The Daily News Celeste Katz unveiled the State NAACP’s proposed congressional maps. Click here to view the downloadable maps.
The maps, which the NAACP has submitted to LATFOR and the governor’s office, “remake four underpopulated districts currently represented by African-Americans, close to the new size of 718,000: CD 6 (Queens-Nassau); CD 10 and CD 11 (Brooklyn); and CD 15 (Manhattan-Bronx-Westchester). They are compact, contiguous, and unite communities of the same interest.”
The maps are interesting are appear out of context because other districts were not drawn. This is a major drawback in the community redistricting effort as interest groups draw “their” ideal districts in isolation. In the South, that isolation has led to the near-permanent casting of the Democratic Party as a predominantly black minority party in state houses across Dixie.
We may have to face the harsh truth that the VRA may have outlived it’s usefulness. The Southern GOP has turned the VRA on its head and used it to segregate black communities and disempower the Democratic Party.