Page 10 The Skanner June 22, 2016
News
A Country Divided: Minorities Missing in Many Legislatures
Lawmakers say lack of representation creates ‘self-fulilling’ cycle where minority voices are not heard
By DAVID A. LIEB,
Associated Press
AP PHOTO/NATI HARNIK
A
s Virginia’s only
Latino state law-
maker,
Alfonso
Lopez made it his
irst order of business to
push for a law granting
in-state college tuition to
immigrants living in the
U.S. illegally since child-
hood.
The bill died in commit-
tee.
So Lopez tried again
the next year. And the
year ater that.
Now, in his ith year in
oice, Lopez is gearing
up for one more attempt
in 2017.
“If we had a more di-
verse (legislature) and
more Latinos in the
House of Delegates,”
he says, “I don’t think it
would be as diicult.”
America’s government
is a lot whiter than Amer-
ican itself, and not just in
Virginia.
While minorities have
made some political
gains in recent decades,
they remain signiicant-
ly
underrepresented
in Congress and nearly
every state legislature
though they comprise
a growing share of the
U.S. population, accord-
ing to an analysis of de-
mographic data by The
Associated Press. The
disparity in elected rep-
resentation is especially
“You can hear
the fear in peo-
ple’s
voices,
and you can
hear that they
feel like less of
a member of
society, less of
an American,”
says
Vargas,
whose parents
came to the U.S.
from Peru.
Though His-
panics
now
make up 10 per-
cent of Nebras-
ka’s population,
Tony Vargas, candidate for the Nebraska legislature, accompanied by his iancee there is not a
Lauren Micek, center, campaigns in a shop in Omaha, Neb., Sunday, June 12, single Latino
2016. While campaigning in the heavily Latino neighborhoods of south Omaha, lawmaker in its
Vargas, whose parents came from Peru, has talked with numerous people afraid Legislature.
to participate in democracy. Though Hispanics now make up 10 percent of
The Associ-
Nebraska’s population, there is not a single Latino lawmaker in its Legislature.
ated Press ana-
lyzed data from
large for Hispanics, even ed don’t look, think, talk the U.S. Census Bureau,
though they are now the or act like the people they Congress and the Nation-
nation’s largest ethnic represent, it can deepen al Conference of State
minority.
divisions that naturally Legislatures to deter-
A lack of political rep- exist in the U.S.
resentation can carry
Campaigning
door-
real-life consequences, to-door in the heavily
and not only on hot-but- Latino neighborhoods of
ton immigration issues. south Omaha, Nebraska,
State spending for pub- irst-time legislative can-
lic schools, housing and didate Tony Vargas has
social programs all can talked with numerous mine the extent to which
have big implications people afraid to partici- the nation’s thousands
for minority communi- pate in democracy. Some of lawmakers match the
ties. So can decisions on felt shunned or confused demographics of its hun-
issues such as criminal when they once attempt- dreds of millions of resi-
justice reform, election ed to vote. Others have dents.
laws or the printing of misconceptions
about
The result: Non-His-
public documents in oth- the legal requirements panic whites make up a
er languages besides En- to do so. Some simply be- little over 60 percent of
glish.
lieve their vote doesn’t the U.S. population, but
When the people elect- matter.
still hold more than 80
“
seats.
Among major minority
groups:
—Blacks are the least
underrepresented but
still face sizable gaps
in some places. In Mis-
sissippi and Louisiana,
about one-third of the
population is black. Yet
each state has a single
black member of Con-
gress and a dispropor-
tionately small number
in their state legislatures.
—More than half the
states still have no law-
makers with Asian or
Paciic Islander heritage,
and just four states have
any in Congress.
—Hispanics comprise
more than 17 percent of
the U.S. population, yet
they are fewer than 7
percent in Congress and
fewer than 4 percent
of state legislators. The
gaps in representation
well as Asian Americans)
dipped to just 27 percent
in 2014, compared with
41 percent for blacks and
46 percent for whites,
according to the Pew Re-
search Center. Low voter
involvement can make it
harder to recruit minori-
ty candidates, and less
likely for minority com-
munities to be targeted
by campaigns.
“It becomes sort of
self-fulilling — they’re
not likely voters, so you
don’t talk to them, and
because you don’t talk to
them, they don’t become
likely voters,” says po-
litical consultant Roger
Salazar, whose clients in-
clude California’s legisla-
tive Latino caucus.
The power of incum-
bency also can work
against minority repre-
sentation.
Another factor is the
You can hear the fear in people’s voices, and
you can hear that they feel like less of a mem-
ber of society, less of an American
percent of all congressio-
nal and state legislative
exist even in California,
New Mexico and Texas,
with the largest Latino
populations.
There are many rea-
sons for the disparities.
The
U.S.
Hispanic
population generally is
younger and less like-
ly to be eligible voters.
And those who can vote
oten don’t. Voter turn-
out among Hispanics (as
way legislative districts
have been drawn. Racial
gerrymandering
can
occur either when mi-
nority communities are
divided among multiple
districts to dilute their
voting strength or when
they are packed heavily
into a single district to
diminish the likelihood
of minorities winning
multiple seats.
Obituary: Gene O. Cooper
Gene O. Cooper was born July 28,
1937 in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Marie
and Ollie Cooper. He passed away
June 14,2016.
Service will be held at:
St Andrew Catholic Church
806 NE Alberta Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97211
June 28th, 2016 at 11am