This really interesting article by Michael Harriot in The Root returns to the Thomas Hofeller gerrymandering files and argues that they must also be considered as a perfect example of white supremacy in America.
That phrase from the U.S. Constitution doesn’t just encapsulate the Founding Fathers’ goal for this ever-evolving union we now call “America.” Aside from Billy Porter’s awards show wardrobe, “more perfect” also describes the 400 years of structural bigotry on this stolen soil.
While many people consider “white supremacy” to be the superlative form of “racism,” the two closely-related terms have different meanings. Racism is a belief but white supremacy is the structural system founded on that idea. Racism hasn’t changed in 400 years but white supremacy is a shape-shifting polymorph. When this country outlawed the chains of chattel slavery, white supremacy mutated into Jim Crow and transformed the American electoral process into a series of poll taxes and literacy tests. When educational institutions integrated, white supremacy built a school-to-prison pipeline. After the civil rights struggle, it embedded itself into the criminal justice system and started a war on drugs. Year by year, day by day, minute by minute, white supremacy in America increasingly grows more perfect.
Republican strategist and political consultant Thomas Hofeller is the most perfect example of this.
Calling Hofeller a “political strategist” or a “political consultant” is like referring to Satan as an “ex-choir member” or “a former minister of music.” Long before Hofeller died in Aug 2018, he was hailed as the white supremacist Lex Luthor (not to say that Lex isn’t a bigot already; I wouldn’t want to ruin his street cred). Called the “Master of the Modern Gerrymander,” Hofeller pioneered using race to redraw political maps to hand electoral advantages to Republicans.
Get full story here.
Leave a Reply