Race and redistricting
A North Carolina redistricting case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last week could alter minority voting districts in Guilford County.
The question is whether the Voting Rights Act requires that minority districts give minority voters an absolute majority of the electorate.
The N.C. Supreme Court ruled in the affirmative last year, striking down the state House district spanning Pender and New Hanover counties. But the state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
House District 18 was challenged by Pender County officials because it crossed county lines, a violation of the N.C. Constitution’s Whole County Provision. The WCP can be trumped by the federal Voting Rights Act, but only if the multicounty district is drawn to meet VRA requirements. That put before the court the question of whether that district did indeed comply with the VRA.
The state Supreme Court, in a 4-2 ruling authored by Justice Bob Edmunds of Greensboro, said no because African Americans made up only about 39 percent of the district’s voting-age population. Chief Justice Sarah Parker’s dissenting opinion countered that 39 percent was sufficient for black voters to elect the candidate of their choice. That made the district not a “majority minority” district but a “coalition” or “crossover” district.
Ironically, the candidate of choice in the 2006 election was Democrat Thomas Wright, who received 64 percent of the vote against a Republican opponent. This year, Wright was removed from the House and jailed for corruption.
This was hardly the only example in North Carolina of a district drawn to elect African Americans that lacks a “majority minority” voting-age population. Others include the 12th Congressional District, represented by Mel Watt, which takes in portions of Guilford County; and N.C. Senate District 28, represented by Katie Dorsett of Greensboro.
The N.C. Supreme Court based its ruling on previous court decisions but also cited the practicality of setting a simple and consistent standard. A black voting-age population of more than 50 percent gives absolute assurance that black voters can elect representatives of their choice. If legislatures try to determine lower thresholds, they invite constant legal challenges. But 50 percent isn’t a fixed line: The number is based on the decennial census; as years go by, the real population shifts.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens seemed to express some frustration during last week’s arguments: All rigid mathematical rules have a common flaw. They assume that minority communities are all alike.
That’s the shame of racial assumptions. Maybe this year’s presidential election will throw some of them aside. It’s time to put away notions that only black voters will support black candidates. The court must support what the Voting Rights Act requires, but the strictest interpretation seems to be outdated.
Comments (3)
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"It’s time to put away notions that only black voters will support black candidates."
It is certainly possible that white voters will support a black candidate.
But it's less likely that black voters would support a white candidate if given a choice between a black candidate and a white candidate.
I'm amazed by all the advantages we give this one minority group and not others. This Voting Rights Act, mandatory requirements that NFL teams must interview black coaches when they have a position open, set asides for black contractors working with Guilford County Schools, etc.
I can't think of any other group of people that have been given so much of an advantage - and accomplished so little as a group. Many groups of people - Irish, Jews, now Hispanics - have had challenges that they shouldn't have had and they still found ways to be productive and make it work, many by sacrificing entire generations just to pave the way for their children and future generations.
History will not be kind...
Posted on October 24, 2008 8:13 AM
My personal opinion is that the Whole County Provision should be respected.
Districts like the 12th and 13th are ridiculous in appearance and split communities against themselves in terms of representation.
It is also time to put aside the notion that black voters all think alike. There are many conservative black folks who vote Republican.
They are disrespected each and every time the media and government assume they all support the same point of view.
Posted on October 24, 2008 9:46 AM
I have been arguing for years that we get rid od these idiotic minority districts. Blacks could elected in just about any distict if most of them weren't so far out out of the mainstream of American life and values.
Conservative and moderate blacks have been elected to statewide offices in Oklahoma, Maryland, Ohio to name a few. The mayor of Greeensboro was elected in a city wide race.
Blacks feel like they need be governed by blacks, but it's fine that mainstream whites are governed by ultra liberal, out of the mainstream blacks. I don't want to be governed by someone who thinks that everyone except the inhabitants of the black communities are responsible for the never ending problems in their communities. Only in the "new" America!
Posted on October 24, 2008 4:18 PM