 2010, our 18 year mayor ran in a primary against our white 4 year Congressman. Mayor's stump speech was all about how it was "our" seat. And he got his a$$ handed to him by the same black voters who had elected him mayor five times.

The Democratic legislature of Tennessee "cracked" the Black communities in the Memphis area between the 8th and 9th districts to shore up a White Democrat in the 8th. The 9th retrogressed.

That's not true at all. Almost all blacks in Memphis are in the 9th. The 8th has a very small part of the city (so small that current Rep Fincher was unaware he was campaigning to represent any of the city), and the old White Democrat (John Tanner) was always re-elected either unopposed or overwhelmingly. Even in 1994, TN-8 wasn't competitive.

[smoltchanov]

How have we not move past the point of being obligated to make special segregated districts for minorities? If it happens naturally, as is the case with my home district of TN-9 or on the South Side of Chicago, great. But drawing a montrosity like NC-12 or FL-3, just so blacks can have "their" district is highly offensive to me. It's also totally screws the Dems by packing so many of our voters into one district. It doesn't make any sense.

+10000. Exactly my position for many years...

[BigSkyBob]

How have we not move past the point of being obligated to make special segregated districts for minorities? If it happens naturally, as is the case with my home district of TN-9 or on the South Side of Chicago, great. But drawing a monstrosity like NC-12 or FL-3, just so blacks can have "their" district is highly offensive to me. It's also totally screws the Dems by packing so many of our voters into one district. It doesn't make any sense.

Minorities want their fair share of Democratic districts. If you're a Hispanic or Black Democrat it makes perfect sense.

No. Black people don't want a special segregated ghetto seat anywhere.

That isn't what Black state legislators have advocated in state after state. For instance, in Missouri, Black Democrats and Republicans formed a coalition to maintain as Black as possible districts in St Louis and Kansas City.

They want inclusion in politics. In 2010, our 18 year mayor ran in a primary against our white 4 year Congressman. Mayor's stump speech was all about how it was "our" seat. And he got his a$$ handed to him by the same black voters who had elected him mayor five times.

The Democratic legislature of Tennessee "cracked" the Black communities in the Memphis area between the 8th and 9th districts to shore up a White Democrat in the 8th. The 9th retrogressed.


I don't think that is exactly the VRA argument the Democrats want to make.

In Louisiana a black legislator did not want to give up her 88% black district and requested that GOP leadership maintain that district rather than crack her blacks.

Perhaps, she was the Black community's "preferred candidate," but, an anathema to White voters in her district. Perhaps, 88% was barely sufficient for the Black electorate to work its will in the open primary.

Some White Democrats insist on lowering that percentage to the low forties!

[krazen1211]

Black Democrats in Florida express outrage at the attempt to crack their districts.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/11/2585203/senate-committee-finalizes-redistricting.html

But it was clear that Rich didn’t even have the support of her own members for her plan. Her congressional map, for example, would have ended the seven-county stretch that now comprises the district held by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown and make it more compact but, in turn, reduce the percentage of black voters from 49 percent to 36 percent.

"This would have clearly diminished the ability for African Americans to be elected to office,’’ said Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, whose district would have gone from more than 50 percent black under the Senate map to 20 percent black under Rich’s plan. Bullard’s son hopes to replace her when she leaves because of term limits.