This Rocky Mountain News story is chock full of ironies, goodies, and evidence of why CCRI is needed in Colorado.

You see, apparently, Denver is doing too well in its melding of peoples and ethnicity. It's a common thread in voting rights civil rights questions - when blacks and whites integrate, those in the race industry get scare and start to worry about "dilution". Too much success, even at diversity - especially at diversity, threatens the diversity industry.

Check out the headline alone:

Blacks fear losing their voice
Population shifts dilute traditional city strongholds

Apparently, Denver, unlike Detroit, has been far more successful in social integration. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, the diverse ones are concerned about "blacks losing their voice".

Come on.

The caption to the only black councilman's photo says it all:

Denver City Council President Michael Hancock is the lone black member on the council. To remain politically viable, he says, black politicians must address issues that cross racial lines.

Exactly. That should be exactly what we want. Politicians crossing racial lines - regardless of who the heck they are or what color their skin is. That's why "racial gerrymandering," prompted by Democrats who want easy inner-city races, and happily accepted by Republican leaders who can't see in the long-run who understand that concentration in inner-cities makes all suburban and rural races slightly more Republican (not necessarily creating 90%-one-party districts similar to the city districts, but marginally helping the Republicans across the board). Indeed, the gerrymandering plan in Michigan, that Democrats love to criticize because Republicans mostly wrote the last one, is partially brought on by a Democratic insistence on tightly drawn inner-city districts. In the long-run though, this is bad for both parties, and it should stop.

Follow up:

The rest of the article is priceless though. For example, the word "diversity" might as well be replaced by "black". Go ahead - run a replace script on the article with that criteria and it makes more sense. Here:

"The black community still has issues uniquely its own," he said. "You would think by now the issues that we're raising would not be issues any longer for the community, but here we are still dealing with grave disparities."

The situation arises at a time when Denver no longer has a cohesive black community, said Tanner, the first black woman to serve in the state Senate, a seat she held for 17 years.

"We're losing ground. The public schools are not graduating our children. Blacks still face disparities in housing and health care," she said.

"I can't imagine the city of Denver without diversityblacks on the council and in state government."

It happens several times.

Here, the article whines about a black neighborhood that became more diverse in the other direction.

Blacks in Denver make up roughly 11 percent of the city's population. But traditional black neighborhoods are becoming more diverse [properly used this time], and the changes are making it more difficult for black politicians to maintain their traditional base.

Consider what happened last month in the City Council District 8 election.

The district includes the Five Points neighborhood just northeast of downtown, an area that has been the symbolic heart of Denver's black community.

Carla Madison, a white neighborhood activist, narrowly defeated Bailey, the black former school board member, for a seat that had been held by a black since the 1950s, most recently by Wedgeworth.

Denver Democrats Sen. Peter Groff and Rep. Terrance Carroll view Madison's victory as a wake- up call for the black community and a watershed event.

"I don't know if I would say seats are in danger, but certainly, traditional seats can no longer be said to be safe African-American seats," Groff said. "Carla Madison's victory should be a signal to those looking to run for office that they're not going to be elected purely because they happened to be African-American."

Madison credits her victory to her close ties to the neighborhood and to focusing on issues that span racial lines.

Hmm. Madison sounds like a smart woman.

Denver appears to be the perfectly diverse community.

In recent years, the population in northeast Denver neighborhoods has shifted, with many black families moving to suburbs such as Aurora and white and Hispanic families taking their place.

The districts represented by Madison, Carroll, Groff and Marshall and Denver's lone black city councilman, Michael Hancock, are now roughly one-third black, one-third white and one-third Hispanic.

That near perfection - which apparently occurred naturally (contrary to the assertions of some that diversity can't occur naturally) - faces another problem. Term limits.

In addition to the demographic shifts, politicians of all colors face term limits. Both forces will make it more challenging for blacks to hold seats that in the past have been sure things.

Sure things in politics are both rare, and bad, in ZR's opinion. This is one reason to support term limits - sure things create apathy and stagnation (at least more of it), things which need to be curtailed. While there's always a question of the appropriate length of term limits and the technical aspects of implementation.

"I think for our continued politically viability, African-Americans are going to have to create coalitions and broaden their platform," said Peter Groff, who holds the state Senate seat his father once had.

Damn it. Politicians have to create coalitions and broaden their platforms for viability. Can't have that, can we?

But here we go again with a misuse of the word diversity. But this may be the worst, as you'll see:

Value of diversityblacks

Groff said that blacks in office, particularly from northeast Denver, have a history of raising the political and social consciousness of the white majorities regarding inequities.

"Blacks in office ... have a history of raising social consciousness of the white majorities ..." I guess blacks are just here for our (whites) benefit. Straight out of the "educational benefit" playbook.

It gets better:

"There is a certain freedom that comes with being an elected official from northeast Denver that allows the officeholder to say what needs to be said regarding social and racial disparities," he said.

Did that freedom derive from being black, or not having to create coalitions and broaden their platforms?