Despite the rapid growth in U.S. minority populations over the past forty years, minority political representation has not grown commensurately. There are a number of factors that are responsible for this phenomenon, from a white power structure and gerrymandering to control of government by wealthy elites and barriers to access for minorities due to poor education and job skills. This analysis will discuss these factors in order to demonstrate why the rapid growth in U.S. minority populations is not commensurate with minority political representation.
Historically, poll taxes in federal elections meant individuals had to provide money in order to exercise the right to vote. This effectively disenfranchised minority voters. However, the 24th Amendment to the Constitution prohibited the poll tax in the 1960s, (Gonzalez and Moore, 1). Despite this Amendment, minorities are still disenfranchised in American politics due to the advent of ôprivately financed election campaigns,ö (Gonzalez and Moore, 1). This system of funding elections heavily counts on the income of wealthy, white donors and puts minorities who cannot afford to make such donations at a disadvantage for representation. Gonzalez and Moore (1) argue that in the past two election cycles, ônine out of 10 donations over $200 to federal campaigns came from individuals in majority non-Hispanic white ZIP codes.ö The study also showed that though nearly one out of three Americans are minorities, $1 out of every $2 in campaign donations was provided by ôpeople living in wealthy neighborhoods,ö (Gonzalez and Moore, 1).
The practice of redistricting or ôGerrymanderingö is a practice that has been in operation since the early nineteenth century. However, Gerrymandering continues to be used to reshape voting districts in ways that favor primarily white, Republican candidates. Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay was behind a redistricting of TexasÆ congressiona...