I completely agree with the Statesman’s Arnold Garcia that Austin’s City Council members need to represent particular districts. Way past time for that. But he lost me on the insistence that said districts be drawn by skin color:
It's going to be difficult to draw a "safe" black district, and anyone who knows anything about city politics knows that nobody is getting up from that conference table until one is found. Given that African Americans are no longer concentrated in one geographic area, the torture that will have to be inflicted on a city map to create a safe black district will spark an investigation by the world court at The Hague….A safe Latino district would be a lot easier to draw, but there are so many ways to draw districts that something that looks good on paper doesn't guarantee anything.
Why would we think that the issues a voter wants Austin to address are based on his or her skin color? C’mon. Are we still thinking in these terms?
1 comment:
This makes me angry and sad. It's nothing but racism.
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