Cite as: 512 U. S. 997 (1994)
Opinion of Kennedy, J.
office in the State or political subdivision is one circumstance which may be considered [in determining whether there has been vote dilution]: Provided, That nothing in this section establishes a right to have members of a protected class elected in numbers equal to their proportion in the population." § 1973(b) (emphasis in original). By its terms, this language addresses the number of minorities elected to office, not the number of districts in which minorities constitute a voting majority. These two things are not synonymous, and it would be an affront to our constitutional traditions to treat them as such. The assumption that majority-minority districts elect only minority representatives, or that majority-white districts elect only white representatives, is false as an empirical matter. See Voinovich v. Quilter, 507 U. S. 146, 151-152, 158 (1993); A. Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count? Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights 210-216 (1987); C. Swain, Black Faces, Black Interests, ch. 6 (1993). And on a more fundamental level, the assumption reflects "the demeaning notion that members of the defined racial groups ascribe to certain 'minority views' that must be different from those of other citizens." Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. FCC, 497 U. S. 547, 636 (1990) (Kennedy, J., dissenting); see also United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburgh, Inc. v. Carey, 430 U. S. 144, 186-187 (1977) (Burger, C. J., dissenting).
Although the statutory text does not speak in precise terms to the issue, our precedents make clear that proportionality, or the lack thereof, has some relevance to a vote dilution claim under § 2. In a unanimous decision last Term, we recognized that single-member districts were subject to vote dilution challenges under § 2, and further that "[d]ividing [a politically cohesive] minority group among various [single-member] districts so that it is a majority in none" is one "device for diluting minority voting power" within the meaning of the statute. Voinovich v. Quilter, 507 U. S., at 152-153. If "the fragmentation of a minority group among
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