By Art Torres, Clark Lee and Carlos Orellana
As America takes time to celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this month and as we recognize the contributions of blacks during Black History Month, the national and California Republican Party choose to dismantle affirmative action and continue its outbursts of racial insensitivity.
Sadly, when we honor King’s dream that “one day … the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood,” President Bush and California Republicans’ words and actions only tarnish this noble ideal and affirm a record of utter failure in supporting diversity and civil rights, as we can see in many examples.
First, Republican Congressman Howard Coble, R-N.C., suggested Japanese Americans were interned during World War II for their own protection.
In the face of opposition from four moderate Republican U.S. Senators, George Bush unleashed the power of the presidency to oppose equal opportunity in higher education by asking the Supreme Court to rule the University of Michigan Law School’s affirmative action program unconstitutional.
Randy Ridgel, a member of the California Republican Party’s board of directors, said “there would have been an upside to a Confederate victory in the Civil War.”
And lastly, University of California Regent Ward Connerly said recently that “supporting segregation need not be racist” during an interview surrounding former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.
We are deeply saddened and disheartened that the UCLA Bruin Republicans chose to mimic the extreme views of their right-wing Republican leaders. Unfortunately, this activity is consistent with the Republican right’s tactics to engage in race-based political discourse. It is also their campaign modus operandi as evidenced by the use of the Confederate flag during last November’s election, the scapegoating of Latino and Asian immigrants through the sponsorship of Proposition 187 and the infamous Willie Horton ad by George Bush Sr.’s 1988 presidential campaign.
Where is the outrage from the California Republican members of Congress, State Senate and Assembly to publicly repudiate Ridgel and Connerly’s remarks and oppose the White House’s assault on an affirmative action program that does no harm to higher education?
Their silence can only be interpreted as the Republican Party’s tacit opposition to civil rights and its refusal to recognize that racism is no longer acceptable in American political culture. It is also an indication that the worst of the Republican rhetoric on cultural and racial diversity is yet to come.
What we are not hearing from Republicans is how to make King’s dream a reality. Let us engage in structuring our society on his principles of non-violence and create new possibilities in human relations, in economics, in governance, in politics and in all areas of endeavor.
Democrats stand ready to usher in a new era of dignity by making peace and prosperity work for all of us.
Torres is the chairman of the California Democratic Party; Lee is the western region director of the College Democrats of America, and Orellana is the president of the Democratic Law Students Association at UCLA.