A panel of federal judges on Monday began a review Alabama’s redrawn congressional map which opponents argue blatantly defies the court’s mandate to create a second district where Black voters have an opportunity to influence the outcome of an election.
Trying to make gerrymandering fair…
No it’s not just “fair” gerrymandering.
There are 7 House districts in Alabama. Currently 1 out of 7 of them are Black majority, while about 2/7 people in Alabama are Black. It’s illegal racial gerrymandering that keeps it this way. Any reasonable map would have at least 2 Black districts, so this case is explicitly about reversing gerrymandering by requiring another Black majority district.
If they created 4 Black majority districts that would be gerrymandering. As it is, it’s about making a map that represents the population of the state (something the legislature is repeatedly refusing to do).
Currently 1 out of 7 of them are Black majority, while about 2/7 people in Alabama are Black. It’s illegal racial gerrymandering that keeps it this way.
2/7 people being black does not automatically mean that 2/7 districts should be Black majority. It really depends on how clustered together those 2/7 people are.
If they live evenly spread out in the state, zero of the districts should be Black majority. If they are clustered in big groups (racially divided districts), then it makes more sense for them to be a majority in some places.
As an outsider, I assume the racial divide is clear enough that dividing the districts by ethnicity makes some sense(?)
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TIL thanks to your post: Since ~2020 ethnicities are generally capitalised.
Racial and ethnic groups are designated by proper nouns and are capitalized. Therefore, use “Black” and “White” instead of “black” and “white” (do not use colors to refer to other human groups; doing so is considered pejorative)
https://blog.ongig.com/diversity-and-inclusion/capitalize-race/
Hilarious that capitalisation of a colour is suddenly supposed to make that word not be a colour. Yeah, if I’m writing white as White, it is definitely not a colour any more…
2/7 people being black does not automatically mean that 2/7 districts should be Black majority. It really depends on how clustered together those 2/7 people are.
Statistically, you are absolutely correct. But the issue here is Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act which forbids “the abridgement of the right to vote based on race or color.” AL-7 for instance, the current Black majority district, is drawn in such a way that it collects voters from the cities of Birmingham and Montgomery and lumps them in with rural Black voters from the “Black Belt” to form a district that is 60% non-White which you can see in the image from this article. By concentrating Black voters in one district, the legislature dilutes their voting power significantly, which SCOTUS recently ruled to be an illegal racial gerrymander under the VRA.
As an outsider, I assume the racial divide is clear enough that dividing the districts by ethnicity makes some sense(?)
Southern states especially, but not exclusively, have attempted to limit Black voting power for literally hundreds of years. The VRA was written to consider race, because the existing problems resulted from White southern legislatures intentionally limiting the voting power of Black citizens. It was a remedy for a specific form of political oppression which is still ongoing in states like Alabama. You can read more about the Alabama racial gerrymander here.
TIL thanks to your post: Since ~2020 ethnicities are generally capitalised.
Yeah, most US style guides have Black capitalized now, White less so, but I personally prefer it. Just to reflect that we’re talking about racial groups specifically. Always good to learn something new!
