Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Kate Stone's avatar

From slavery to Jim Crow, to Blacks being systematically excluded from the Homestead Act and the GI Bill, to redlining in home mortgages, to discriminatory hiring practices and wide disparities in criminal justice and environmental justice outcomes, all of which resulted in effects still being felt today, there is no way we are anywhere near a “colorblind” society. Isn’t that what they said after Obama was elected, that we’re entering the “post-racial” world in the U.S.? And what did we get? The Tea Party, people walking around with guns to “water the tree of liberty,” hanging chairs in trees as a shoutout to lynchings and the resurgence of white grievance that Donald Trump rode to power. And now we’re so colorblind that we’re decimating DEI everywhere we can, including scrubbing Black history from civic institutions? I would love nothing more than for MLK’s dream to come true that we are all judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin. That is not where we are. But the really sad thing is, why does any of this even matter with respect to voting rights? SCOTUS already declared the maps drawn for partisan advantage are just fine, which is why we have very few competitive districts, too many wacky extreme members of Congress and too little bipartisanship. I’m sure state legislatures can get their desired results by simply drawing their maps as partisan gerrymandering and steering clear of racial considerations in the already gutted Voting Rights Act.

Expand full comment
Gina S Meyer's avatar

“The normal expectation is that …the protection of incumbent legislators will prevail.”

Tell me the system is corrupt, without saying the system is corrupt.

Expand full comment
30 more comments...

No posts