Mapping democracy: Racial identity and the quandary of political representation

In a series of lawsuits during the 1990s, federal courts in the United Stat es rejected congressional election districts that had both extremely irregu lar boundaries and nonwhite: majorities. In particular, courts ruled that t he shape oi these districts - which they characterized as "bizarre" and non compact - demonstrated that states had unconstitutionally classified voters by race. These legal cases reflect a fundamental tension in American polit ical culture between universalistic citizenship and particularistic racial identity. Universalistic concepts that embrace numeric political representa tion, geometric standards of shape, and the "liberal self" share an underst anding of the individual as the basic unit of political representation and define this individual by the ability to make rational choices. In contrast , concepts of particularistic identity that emphasize the importance of "re gional community representation," informal visual standards of shape, and p lace-based or regional attachments view communities as tile basic unit of p olitical representation, and believe that individual identity is primarily constituted by membership in communities. Although some participants in the redistricting litigation have advocated notions of community based on raci al solidarity, federal courts have only recognized such claims to the exten t chat these communities are defined by regional attachments. This suggests that tile importance of regional attachments remains firmly entrenched in the American political system, despite tile ascendance of "placeless" numer ic representation. Notwithstanding the impassioned rhetoric on both sides, the effect of these cases is ambiguous for two reasons. First, the creation of nonwhite majority districts is a problematic strategy of political empo werment; second, the decisions do not directly address the underlying issue s of segregation and racial inequality.