'It Is Shameful': Texas Lawmaker Vincent Perez Accuses GOP Of 'Racial Disparities' In Redistricted Map

5 months ago

During a Texas House of Representatives redistricting meeting on Wednesday, Texas State Rep. Vincent Perez (D-TX) spoke about representation for Black and Hispanic voters in the redistricted Texas map.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me say at the onset, Representative Hunter, that I have

00:10tremendous respect and admiration for you and for your years of service in this

00:14chamber. But I must also say with equal candor that I am deeply disappointed. I

00:20am disappointed in the willingness to mask the racial realities of this map

00:26underneath the guise of partisanship. Courts have been clear, partisanship is not

00:34a license to engage in racial discrimination. It wasn't until today

00:40that I more fully appreciated what Dr. King wrote in 1963 sitting in a

00:45Birmingham jail expressing his frustration with the moderates of his time. He said

00:52that shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than

00:57absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more

01:03bewildering than outright rejection. Representative Hunter, you have criticized

01:09my colleagues and I for breaking quorum to protest and to draw attention to these

01:13maps. Maps that deliberately sideline minorities from the political process.

01:20But as Dr. King reminded us, there are those who are more devoted to order than to

01:27justice, who prefer the absence of tension than to the presence of truth. I took time

01:36away not to avoid my duty but to better understand the real implications of these

01:40maps on the people I serve in a district that is majority Hispanic and on the more

01:47than 11 million Texans who look just like them. Their voices deserve to be heard and

01:53deserve to count the same as anyone else's. But let's focus on the congressional

01:58districts before us. It was mentioned that the underlying goal was simply to

02:03improve Republican performance and Representative Hunter relied on the lawyers to draw the

02:08lines. But any fair reading of this map shows what it actually does. It systematically

02:15dilutes Latino and Black voting strength while cementing and increasing Anglo control.

02:22Any claim to the otherwise is either misunderstanding the racial realities of this map or is deliberately

02:30misrepresenting the truth. And neither approach is worthy of this chamber. We have not seen a

02:37map this deliberately engineered by skin color since the days that brought Americans to march from

02:43Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in the 1960s. Marches to protest laws designed to sideline Black voters. Marches

02:52that helped to bring about the Voting Rights Act just months later. Today, Hispanic and white Texans each make up

03:01about 40 percent of our state's population equal in number. But under the proposed map, 26 of the 38 congressional

03:11districts, 70 percent of our entire state's congressional delegation will be controlled by white majority

03:19districts. You cannot say you found a way for one racial group that is 40 percent of our state's population to have

03:2970 percent political control in this state and say that the racial disparities are merely coincidental.

03:3545 years ago, Anglo-Texans made up 66 percent of our state's population. Today, that number is 40 percent.

03:45Yet, your map freezes white political control as if the demographics in this state have not changed at all in the last 50 years.

03:51And somehow, in the 10 hours it takes to drive from my district in El Paso to yours, Representative Hunter, on the coast,

04:05across this vast and diverse state, your lawyers somehow manage to draw non-racial lines that will leave your party

04:12representing 90 percent of one race. And in case if your lawyers didn't advise you, it's not Hispanics or Blacks.

04:22Why does your party want to represent 90 percent of white Texans, but not 90 percent of Texas Hispanics or Blacks?

04:29Because this map has methodically carved and segregated those populations to ensure they cannot influence elections

04:36in those 26 white control districts. Here is the cold, hard truth. Under this map, white Texans receive one member of Congress

04:49for every 445,000 residents. If you are Hispanic, it takes about 1.4 million residents for that same representation.

05:00If you are Black, it takes 2 million. In this proposal, a Hispanic Texan has one-third the political value of a white Texan under this plan,

05:11and a Black Texan, one-fifth. It would take three Hispanics to equal the representation of one white Texan,

05:20and five Black Texans to equal the value of one white Texan.

05:26Under these lines, Texas Hispanics will be the most underrepresented population group in all 50 states.

05:33The level of underrepresentation will far exceed what even conservative courts have struck down in Louisiana, Alabama,

05:42and just yesterday in Mississippi. And yet, when confronted with these facts, a common distraction from proponents of this map

05:51is to point a finger at California or Illinois and to say, everyone does it. But no Democratic map in California or Illinois

06:00systematically erases representation for a population that is 60% of this state. This map is an abomination. It is shameful.

06:16What kind of society are future generations of Texas Hispanic and Black children going to grow up in

06:23where their government doesn't feel accountable to them?

06:29Where they've drawn the lines where they are only accountable to another group based solely on the color of their skin?

06:37All Americans, all Texans, whether Republican or Democrat, Black, White, or Hispanic, should be appalled at what's happening here today.

06:48That our government is wanting a map where it would not be held accountable to the majority of the residents in its state,

06:56but to the ones that it hand-selects, and in this case, by race.

07:05Mr. Speaker, I voted for you. Despite our vast political differences, I know you care about this institution

07:14and the way that we do business to serve the people of Texas with fairness.

07:21But Mr. Speaker, we all took an oath to uphold the Constitution, not to flagrantly violate it or to test its limits.

07:31This is shameful what is happening here, Mr. Speaker, and with this map, I can no longer in good conscious continue to support you.

07:40Amen.

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'It Is Shameful': Texas Lawmaker Vincent Perez Accuses GOP Of 'Racial Disparities' In Redistricted Map

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