Nathan Scandella (personal)

No Perspective on Racial Progress

I was reading this story today, in USA Today online:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2008-12-17-Hispanic_N.htm

The premise of the article is that Obama's nomination of a couple of prominent Hispanic politicians is both progress, and a setback for Hispanics. The part about progress should be obvious. The part about a setback hinges on the fact that Hispanics getting promotions leaves fewer Hispanics in the organizations they leave. Uh ... no. It's progress, period.

Getting offered a Cabinet position, and having to leave the Senate, is a promotion. If it wasn't, then the nominee (in this case, Ken Salazar of Colorado) could simply decline the offer. Just because Salazar isn't replaced with a Hispanic, doesn't mean this move is a setback. In fact, he could be replaced with a Hispanic, if a Hispanic arises as the most qualified replacement candidate, and wins favor of the Colorado governor (I assume that's how Colorado replaces Senators). Progress in Civil Rights doesn't mean that once a ethnic group wins a seat in a body of government, they receive automatic renewal of that seat forever. C'mon. This is ridiculous.

Secondly, Hispanics are losing power in the Senate because another Hispanic Senator, Mel Martinez of Florida, is choosing not to run for re-election (he's a Republican, so that might be a smart move). Who's fault is this? The White Man? An elected Hispanic official is choosing to step down. That's his decision, and doesn't entitle his ethnic peers to hold onto his seat. It's stupid enough that two major political parties have put their "team" before the good of the American people. We don't need even more teams to work primarily for their own ethnic special interests.

Accordingly, Barack Obama leaving the Senate to take the most powerful job in the world is not a setback for Black America. It's a sign that, on the whole, the country does believe in other issues more than racial preferences. And that's a good thing. Not a good-and-bad thing. A good thing. End of story.

Posted at 08:08PM Jan 08, 2009 by Nathan in General  |  Comments[0]