Why is Mississippi so red when it's so black?

[UCmeNdc]

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Mississippi is 37 percent black, while non-Hispanic whites are 58 percent of the population. The state boasts the largest number of black elected officials.


Oddly, the blackest, poorest and most federally-dependent state in America is also the most conservative state, according to a Gallup poll taken earlier this year. With a 50.5 percent conservative self-identification rate, Mississippi is the first state to surpass the 50 percent barrier in the three years the poll has been in existence. Southern and Western states tend to be more conservative, and the former tend to be poorer.

Racial districting, brought on by the Voting Rights Act, has guaranteed minority representation in the form of majority-black districts in Mississippi and elsewhere in the South. However, the unintended result has been racial polarization, with increasingly white conservative districts surrounding these black districts, and the marginalization of white moderate candidates in either party.

The reality in Mississippi poses a major obstacle for any Democratic and black candidate running statewide in this reddest of red states. In the 2008 presidential election, John McCain won Mississippi with 56.5 percent of the vote, to Obama’s 42.7 percent.

http://thegrio.com/2011/08/25/why-is-mississippi-so-red-when-its-so-black/

[bluestateguy]

1. White folks in that state vote their race

And what happens Republicans are always going to win.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. Is it our friend Gerry? nt

[BillZBubb]

3. It is so red because nearly all the white population is ignorant and racist.

That's like a lot of the South.

[JI7]

4. there are more white people . what percent white vote did Obama get in that state ?

[lpbk2713]

5. Black and poor Mississippians are discouraged from registering and voting.

As in other Southern states.

[Lyric]

6. Because black people in southern states are

systematically kept from voting, in one way or another. Racial intimidation, voter suppression tactics, deliberately witholding quality education from them, using the criminal justice system to find reasons to charge black people with crimes and then bar them from voting, making their everyday lives so heinous and hard that political awareness comes in far, far behind mere survival, and of course using the religious structure of the south to convince them that God thinks voting against gays is more important than voting for social and economic justice.

Lots of southern black people prefer to stay out of politics because they still feel very wary of what harm might be done to them if they start exercising a little political muscle and it freaks out the local whites. They are traumatized. Nothing will ever convince some of them that participating in the civic system is safe. It's similar in other southern states, but Mississippi is probably the worst.

[TeddyR]

7. There's a lot of accusations

With little support (at least for some of the accusations) that I've seen. Maybe you are thinking of the Mississippi from the 60s, or maybe the DOJ just isn't paying attention anymore. And it also seems like you are inferring that blacks can't determine for themselves if they should vote against "gays" or for social and economic justice, although I'm not sure I see a relationship between voting against "gays" and for economic justice.

[msongs]

9. someday we will have president and AG who will do something about these issues nt

[WI_DEM]

8. White voters, who are still the majority

vote overwhelmingly Republican--just as Black voters vote overwhelmingly Democratic.