This column from Eugene Kane in today's Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel is exactly what I'm talking about:
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Powell pick too easy to show much
Last Updated: Dec. 18, 2000
Eugene Kane
We usually don't take requests.
But since the column is about to close up shop for the rest of the year, we'll break with tradition.
There's a specific question readers have been asking a lot lately:
"What do you think about George W. Bush naming Colin Powell as the first African-American secretary of state?"
Apparently, some inquiring minds believe that by naming Powell secretary of state, President-elect Bush should immediately be embraced by the African-American community, which overwhelmingly voted against him in the 2000 election.
At the very least, they think Bush's selection of Powell demands some sort of acknowledgment by those (like me) who believe the main reason Bush got so few black votes is he didn't deserve any more.
Well, you asked for it, here's what I think: Frankly, it was a no-brainer. (Lucky for Bush!)
Powell is that rare African-American role model admired by most citizens, regardless of race. He's the black celebrity popular with everyone, like Bill Cosby, Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey.
Or, Reggie White before his church burned down and all those folks who sent him money started crying foul.
Besides, Powell's such a great choice, a close look at his credentials - war hero, leader of a national volunteer movement, respected statesman - would lead many to consider him a better presidential candidate than either Bush or Al Gore.
Now Bush is set to start filling his administration with new faces, and the first round appears to be black and brown. (Just a coincidence, I'm sure.)
Inclusion is always good politics, but nobody needs to start getting excited just because of the color of their skin.
Because, as black folks know, you never know what you're going to get.
You might get a guy like Powell, who has the stones to lecture a Republican National Convention on the continued need for some forms of affirmative action.
Or, you get someone like Condoleezza Rice, the foreign policy expert with political views as extreme as Newt Gingrich.
Bush named Rice national security adviser this week. I had the dubious privilege of meeting her seven years ago during a fellowship at Stanford University.
While impressed by her intelligence, Rice's right-wing politics left me cold. As a professor and later provost at Stanford, she resisted multiculturalism classes and clashed with students seeking more diversity.
Compromise was not regarded as one of her strengths.
At one point, I asked her how someone born and raised in Alabama at a time when many blacks were considered subhuman - Rice, 47, was raised in a segregated but affluent Birmingham neighborhood - could question the need to tear down remaining social barriers in society.
She flared with anger.
"Don't tell me what it was like growing up in the South!" she exclaimed.
Scared the hell out of me. But she never answered the question.
The point is, Powell and Rice may be good selections based on their experience and talent, but neither represents the political views of 90% of blacks who voted for Al Gore.
Asking those voters to react positively to Bush appointees simply because they're black and not because of their stand on the issues makes light of the very real differences many blacks had with Bush during the campaign.
Blacks voted largely Democratic because they chose Gore's vision of America over Bush's.
One job - or two, or three - isn't going to change that.
Besides, if you're truly appointing people based on their qualifications and not color, there's no reason to expect high praise when you chose qualified blacks.
You're just doing the right thing.
Unless what you're really saying is the only time race matters is when it's convenient.
Call Eugene Kane at 223-5521 or e-mail him at ekane@onwis.com
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Dec. 19, 2000.
For any of you just tuning in, please know that I am not a bigot. I marched with Dr. King in 1968, marched here in Milwaukee with Father Groppi to oppose George Wallace. I almost lost my job during college defending a young black co-worker who was being fired for a much smaller infraction of the rules than my bosses routinely committed. And I almost lost the best-paying job I ever had when I was interviewing a photographer for a job who had done work for National Geographic on the kibutzes in Israel. During the interview, my boss pulled me from the interview, called me into her office and said get rid of him. I asked why. "No n***ers, no sp*cs, no Jews," she said.
The columnist is on no higher moral ground than the bigots at the paper I worked for in college, nor the neo-Nazi I worked for in the 1980's. But his bigotry is applauded by the mainstream media instead of being condemned. When, if ever, will a dissenting voice be heard from those who purport to represent "persons of color?"
Dick
