The Indiana Citizen

#HaveYouHerd: For this week’s #FridayFeature, we are highlighting an organization that plays a huge role in elevating the community. The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit engagement platform that works tirelessly to increase the number of informed Hoosiers by promoting civic literacy. Currently, they’re working to educate marginalized communities on racial justice requiring fair maps as the legislative redistricting vote is quickly approaching. To learn more about The Indiana Citizen and how they’re elevating Indy, keep on reading.

It’s important to know the weight of your vote, and The Indiana Citizen is making sure that you do. Right now, their fight is more perilous than ever as we’re getting closer to state legislators making their decisions as to where they will redraw congressional and legislative district lines-- a vote that only happens once every ten years. This act of redistricting gives legislators the opportunity to manipulate district boundaries to give one political party an advantage over the other-- a tactic called gerrymandering. Because of this, The Citizen’s primary focus has been on their educational campaign with the message “Racial Justice Requires Fair Maps” at its core. 

“Redistricting could negatively impact some of the most vulnerable populations, silencing their voices for another decade,” says Bill Moreau, publisher of The Indiana Citizen and President of the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation (ICEF). “When those in power—both Democrats or Republicans—move lines around on a map to perpetuate their power, election outcomes are predetermined, and voters stay home.”

Despite Indiana becoming increasingly more diverse, members of the Indiana General Assembly are still primarily white. According to an article titled “Why Does Racial Justice Require Fair Maps,” by ICEF board of directors member Alan Mills, the 2020 census shows that 23% of Hoosiers are non-white, but only 11% of the Indiana General Assembly are. The article also cited a study sponsored by Women4Change that found Indiana’s redistricting to be one of the nation’s clearest examples of gerrymandering. This is why the work that The Indiana Citizen is doing is so detrimental to our state’s development!

The General Assembly is expected to start finalizing the district lines on September 20. To keep up to date with the redistricting vote progression, follow The Indiana Citizen on Facebook (@TheIndianaCitizen) and Twitter (@The_IN_Citizen). For more information and to view the current and proposed maps, visit: https://bit.ly/3keoJ3Z.