Editor's note
Why are religious leaders of different faiths concerned about the eviction of tenants? Rabbi Aaron Spiegel of the Greater Indianapolis Multifaith Alliance explains how housing is the link in many of our societal issues. Hear his reasoning on the Who Gets What? podcast at mortonjohn.libsyn.com.
Please excuse me if this column seems racist or ethnically insensitive. I’m just trying to understand what the Republican supermajority is doing in the Indiana General Assembly. Fundamentally, I see their problem.

Redistricting our nine congressional seats is not going to be an easy task. Are they going to use the 2020 Decennial Census population figures as they did for the current configuration? Remember how proud they were of the job they did with those figures? Came out with seven seats for themselves and only two for the other guys.

That was terrible, as seen from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the District of Columbia, where President Trump is worried he won’t have the sycophantic support he feels he deserves. Two seats for the other guys was two too many! Steal them back!

Since 2020, Indiana’s population has grown slightly and redistributed itself geographically somewhat. Using the 2025 Census estimates might seem more reasonable. But would that solve the problem of the Original Sin, allowing that other party two seats as was done in the Immaculate Redistricting using the 2020 count?

What went wrong in the past, that the Grand Old Party can now correct? It was those Black folks. They were huddled together in those two districts, the First (CD1) up in Northwest Indiana, and the Seventh (CD7) in Marion County.

You see, and without any disrespect to the Black population, they are just 9.6% of the population statewide. Yet, when the Wise Warriors of the GOP drew the lines a few years ago, they had Black folks at 19.5% of CD1 and 29.1% in CD7.

Now, we know why this happens. Black people just like to be close together; they self-segregate, just don’t want to be with others.

But the Wise White Warriors of the GOP can’t let that happen. They’re going to put Blacks into new districts that split them up, make them part of our greater society, teach them something about real Amerrricanism.

To a lesser extent, there is the same problem with those border jumping Hispanics. They too bunch together voluntarily. While they numbered just 8.2% of the state’s population, they ended up as 16.8% of CD1 and 14.3% of CD7. It’s just not right. They too need to integrate with the majority population.

This imbalance, this un-Amerrrican racial gerrymandering, this archaic Diversity, will be stopped in CD7, by putting more Blacks and Hispanics into CD6 where they are now just 2.6% and 3.5% respectively. In CD1, it’s only necessary to reach out and plunk Blacks and Hispanics down into very White CD4 in West Central Indiana.

Integration has always been a policy of the GOP, and this redistricting is just having the party get back to its roots.

By the way, I have a friend who can help you buy a share of that bridge in Brooklyn.
Morton J. Marcus is an economist formerly with the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His column appears in Indiana newspapers, and his views can be followed his podcast.

© 2025 Morton J. Marcus

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