Gerrymandering in North Carolina is White Supremacy Too

Lekha Shupeck
Aug 28, 2017 · 4 min read
Two men from the group carrying Confederate flags stand near the sit-in at Silent Sam on UNC-CH’s campus 8/26/17 — Image from Scott Sharpe at the News and Observer

This past weekend, a small group of men drove more than an hour to the campus of UNC Chapel Hill to march with Confederate flags and taunt students holding a sit-in to call for the removal of the Confederate monument locally known as “Silent Sam.” The men were eventually escorted off campus by university police, but these kinds of events are becoming a daily occurrence across America. And, after Charlottesville, the fear of white supremacist violence is ever present.

Unfortunately, the open and obvious violence of Nazi-flag toting, sieg heiling white supremacists is obscuring a more insidious but at least equally harmful form of white supremacy. This is the white supremacy of an electoral system that suppresses the votes of its citizens of color, and then saddles them with a government that does not only ignore their needs, but actively does violence to their communities.

In the past year alone the racially gerrymandered North Carolina General Assembly has stripped power from Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, banned local governments from passing anti-discrimination measures, refused to expand Medicaid coverage, and prevented minority communities from suing for damage done by hog waste sprayed on their homes, along with bringing forward many other bills that hurt the marginalized people of this state.

Just over a week ago, the Republican heads of the NCGA’s redistricting committee released a set of new state legislature district maps. A federal district court had declared that the previous maps, drawn in by Republicans in 2011 when they took the majority in the NCGA, violated the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution by packing black voters into a small number of districts in order to minimize their influence.

A sharp example of the kind of racist apologetics surrounding the creation of the original maps was given during debate over the new ones this past week. Republican Rep. Bert Jones made the point that there are more black members in the state legislature today, under the racially gerrymandered maps, than there were in 2010 under Democratic ones. Rep. Henry Michaux shot back, “During slavery there were more black folks on plantations than white folks, but who ruled the roost?”

The old maps, designed by notorious Republican gerrymandering consultant, Thomas Hofeller, were drawn to create as many districts as possible that had a black voting age population (BVAP) of over 50%. The resulting 28 districts were the ones challenged in court and declared to be unconstitutional. For the new maps, Republicans, along with Mr. Hofeller, have tried a different tack. This time they say that they have used no racial data at all to draw the maps, and instead have drawn them along partisan lines, which is legal.

This disavowal of racial data is disingenuous at best. As Rep. Darren Jackson pointed out, “Keeping race out of the computer does not prevent you from creating a racial gerrymander.” Even more deceitful is the fact that the racial demographic data corresponding to the new maps has been concealed from the public. The “stat pack” of data provided on the NCGA website only contains population information, partisan distribution, and compactness measures.

Suspicion of Republican motives is warranted. Analysis of the racial demographic data, passed to me by a member of the redistricting committee, and which I am making available to the public*, shows that there are still three House districts with over 50% BVAP. Also notable is that there are seven House districts that sit just below the 50% threshold at 48.27–48.55 %. Similarly, there are three Senate districts that range from 47.02–49.3% BVAP. This is significant because the federal district court order mandates that the NCGA provide the reasoning behind drawing any districts that exceed 50% BVAP — meaning that the court considers any such districts to be likely racial gerrymanders. Skirting so close to that figure in a number of districts raises the question of whether this was an intentional tactic to circumvent close scrutiny.

Regardless, the maps grant a huge partisan advantage to Republicans in the legislature, in a state that is actually extremely closely split in every statewide vote. The Republican supermajority that will be kept in place by these maps can override the governor’s vetoes, and generally run roughshod over members who represent minority communities in the state.

This doesn’t just mean that many people of color are living under the rule of a government that they have political disagreements with. It means that they are living under a government that does active violence to them and their rights, by suppressing the vote, refusing to provide needed services, blocking their access to the courts, and advancing the sectarian interests of white supremacy over their safety.

The continued presence of Silent Sam on UNC’s campus is a good example of this. In light of the violence done by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Governor Cooper has asked UNC’s Chancellor, Carol Folt, to remove the monument in the interest of public safety. Folt, who was chosen for her position by UNC’s Board of Governors, who were in turn chosen by the racially gerrymandered NCGA, has refused. She cites a 2015 law passed by the NCGA that forbids the removal of any public Confederate monument.

And so, Silent Sam remains a rallying point for white supremacists, who seem willing to make long drives just to exchange words with the college students protesting in front of it. It would be overly optimistic not to fear that they might do worse if the memorial continues to remain in place.

But here in North Carolina, where white supremacy reigns, it’s only natural that a monument to those who “saved the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South” would be privileged over the well-being of the young, diverse group of activists fighting for its removal.

*Click here if you would like to download the Excel files with this data

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