You can watch this episode of Right Now With Perry Bacon above or by following this show on YouTube or Substack.
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling, states in the South are rushing to eliminate their majority-Black congressional districts. Tennessee passed legislation to do that on Thursday, and it could happen soon in Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina too. Jake Grumbach and Hakeem Jefferson, political scientists at University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University, respectively, say that the Callais ruling and these states’ subsequent gerrymandering isn’t just a story about electoral politics. They argue that we are witnessing a sustained attack on Black political power, particularly in the South, the region where the majority of Black Americans live. Jefferson explains why Blacks (and other minority groups) often gain particular benefits by being represented by someone from that group. Grumbach says that the Supreme Court is being disingenuous in suggesting that partisanship and race are distinct from one another, so it’s therefore OK for states to create districts based on party. In reality, particularly in the South, racial and partisan attitudes are deeply intertwined. So gerrymandering by party is effectively gerrymandering by race, as well.