Washington Post Writer: Black Votes Should Count More than White Votes

An opinion piece for the Washington Post‘s “PostEverything” section endorsed making African-American votes count more to make up for years of slavery.

“We used to count black Americans as 3/5 of a person,” reads the piece’s headline. “For reparations, give them 5/3 of a vote.” Former White House fellow Theodore R. Johnson argues that rather than making cash reparations for slavery (which is very unpopular), policy makers should just make black votes more important than white votes.

“A five-thirds compromise would imbue African Americans with a larger political voice that could be used to fight the structural discrimination expressed in housing, education, criminal justice and employment,” he writes. “Allowing black votes to count for 167 percent of everyone else’s would mean that 30 million African American votes would count as 50 million…”

Johnson notes that under the weighted system, five more Southern states would have voted for Barack Obama in 2012, and the Senate would still be in Democratic hands.

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