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Well, but, there really isn't a need for racial gerrymandering in 90% of Massachusetts. Voting isn't polarized by race here. Most white voters vote Democratic, and there are very few black voters, and any communities with significant power are concentrated in parts of Boston and in Springfield. The effects of racial gerrymandering don't make it far past those city boundaries as we've seen with the Finneran/Malia case.

You can see the district and its neighbors here: http://tinyurl.com/2l5e8 and to the best of my knowledge none of them have any Black populations. The districts are long and narrow, which is strange, but I don't see a partisan reason for it. When I look at the other towns in nearby districts I see more of the same.

I think it would be possible to gerrymander one safe Republican district in the area and three safe Democratic districts, but what we have now are some suburban districts that lean Republican, and we just won one of them back. Jacques was the only Democrat to represent it and she was sort of a fluke. A coworker of mine with deep family routes in Needham and good 'RAT political ties said that this district was designed to be a Republican reservation and they put Needham into it to keep Needham out of the nearby 'RAT districts. So the pols were shocked when a Democrat emerged from Needham with the right profile to win--it was supposed to be one of the more Republican areas.