ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with grave importance to racial and ethnic minorities. They cover issues of representation and redistricting in a political climate that voting rights advocates view as inimical to minority interests. Although the race of voters has usually played the dominant role in the redistricting of most southern states, in Virginia partisan politics superseded race. Descriptive representation occurs when voters are represented by members of their own racial or ethnic group, whereas substantive representation occurs when voters' policy preferences and interests are actively promoted by their legislator regardless of the legislator's race or ethnicity. Many who write on the redistricting issue seek to increase the number of minority faces in legislative bodies without regard to the real costs that minority voters may pay in terms of lost political allies. These people seem to forget that the Voting Rights Act was passed primarily for black voters and was not intended as—nor should it be treated as—unemployment insurance for black politicians.
