Abstract

Excerpted From: Bertrall L. Ross II, When Class Competed with Race and Lost: An Origin Story of the Political Marginalization of the Poor, 58 University of Richmond Law Review 671 (Symposium 2024) (47 Footnotes) (Full Document)

On March 1, 2024, the University of Richmond Law Review hosted a symposium entitled Vestiges of the Confederacy: Reckoning with the Legacy of the South. Professor Bertrall L. Ross II delivered the presentation transcribed below, which has been edited for clarity and cohesion. The University of Richmond Law Review was honored to host him and is thrilled to publish this transcript of his thoughtful discussion.

Professor Bertrall L. Ross II: Thank you. It is great to be here. I thought I would spend the first part of my talk just telling you about who I am, what moves me, and what motivates me.

I am a codirector of the Karsh Center for Law and Democracy at UVA Law. And one of the things that I've created at the Karsh Center is the Designing Democracy Project. What this project is focused on is trying to get students involved in the process of correcting democracy's defects. Democracy has, in America, several different defects. And yet, we have this mindset that these defects should be left to the so-called experts to resolve: to come up with different ideas to resolve the problems of money and politics, unequal representation, turnout gaps and deficits, and so on and so forth. What I think we need are new and fresh ideas, and we need an investment into our democracy by the newest generation of folks who are going to be taking over our democracy. So, the Karsh Center has three different projects of students who are working on different democratic defects: the participation gap between the rich and the poor; the representation gap between the rich and the poor; and the problem of populism, polarization, and inequality. Those projects stem from my own interests in what's going on in democracy in America.

I entered into the academy focusing a lot on voting rights. My real interest and my passion at the beginning was racial discrimination and inequality in voting rights. But I then started to explore something that's directly connected to this racial inequality in voting rights, and that was economic class-based inequality in participation and representation. What we see, if we go back to 1964--which was the first census to collect data on turnout by different economic groups--is a persistent and consistent thirty percent gap in voting between the highest and the lowest income quintiles in the United States. That has corresponded with a massive representation gap. Martin Gilens, Larry Bartels, and other social scientists have found elected officials to be highly representative of the wealthy, somewhat representative of the middle class, but not at all representative of the poor.

When you see the surveyed interest of low-income individuals and you assess the correlation between their interests and the representatives' roll call votes and policy actions, there is no correlation. There is no linkage. It's only when the interests of the poor align with the interests of other classes do the poor get represented. What we thus see here is this vicious cycle that has emerged in our politics: a vicious cycle in which low-income individuals do not participate in the voting process because they see their representatives as nonresponsive to their interests. Then, we see representatives who are unresponsive to the interests of lowincome individuals because the poor do not vote. The question is, and the question I've been struggling with is: how do we intervene? How do we break that cycle? How do we create a more virtuous one?

Some may think: why does this matter? One theory is that nonvoters and voters represent the same interest, so it doesn't really matter who votes and who doesn't. However, that theory has been debunked in many social science studies. The other, more cynical account is well, that's their problem; that's the problem of the poor. And if they don't want to vote, they're not going to get represented. So that's on them. Right? But when you see events like January 6th, you start to recognize that there are broader social costs to nonparticipation, marginalization, and alienation. When you have a marginalized group of individuals in a society, in a democracy, that feel disaffected from politics, that is a reservoir--a pool from which authoritarian, antidemocratic forces can recruit. And to the extent that we have authoritarian, antidemocratic forces recruiting from that pool, it serves as a threat to American democracy and democracies worldwide.

What I seek to introduce is a discussion of where we are with respect to inequality, really focusing on the states of the former Confederacy. Here's where you see the racial and economic inequality nexus is particularly strong and powerful. Then, I seek to go back in time to explore a counterfactual of what Southern politics could have looked like if things had gone a little bit differently: a counterfactual in which African Americans are the pivotal vote in that democracy. A counterfactual in which both parties, or all parties that are in play at that time, are vying for African American support, and are seeking to be responsive to their demands. That counterfactual reality could have led to a different future for the South from what we have right now.

[. . .]

These are difficult things to overcome and even to imagine ways in which they could be. But the linkage between the interests of economically vulnerable African Americans and whites persist. It makes you wonder whether that linkage can be a coordinating political force once again and someday win the competition with racial hierarchy. Is there a way to come to some sort of agreement or collaboration recognizing each others' economic vulnerabilities and overcome each others' political marginalization so that we can move productively together toward a better democracy?

I'll leave us with that question. This was meant to be an account that inspired hope, but perhaps I have failed. I don't know. But at least I was able to share what's on my mind, and I appreciate the opportunity that this Symposium provided me for immersing myself in a history that I knew too little about before.

Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law.