To the Editor:
Re “End Gerrymandering” (editorial, Oct. 17):
The editorial board rightly notes that Congress can rein in gerrymandering, but it does not mention the solution most democracies use: proportional representation.
The editorial recommends bipartisan redistricting commissions, but it does not address an underlying problem: single-member districts, which underrepresent virtually all minorities based on the mathematics. The editorial’s proposal is likely to severely underrepresent Black voters in the South, where more than half of Black Americans live.
For example, under the ostensibly neutral redistricting approach cited, Mississippi — with four congressional seats and a population that is nearly 40 percent Black — could end up without a single district where Black voters can elect their preferred candidate.
Proportional representation offers a better solution. Instead of electing just one representative in smaller districts, voters elect several across larger regional districts, with seats allocated roughly in proportion to the votes received. For example, a group winning one-third of the vote would win roughly one-third of the seats. Even groups that are not the majority in their area can organize and win representation.
Redistricting commissions alone may curb partisan abuses, but they cannot fix the structural shortcomings of single-member districts. Congress should move beyond tinkering with district lines and embrace a system that gives all Americans a fair chance at representation.
Cliff Albright Guy-Uriel Charles Spencer Overton Mr. Albright is the executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund. Mr. Charles and Mr. Overton are law professors at Harvard Law School and George Washington University Law School, respectively, and direct racial justice projects there.
To the Editor:
I agree with the outcome favored by your editorial: the end of gerrymandering. It would be a simple matter indeed to create districts based on neighborhoods and geography. But it is as wrong to create election districts based on race — which you seem to advocate — as it is to create them based on favored voting patterns.
Despite the history of mistreatment of Black people in the United States — the stain of slavery, the moral wrong of segregation, the horrors of Jim Crow — it does not justify this reparative approach. As you acknowledge, many groups other than Black people tend to live in close quarters. Election districts favoring electability of one racial group over another cannot pass constitutional muster and would only open a Pandora’s box of endless lawsuits and social acrimony.
Alexander Goldstein Brooklyn
To the Editor:
The editorial about gerrymandering did not mention that the Democratic Party has gerrymandered maps in its favor, an obvious example being Illinois. Until all states are forced legally to draw maps with geographically compact districts, the gerrymandering — as obviously racist and wrongheaded as it is — will continue in this country.
Tom Webb Lisle, Ill.
Don’t Overlook Africa’s Progress
To the Editor:
Re “The Map of Africa Is Being Redrawn. It’s a Trap,” by Richard Poplak (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, Oct. 23):
The campaign to Correct the Map was never simply about the misrepresentation of the continent’s geography, but rather about power, perception and Africa’s right to define itself.
Mr. Poplak’s essay illustrates why that matters, because when he describes Africa as increasingly “spectral, and its people more vulnerable,” he proves our point: Even as Africans build industries, infrastructure and new economic opportunities, the continent remains almost invisible in the global imagination. That is the distorted perception we set out to challenge.
He overlooks the African Continental Free Trade Area, the recent launch of the Africa Credit rating agency and regional industrialization initiatives. He appears to confuse the absence of a single, unified vision of Africa with the absence of African agency.
Mr. Poplak does not mention the impact of Nigeria’s Dangote refinery, Benin’s growing textile industry, Guinea’s new railway corridors and Zimbabwe’s new lithium-processing plant. These are just a few of the countless projects, people and policies transforming Africa.
The problem is not a lack of agency among Africans or a misplaced map campaign. It is the persistent failure to recognize the continent’s progress.
Moky Makura Lagos, Nigeria The writer is the executive director of Africa No Filter and a founder of the Correct the Map campaign.
A.I. Mirrors Us
To the Editor:
A.I. is being programmed by humans. There is no way for humans to devise a being that does not mirror our own character, which is a mix of nobility and corruption. Consider: A.I. models are trained on information gathered from human sources.
Technology is all about human empowerment. Every advance empowers us both to do good and to do evil, and will be used for both purposes.
Thomas Alderman Springfield, Ore.
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