Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution

by Elie Mystal

Everybody knows that the Supreme Court made George W. Bush president in 2000 with its ruling in Bush v. Gore. But most people don’t realize the Court made Donald Trump president in 2016 with its ruling in Shelby County. The voter suppression unleashed by that decision is what made it possible for Trump to eke out his narrow electoral college victory in that election. Never forget, Black people are not evenly distributed throughout the country. Most Black people still live in the states where their ancestors were enslaved. The state with the highest population of Black people, per capita, is Mississippi. (It would be the District of Columbia, if DC were a state, but white people, in their infinite self-interest, have declined to extend statehood to a territory that is nearly 50 percent Black. I wonder why.) After that it’s Louisiana, followed by Georgia, Maryland, South Carolina, and Alabama. Do you know how different this country would look if the Black voters in those states enjoyed frictionless access to the ballot?