Wednesday, October 16, 1996
ACTION:
Racial justice should be at forefront of Prop. 209 debates; have
these words been forgotten?
I just knew this was going to be an exciting year. The first day
of classes, and the legendary Jesse Jackson was speaking in
Westwood Plaza.
It wasn’t that I had the opportunity to see him that excited me.
No, I was filled with hope that this marked the beginning of a
triumphant 12th-round comeback over the steamrolling
anti-affirmative action forces.
Perhaps it was time for me to jump back in the ring for another
bout with Pete Wilson and his lackey Ward Connerly.
Yes, I once was one of those who organized rallies, teach-ins
and debates. Foolishly, I once believed I could bring Ward Connerly
around to understand that he was being pimped by his political
master, Pete Wilson. But I digress.
For so long, Reverend Jackson has been considered the conscience
of America, an advocate of the underrepresented. So, it made sense
that he would give a voice to the issue of race and the interests
of African Americans, both of which have long since been forgotten
in the affirmative action debate.
Isn’t it ironic that those who struggled in the civil rights
movement and for whom affirmative action was intended should be
forgotten in the debate for its salvation? What am I talking about,
you ask?
According to Jesse Jackson and other supporters of affirmative
action, it is a widely accepted and touted fact that the primary
beneficiaries of affirmative action are white women (the
significance of this point will be addressed later).
So, when the good Reverend took the microphone and extolled the
virtues of diversity, multiculturalism and the progress of women
(barely mentioning race), I was extremely disappointed. It was like
commemorating the 1963 march on Washington without mentioning Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. It is unconscionable to forget race, when it
was the central organizing principle of the civil rights movement
and affirmative action. It seems as though everyone in America
knows this except those organizing against Proposition 209. Pete
Wilson knows this; that’s why Ward Connerly is leading the
anti-affirmative action campaign. But I digress.
At one point in the struggle for affirmative action we used
words like racial justice, community empowerment and
reparations.
These words asserted that racism (historic and contemporary) are
at the heart of the matter. They say that racism and white
supremacy are as present today, Oct. 16, 1996, as they have ever
been. Need I mention church bombings, a white supremacist terrorist
tactic that originated as a response to the 1954 Supreme Court
decision Brown vs. the Board of Education? It should also be
mentioned that the Constitution of our great country once counted
African Americans as worth three-fifths the value of whites. Given
today’s economic inequalities, it could be said that the same
principle holds true today.
Affirmative action was intended to be a race-based program,
period, point-blank. The entire weight of American public policy
conspired to keep African Americans politically, socially and
economically impotent. Affirmative action was designed to level
this uneven playing field. It was not, nor should it be, a remedy
for gender inequalities.
This is not to say gender inequalities are not important and
undeserving of attention, however. When white women benefit from
affirmative action the issues of racism and white supremacy are put
on the back burner.
Allow me to explain. In America there is a thing called white
supremacy. Guys named Bubba and Bobby Joe running around in white
shorts are not the only manifestations of white supremacy in
America. In fact, it is much more institutionalized and destructive
than that. White supremacy is the idea that all things white and
European are inherently "better" than all things black, African or
from any other part of the world. This leads to the exclusion of
"other" cultures and histories from educational curriculum and a
depressed psychology of those who do not identify with the dominant
culture. In addition, it leads to the creation of a racial
hierarchy that places white men on top and everyone else under
them.
White women, by "virtue" of being white, hold a position in
society above everyone else, except for white men. So, if they are
included in affirmative action, the racial hierarchy remains the
same. Even if African Americans and other "people of color" take
one step forward, we remain two steps behind white women (and who
knows how many white men).
Without an effective campaign that includes the issue of race,
Proposition 209 will doubtless pass. African Americans are too
large of a constituency on this issue to be ignored. The
presidential campaign will do little to draw African Americans to
the polls. Many African Americans hardly see a difference between
Clinton and Dole, especially with Clinton’s signing of the Welfare
Reform Act and general rightward political shift. As far as
California is concerned, Proposition 209 serves as one of the only
tools to draw us out to vote; however, this will not happen as long
as our issues continue to be diluted.
Perhaps, more than anything, our exclusion from the debate
should put African Americans on notice.
As an increasingly marginalized minority, it is crucial that we
develop our own voices. Regardless of the triumphs of the Civil
Rights Movement, affirmative action was a government concession
that was given to us. As long as something is given, it can be
taken away. If we create our own institutions and solutions we
become the masters of our destiny.