Thread by @Noahpinion

1/Today's Substack post is about the idea of Black Regionalism, and the writings of Charles Blow.

I paywalled it because it contains some personal stuff, but here's the general idea.

noahpinion.substack.com/p/charles-blow…

2/Here's an article where Blow explains his basic idea: Black people should move to Southern states in order to amass political power (and to feel more at home):

nytimes.com/2021/01/08/opi…

3/In fact, that has already been happening to a large extent. Black Americans have been moving to the South in fairly substantial numbers over the past couple of decades.

nytimes.com/2017/07/08/opi…

4/Here's another article about that trend.

What Blow is suggesting is merely a continuation of what has already been happening!

archive.curbed.com/2018/7/31/1763…

5/In fact, some credit this movement with flipping Georgia from red to blue in the latest election.

qz.com/1931356/black-…

6/Some worry that a movement of the type Blow calls for would represent segregation on a national scale. But the actual population transfer required to make, say, Georgia a plurality Black state is pretty modest. It's not going to mean a North or West without Black people!

7/The reason is that several Deep South states already have very large Black population percentages. The "2nd Great Migration" Blow calls for wouldn't actually be that big.

8/Nor would this movement be anything like the Partition of India, as some critics have suggested. New Mexico is plurality Hispanic, but it is not separatist. Plus, Blow is talking about people peacefully moving to new neighborhoods, not some sort of ethnic cleansing!

9/The idea of mass migration as a way to reshape state-level politics is not new; witness hippies moving to Vermont, or libertarians moving to New Hampshire.

10/Anyway, it seemed to me that an interesting parallel to Blow's idea -- though different in many ways, obviously -- is Quebec.

In 2018, @DKThomp wrote an article arguing that Quebec's distinctiveness helps make Canada more liberal.

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

11/I think a "Black Quebec" would be economically sound, though I don't think it's without its risks.

12/Anyway, I do not endorse or oppose the idea of Black Regionalism, because *it's not my place to endorse or oppose it*. It is not my place to tell Black people where they ought to live!

I just wanted to highlight the idea and think about some of the possible implications.

13/If you want to think more about this idea, I heartily recommend Charles Blow's book, "The Devil You Know". It is extremely compelling -- much more so than a blog post of mine could be.

amazon.com/Devil-You-Know…

14/In any case, my post has some additional personal musings on nationhood and America. But read Blow's stuff before you read mine, certainly.

(end)

noahpinion.substack.com/p/charles-blow…