Nate from FiveThirtyEight.com gives a statistical explanation as to why there are no Black senators but there are 39 Black members of the House of Representatives. The superficial answer: Black congresspersons tend to be elected in Black majority districts and there are, of course, no Black majority states.

The question, of course, is why African-Americans aren’t getting elected in [Black minority] districts. Racism is undoubtedly part of the answer, but it probably can’t be a complete one now that the country has just elected Barack Obama to the White House.

He then goes on to make a few interesting but non-statistical guesses that have to do with political gerrymandering.

I suspect that a lot of the problem, however, is that as Congressional Districts have become more and more gerrymandered, leading to the creation of more and more majority-minority districts following the 1980 and 1990 censuses, the black political apparatus has become more and more ‘ghettoized’.

Interesting how gerrymandering can affect the House and Senate so differently – and it’s not something I envision disappearing any time soon.