The Good News
The Times Union reported in April, 2001 that,
“Jacksonville’s neighborhoods are becoming less segregated.”
The Bad News
[This fact] “is making it more difficult to draw clean and
simple districts that are dominated by minority voters.” The article went on to say.
The City Leaders’ Attitude
“We’ve got four minority-access districts now. We’re going to have four at the end.” The paper quoted Councilwoman Pat
Lockett-Felder as saying.
The Conclusion
Some of our leaders are apparently more interested in separation
than in representation. As citizens
of different ethnic and racial groups spread out around the city, their needs
become based on the collective needs of the neighborhoods in which they live.
As Deputy General Counsel Cindy Laquidara explained to the
City Council, legislative districts are required to be nearly equal in
population, arranged in logical and compact geographic patterns, and not be
created with the intention of depriving any particular group of its right to
participate equally in the electoral process and to have a fair opportunity
to elect its preferred candidates.
What does “particular group” in this statement mean? One would want to believe that the meaning
lies in a “community of interest, involving geography, cohesiveness, contiguity,
integrity, compactness, protection of neighborhood, and the like.” Unfortunately, the feeling is that some or
all in the Council interpret “group” to mean race and/or ethnic background.
When asked at a recent public hearing why the county needed
four minority access districts, Ms. Lockett-Felder indicated it was to make
up for injustices committed over 100 years ago. But when she was
reminded that slavery is over, in the past and that the future is now, her
response was that there was nothing in common to talk about and dismissed the
conversation. Our own mayor
apparently holds this divisive view when he said that any final plan should
retain the four minority-access districts.
Do these statements by our representatives give us the recipe for a
color-blind society? No one at the
city offices was able to cite a legal order or regulation requiring our city
to be apportioned in this manner. Jeff
Clemments, research assistant for the council, stated that this was strictly a City Council policy
although no public records were offered in fact.
So should we believe that members of a particular race
cannot be represented by anyone other than someone of that race and that we
should continue to be divided? What
needs of our citizens would be so narrow as to require this?
Citizens of Jacksonville, ask yourself this question. Should we continue to let this racial bias
be our guide for a prosperous future?
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