The Republican project isn’t to win in November. It’s to make November cease to matter | Jamil Smith

New electoral maps are erasing Black representations. The effort takes its cues from American history

Early this month, a single pen stroke effectively ended representative Steve Cohen's career in Congress. The man who has represented Memphis for 19 years will turn 77 later this month, but he wasn't planning on retiring. He hadn't lost any primary. The reason was that his district had been erased around him.

A new electoral map, passed by the Republican-led state legislature and signed by Bill Lee, the governor, divides the ninth district three ways. Last week Tennessee Republicans silenced the Black vote here in Memphis to make Republican victories likely," Cohen said in his statement. That's succinct and accurate.

Jamil Smith is a Guardian US columnist