Re: [Mpls] Redistricting and Eat Street

[Bob GUSTAFSON]

It appears that I have fallen for that that appealing facade that is promoted as Eat Street. Little did I know that this is nothing other than a Potemkin like mirage that us "white people use to show our diversity and vibrancy as a culture." I stand corrected and wish to drop my usage of this street as a way to explain my feelings about racism when it comes to redistricting.   Lets look instead at the Voting Rights Act and the state prepared "Use of Racial Data in Redistricting."    To summarize briefly, a key point of the states guide notes that the law not only prohibits  plans whose drafters intended to discriminate based on race. It prohibits any plan that will result in discrimination.   Sounds like a nice concept. Who could possibly want discrimination? Or at a minimum, who would publicly admit to wanting it?   Now we just need to know the details so we can be sure that even though we don't want discrimination, we don't discriminate by accident. The government is willing to help us with this by keeping track of peoples race. For the 2000 census the option existed for those being counted to report themselves as any one of six racial categories. Now don't forget that there can be racial combinations that raise these categories to a total of 63. I particularly am wondering if I have ever met any "Non-Hispanic Some Other Race plus Non-Hispanic Some Other Race and White" person. We need to remember that there are those among us of Spanish heritage as well, whom can be any race. Then we also have to keep track of voting age versus under 18 and so on. When the government gets done with this simple exercise they are happy to report that they can give you "504 potential categories of population for each block!" Trying hard to be politically incorrect, they offer that "where there is an unusual number of people checking multiple race categories, some additional categories may be needed."   I would think that with 504 potential categories they would have broken us down into enough groups to keep everyone happy. I submit that if we are really trying to represent racial groups that we have not gone far enough. Think of just the Asian category. We have a good size population of Tibetans in the cities. They are here because they were driven from the homes by the Chinese, who in our wisdom we label the same category. Of course whether that American of Chinese descent is a recent immigrant form Nationalist China, Mainland China, Hong Kong or if they first came to America in the 1800's to help build the first intercontinental railroads, they are all viewed the same. Asian. They all share that Asian category with the Hindu from India and the Muslim from Pakistan. There is a category that has a tradition of similar political beliefs if I have ever seen one. Lets not forget the Japanese and how well they have gotten along with the Chinese over the centuries. I wonder how someone from the Philippines is categorized. Some are Catholic, some Muslim, some Communist. Are they considered of Spanish heritage? I'm sure they would like that, being labeled by the country that colonized them. That must make them feel special. Of course they live on an island so does that make them Pacific Islanders or Asians? Don't forget that Pacific Islanders come from islands in the Pacific unless they come from the Pacific island called Hawaii, in which case they are Native Hawaiians, unless of course they are of Spanish heritage or not Native Hawaiians but immigrants to Hawaii.   Now our government can see this might be getting a little confusing so they suggest a rule for allocating multiple race responses. The rules require that if there is a complaining minority they be "allocated all those who have indicated they are any part of that racial minority."   That makes sense. If one of my great-great-grandparents was an American Indian, and every other member of my family was White, I would be counted as Indian.   I stand by my belief. Racism should not be a part of redistricting. If we artificially create a ward or two that have a "minority majority" we with our best intentions have served to isolate that minority. We have put them in a racial ghetto. Council members outside those wards, if they carry racially based politics, will know that the minorities are kept in their own wards and they won't have to deal with them or any issues they might have come election time. With 504 potential categories and counting, I believe it is time to stop.   Lets start voting as Americans. Americans who disagree deeply on many issues, but acknowledge that we are Americans. Americans who can trace their heritage to many lands, but do that tracing from America. I'm really not so foolish as to believe Eat Street signifies the final coming together of all racial groups, the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius so to speak. I do like to fantasize however that it is more than a facade. I like to see it as a symbol of what can be if we turn ourselves from dividing us by our differences, to celebrating those differences.   Bob Gustafson 13th Ward Chair, MMM