Racial Gerrymandering

Interesting stuff today in my ConLaw class about racial gerrymandering; my professor points out that the first Bush administration's Justice Department favored the creation of majority-minority districts (putting enough in the same district to elect their own representative), and he thinks they did so because they knew it would drain black Democratic voters out of all other districts, thus increasing the chances of Republicans being elected.

The best example, he says, is Georgia. In 1990, Georgia had 10 representatives: 1 black Democrat (John Lewis), 9 white Democrats, and Newt Gingrich; in 1994, Georgia had 11 representatives: 3 black Democrats and 8 white Republicans.

He acknowledges that the racial gerrymandering doesn't fully explain the shift, but it has had a clear effect.

Interesting. It raises hard questions about whether it is better for minorities to have a few representatives of their own race or more representatives of their own party.