🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4) is essential. But it is not, as Manchin asserts, sufficient. H.R. 4, for instance, will do nothing to stop the extreme partisan gerrymandering that will target communities of color this cycle. wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_…
And VRA doesn’t even prevent all forms of race-based discrimination. To wit, DOJ precleared racially gerrymandered maps in Virginia, North Carolina, and Alabama last decade. Those maps were later struck down and ordered redrawn - but it took the better part of a decade.
And that’s exactly the point. The VRA, when it comes to redistricting, was designed for a different, more starkly segregated world - not the diverse, multiracial world we live in today. 3/
For example, a majority of Black, Latino, and Asian voters in metro areas now live not in big city cores (contrary to the image many people still have) but in increasingly diverse suburbs. 4/
And in those suburbs, people of color are increasingly winning power by putting together multiracial coalitions. 4/
And simply put, the remedies of the VRA, which were designed for the (literally) black and white world of the 1960s, offer limited protection for this new type of power. 5/
In the upcoming round of redistricting, there is nothing that will prevent Rs from dismantling districts in the suburbs of places like Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas, where, in recent years, people of color have won or are increasingly competing for power. 6/
That would be the case even if the VRA were restored to full strength. 7/
By contrast, the For the People Act, among other strengthened protections for communities of color, would add a ban of partisan gerrymandering that would stop communities of color from being used as a cynical tool for partisan advantage. 8/
The For the People Act also would mandate transparency and public participation in the redistricting process and, very much in keeping with Manchin’s values, require bipartisanship in the passage of maps. 9/
In short, it is important to pass H.R. 4. But, with the start of redistricting just two months away, the For the People Act is also essential to stop the growing electoral power of communities of color from being shellacked for the whole of the decade. 10/
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