![\"\"](\"https:\/\/objects-us-west-1.dream.io\/racefiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/pc_42c207f6df1902120d0e15640ff2ea11.jpg\" "\\"pc_42c207f6df1902120d0e15640ff2ea11\\"")
<\/div>\nThe maps above (originally from PolitiComments.com<\/a>) were cut and pasted into this post from the new Changelab report, Left or Right of the Colorline? Asian Americans and the Racial Justice Movement.<\/a> The first one describes the Red-Blue electoral breakdown in 2004, and the second indicates in tan and red those territories that were once open to slavery. The chilling correspondence between these two maps used to feel like our unchangeable political destiny.<\/p>\n Forget the political parties. Both sides have had their day as the party of white supremacy. What we should remember is that whichever side racially sensitive whites chose controlled that formerly-open-to-slavery and slave-owning swath of the U.S. and anchored our politics to a racist agenda that puts the protection of white privilege ahead of the needs of people of color. Sure, some states have gone rogue. California, for example, was all for Reagan. But those former slave states have hung in there, choosing against whichever side is perceived to be choosing against the advancement of rights for peoples of color again and again.<\/p>\n But in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, some cracks started showing up in that map. A Black man ran for and won the presidency in those election years (I’m guessing you know that) while taking Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Florida, Virginia, and, in 2008, North Carolina. That’s<\/em> something. Who would’ve thunk it?<\/p>\n The fact that Colorado and Washington State legalized recreational marijuana use by popular vote, while Maryland, Maine, and Washington voters affirmatively supported same sex marriage is also significant. But nothing is as significant than that a nominally liberal Black presidential candidate from Hawai’i won Florida and Virginia two elections in a row, even if he is a neo-con on foreign policy who is proposing an austerity budget.<\/p>\n And why is this so significant? Demographic change. The shifting electoral map isn’t just about shifting attitudes, but about the changing racial composition of the U.S. Immigration has played the biggest role in effecting this shift, something that those on the left can feel smug about. After all, the left opposed U.S. military intervention in Latin America and Asia, especially SE Asia. The left also opposed unfair U.S. trade practices vis a vis Latin America, especially Mexico. Neo-conservative foreign policy and neo-liberal economic policy have been major drivers of immigration into the U.S. from Latin America and Asia for the last few decades.<\/p>\n But there’s more going on than immigration. The shift is also being driven by the aging out of the baby boom generation – the folks who came of age during the 1960s and lived the drama of the Civil Rights Movement and the backlash to racial equity measures like busing and affirmative action.<\/p>\n