Gerrymandering as a Long Game: Republicans Reshape Maps to Diminish Black Representation

Guardian US columnist Jamil Smith argues that after the Supreme Court’s ruling weakening the Voting Rights Act, Republican-led states are redrawing electoral maps to erase Black political power for generations. He highlights Tennessee’s new map that disperses Memphis Black voters into Williamson County and points to similar moves in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, framing this as a deliberate, long-term project akin to Jim Crow. The piece warns that affordability politics won’t save democracy if representation is decimated and calls for naming and resisting these structural changes rather than hoping for a quick fix.