A mailer deploying images of the Ku Klux Klan is facing backlash in Virginia for attempting to turn Black voters against a redistricting push.
Republican Party operatives are apparently quite desperate to derail a ballot initiative being put to Virginia voters next month that would allow lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats — a push that’s come in response to demonstrably racist gerrymandering efforts Republicans have launched in other states, like Texas, at President Donald Trump’s urging. In other words, it’s part of an effort to counteract racism.
Virginia’s redistricting effort has largely been led by two Black people: state Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas and Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott. It’s also been backed by people known for fighting against racist voter suppression, like the NAACP and former President Barack Obama. Given these facts, it shouldn’t be hard to detect the dubiousness in the ads you see below, which were paid for by Democracy and Justice PAC, a conservative political action committee.
“Our ancestors fought to represent us. Now Richmond politicians are trying to take our votes away,” says the message, seemingly aimed at Black voters. The mailer encourages recipients to “vote no” and uses images of the KKK and Black children running from police to absurdly suggest the ballot initiative is “Just like Jim Crow.”
The Virginia Mercury, a local outlet, reported the PAC behind this mailer is chaired by former pro-Trump state lawmaker A.C. Cordoza, who is Black.
MAGA activists attempting to use misinformation to mislead Black voters has become a recurring trend.
To be crystal clear, a ballot initiative designed to counteract the dilution of voting blocs in other states is not “just like,” or anything like, what you’d expect from the Jim Crow era. In fact, an analysis published by the University of Virginia’s Center of Politics last month suggests wariness about diluting Black voter power may have deterred Democrats from pursuing an even more favorable district map than the one they’re currently proposing. Scott denounced the GOP mailers in a statement Monday. “The civil rights movement is not a prop. The blood, sacrifice, and courage of those who marched, who were beaten, who died for the right to vote – that legacy belongs to all of us, and it will not be hijacked by shadowy GOP political operatives to deceive the very communities it was meant to protect,” Scott said, calling the ballot initiative a “direct response” to Republican gerrymandering efforts elsewhere. “KKK hoods and Jim Crow images won’t intimidate us — because we know exactly what’s really going on,” he said. “They want to silence the voices of Virginians so Donald Trump can consolidate power. We are leveling the playing field and we are fighting back.”
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. 
