MSNBC analyst Basil Smikle went on cable television Friday night and compared GOP redistricting efforts to "an American version of apartheid" — because apparently normal political mapmaking is now indistinguishable from one of the most brutal racial segregation systems in human history.
Apartheid. He said apartheid. On national television. With a straight face.
Smikle made the comments during MSNBC's The Weekend: Primetime on May 9, hosted by Antonia Hylton, during a panel discussion about Republican-led redistricting efforts in Virginia and Texas. According to NewsBusters, Smikle accused Republicans of "restricting black civic engagement" and described redistricting as the "removal of the civic opportunity, civic engagement, for black people."
Let's just pause and appreciate the sheer scale of that comparison. Apartheid — the South African system where black citizens were stripped of citizenship, forcibly relocated, banned from entire professions, and brutalized by state police for decades — is apparently the same thing as Republicans drawing congressional maps. Got it.
The best part? Even his own panelist undercut the hysteria. Republican panelist Elise Jordan acknowledged that "the law was against them" when it came to the Virginia referendum effort to force a mid-decade redistricting do-over. Law professor James Sample, who was also on the panel, admitted the Virginia Supreme Court's decision striking down the Democratic redistricting referendum was "probably right on the law" — before immediately pivoting to call it "a disaster for our democracy."
So let me get this straight. The court followed the law. The legal experts on your own panel say the court followed the law. But it's still apartheid?
Sample went on to warn of some dystopian scenario where "sixty percent of the vote producing forty percent of the seats" could somehow materialize. Because nothing says credible legal analysis like pulling hypothetical numbers out of thin air on a Friday night cable news show that twelve people are watching.
Also joining the panel was Ayman Mohyeldin, who helped set the tone by characterizing the situation as "very, very grim." Very, very grim. Two verys. That's how you know it's serious, folks.
Here's what's actually happening. Democrats tried to change the redistricting rules in Virginia mid-decade because they didn't like the maps. The Virginia Supreme Court said no. Voters had already started casting ballots on an amendment before the court struck it down. The law worked exactly how the law is supposed to work. Republicans didn't rig anything. They didn't suppress anyone. They followed the existing rules while Democrats tried to rewrite them on the fly.
But sure, apartheid.
This is the MSNBC playbook distilled to its purest form. Everything Republicans do is the worst thing that has ever happened. Redistricting isn't politics — it's racial segregation. A court ruling isn't jurisprudence — it's oppression. Following the law isn't governance — it's a human rights atrocity.
The word "apartheid" used to mean something. It described a genuine horror. Now it means "Democrats lost a legal fight about maps." And they wonder why nobody trusts the media anymore.