VRA districts

[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.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

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.

[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.

[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.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

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!