Written by Karl Widerquist, a Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University-Qatar, the piece argues that “one of the most transformative things Democrats could do with their narrow majority in Congress would be to grant statehood to all the remaining inhabited US territories”: Washington DC, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Mariana Islands.
The article – “The Case For Five New States” – argues that doing so would assist in “ending the whiteness of Congress.” “These territories have so far been prevented from becoming states as part of a larger, long-standing project to keep the Senate and Electoral College White,” it argues before adding “given American history, it’s reasonable to believe that their ethnic makeup is a primary reason why they are not states already.”
