What is more important to keep in legislatures: minority-access seats or party-competitive seats?

Example: creating one seat populated mostly by African-American Democrats in order to ensure a safe seat for a Democratic member of Congress. But in turn, creating 4 or 5 districts next door to be populated mostly by White American Republicans to make safe seats for Republicans. This is done mostly in the South and Midwest.

I’m asking this question because many Black Democratic legislators would rather have a seat at the negotiating table for Black legislators rather than have a seat at the table for Democrats.

Case in point: how former Rep. Corrine Brown sued to keep her own 5th district in north Florida as racially-gerrymandered as possible in order to secure a safe seat for Black congressmembers like herself while surrounded by White Republican safe seats. Today, while she has been replaced by another Black Democrat, her district still looks like a snake.

Maybe minority-access seats are terrible. Maybe, in the post-Obama era, we’ll have to discard these seats to help Democrats become more competitive.