The city of Spartanburg has a population of 37,375 residents (cityofspartanburg.org). A 2010 census report revealed that there are 124 lower chamber state legislative districts. Out of each of these districts, the population that would average between all districts would be 37,301 residents (publicmapping.org). Theoretically, if every district had an equal number of residents then the work would be divided among the legislators equally. The state house district represented by Derham Cole only has 24,565 residents eligible to vote out of the 37,375 people. Out of the 24,565, only 16.3% of the black population can vote. That accounts for about 4,000 black voters (publicmapping.org). The minority voting population is not that grand in the city of Spartanburg. Although minorities make up about half of the population they do not show up to vote. One of the theories is that minorities view of the system is hopeless. The system that they were born in to has no chance of changing through their vote (americanprogress.org). With this view, people are less likely to show up to the polls on election…
Tim Schouls in his essay, “Why Group Representation in Parliament Is Important,” argues that the parliamentary representation in Canada is unfair because it doesn’t represent Canada’s social diversity as a whole. He believes that democracy in Canada can be considerably deepened and enhanced when the composition of the House of Commons substantially reflects the social diversity of Canada (for example, Aboriginals, ethnic minorities, visible minorities, gays etc.) instead of geographical diversity (constituencies). He asserts there’s a big change taking place in Canadian politics; attachment to geography, language, and religion are becoming less important to Canadians while attachments to ethnicity and gender are becoming…
Grofman, Bernard, Lisa Handley, and Richard G. Niemi. 1992. Minority Representation and the Quest for Voting Equality. New York: Cambridge University Press.…
Throughout American politics, two particularly well known categorizations of race and ethnicity have arisen: "Color Dichotomy" and the later "Ethno-racial Pentagon." Each seeks to define and categorize the vast racial diversity America prides itself on. While intending to create clear and fair ethno-racial constructions, there are obvious advantages and weak spots to each for the purposes of analyzing American politics.…
Nineteenth Amendment passes giving all white women the right to vote. Many women of colour are barred from voting like their…
Representative Owens may have accepted payment of travel expenses for an officially connected trip to Taiwan, when that trip was in some part planned, organized, requested, or arranged by agents of a foreign principal, in violation of House rules.…
After much excruciating searches on digital and electronic records, it has come to the conclusion that minority groups have turned the Western civilization for the worst. The once prosperous West is now being challenged by violent, illogical-based minorities that seek to impose their twisted ideologies onto the innocents of the West. As a Middle Easterner, who is pro-American, pro-Western, and pro-Democracy, it has been an embarrassment to be categorized with a group of people who haven't contributed meaning to society. I've tried my best to be a productive member of society, and carry value for myself. Yet, when I have the chance of providing a beam of positive for my people, the same group of people commit horrendous crimes, wicked acts in…
Kenji Yoshino argues in his essay covering: The hidden assault on our civil rights “Civil rights has always been to permit people to pursue the human flourishing without limitation based on bias Focusing on law prevents us from seeing the revolutionary breadth of that aspiration, as law has limited civil rights to particular groups.”(235). Kenji Yoshino has a great point, what still exist in our structural and economical world is inequality among different, gender, races, discrimination of race and culture and all other areas of society. This is important because to what extend are the lawmakers going to get involved. If lawmakers are going to keep ignoring their constituents than they’re not helping fight social inequality. Lawmakers are ignoring the actually needs and wants of their constituents.…
It was not until the 20th century that the topic of poor treatment towards minorities and women began to make recurring appearances in legislation and US Supreme Court decisions. Minority ethnicities and religions, as well as races, began to obtain more rights and experience less discrimination due to progress in legislation. Before the 20th century, most ethnicities, races, and women were viewed as subordinates and accepted that position because they had no opportunity to move up the socioeconomic ladder and lacked the means to fight against the system that disenfranchised them. Unbeknownst to most, several of these explosive topics were addressed in literature over 300 years prior…
While blacks and women have gained prominence in Congress, greater minorities in the House and Senate still exist in the Hispanic, Asian, Indian (Native American) and Gay and Lesbian communities.…
Carroll, Susan J (2006) Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics. Cambridge, New York Cambridge University Press.…
The main reason why women and minorities are not popular in Congress is because of descriptive representation. Descriptive representation is a belief that constituents are represented effectively by legislators who are similar to them (Challenge of Democracy). The characters that qualify are race, ethnicity, religion, or gender. That is the main factor why there are so few women and minorities in Congress. Due to the past, the demographic characteristic is a white male.…
With issues and concerns, there were few possible solutions and a whole lot more concerns. Accordingly, most of my interviewees described Covington as nice but concerned about the disenfranchisement of minorities, and open segregation in the community. Moreover, when I interviewed Sims, he mentioned that diversity that has happened in the community seems to bother him, and “he hoped the community remained the same way it was in the 1960s and that the more the community is diverse, crime is on the rise.” (Lanier Sims, personal communication, June 6, 2014). Ben and Sandra Rogers would agree that minorities with criminal records are the reason crime is on the rise. Notwithstanding, two of my interviewees, Retner and Ruiz, were for developing…
Since the arrival of the Europeans in 1492 the Native American has systematically been dehumanized, decivilized and redefined into terms that typify a subordinate or minority role, restricted life opportunities persist today as a result.…
Social issues have plagued the women and minorities of our country for decades upon decades, degrading them as if emotions and morals were not evident amongst them. The article entitled "Affirmative Action" states that as representation of minorities and women became more and more necessary, a movement called "affirmative action" became an important issue. Affirmative action is not limited to the uplifting of certain genders and races, but it focuses on establishing standards of certain ethical codes. Affirmative action concentrates on a broad array of issues including equal opportunity, systematic exclusion, and diversity.…