These states are likely to play a critical role in presidential elections for some time to come. Mr. Blow’s proposal, if it actually came to pass, would almost certainly have the effect of aiding future Republican presidential candidates.
Alan Abramowitz
Atlanta
The writer is a professor of political science at Emory University.
To the Editor:
I am an older white woman and as such have little credibility on Black issues. But I did read Charles Blow’s piece about reverse migration with interest. One of my questions is, Why should Black people not stay in New York and use the lessons learned in Georgia to increase their influence in politics and society?
I worry that if reverse migration is successful, what will happen to places like Chicago, Oakland and New York? The African-American communities in those places will be left without support.
Angela Johns
Livermore, Calif.
To the Editor:
Charles Blow’s piece launched me into a hopeful fantasy about taking back the South, building political power and then using that power to courageously bend the arc not back to equity but for the first time in our country’s history to the experience of equity for Black people — and yes, as he writes, have a yard, too.
My older white legs probably can’t make that trek anymore, but I’d like to prepare brown-bag lunches and cool drinks and offer a shaded tree for anyone passing by on the way home to reclaim the South. I’ll continue to pray for the corrections that are centuries overdue, and I salute Mr. Blow for his courage and inspiration.
Carla Melvin
Rothbury, Mich.
To the Editor:
My most vivid memory of the 2020 and 2021 elections will always be the lines of Black Americans defying the coronavirus and other threats to vote to protect the rights and freedoms for all of us. Those voters reminded me of the Black Americans from my youth who lined up to vote, gain admission to our country’s universities or simply insist that they, too, had the right to eat at restaurants with “whites only” signs above the front door.
During our recent elections, their descendants stood in similar lines, only this time to vote to protect the rights and freedoms that were often denied their ancestors. These Black Americans, who inherited a troubled history of being systematically disenfranchised and even killed for demanding the right to vote, helped save democracy for all of us.