David on Al Jazeera's Inside Story: Are the Oscars too white?

On Embracing the Diversity of the Jewish Diaspora

(Huffington Post)  As Jewish people across the United States and throughout the world celebrate Passover an remember their past, this is a perfect time to reflect on diversity and the future of the Jewish diaspora.

In this community, like so many others, everyone does not look, act or think the same. The recent PBS documentary Little White Lie -- the story about Lacey Schwartz, a biracial black-Jewish woman who was raised white -- reminds us about the many hues in the Jewish community.

The organization Be'chol Lashon estimates that at 20 percent of Jewish Americans are of color, which includes Jews of African, Asian and Latino descent, Sephardic or Mizrahi Jews, multiracial Jews, those who converted to Judaism, and people who were adopted by Jewish families.

Twitter's diversity problem

As Twitter went public with its I.P.O. (or Initial Public Offering, its first issuance of stock to the general public), the company has received negative publicity for its diversity problem.  Critics note that the Twitter board of directors consists entirely of white men; while women and people of color are wholly excluded from the decision-making positions in the corporation.

African-Americans are not represented in the senior ranks and the executive team, while Latinos are nearly nonexistent throughout company staff.  The only executive officer who is not white and not a man is Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s newly hired general counsel—a woman of Indian descent.

Otherwise, Twitter faces its critics who believe the diversity problem is reflective of the larger high technology industry.  

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Tea Party Diversity Effort is a Public Relations Scam

Diversity in the Tea Party? Now, that's a contradiction in terms.  FreedomWorks -- a corporate lobbying group behind the Tea Party movement -- has announced that it has launched an outreach effort to minority groups including African-Americans, Latinos and Jews.  The outreach and advertising campaign, called DiverseTea, is a response to claims, substantiated claims I might add, that the Tea Party is racist.

"I really get a little tired of diversity talk from liberals," said FreedomWorks chair Dick Armey.

People of color and other minorities need membership in the Tea Party like they needed membership in the White Citizens' Council during Jim Crow. And the notion of Tea Party diversity is just as implausible. Some organizations simply were not meant for inclusion.  DiverseTea is merely a public relations stunt, an effort to broaden the appeal among white moderates of a faux grassroots movement backed by rightwing philanthropy. In other words, this is a prime example of window dressing -- with expensive white sheets.

On its website, DiverseTea says that government has gotten too big, and they are opposed to "bailouts of the irresponsible" and "federal bureaucrats taking over our health care," adding:

We are black, brown, and white. We are Jew and gentile. We are from different communities, various backgrounds, and all races, colors, and creeds. We will Take America Back, not from Democrats or Republicans, but from an arrogant political class that puts its interests before those of all Americans.  

But the populist-sounding rhetoric belies the insidious roots of the Tea Party movement.  

FreedomWorks is an organization that engages in "astroturfing" -- the creation of an artificial grassroots movement by powerful lobbyists and corporations. Among its clients are life insurance companies, Big Oil and the pharmaceutical industry, for whom it seeks deregulation and the status quo. A vocal opponent of health reform, FreedomWorks was behind the angry town hall meetings since 2009.  The group worked with BP, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Conservative Union, among others, to create fake "grassroots" support for more offshore oil drilling.

FreedomWorks is funded in part by the billionaire Charles and David Koch, brothers and oil magnates who dabble in ultra-conservative politics because "this right-wing, redneck stuff works for them.  They see this as a way to get things done without getting dirty themselves."  Bringing down the Obama administration is what they're all about, and their pet projects reflect this reality.  They started another astroturf group called Americans for Prosperity, which opposes health care reform, the stimulus and environmental regulation, and helped bring down green jobs czar Van Jones.  Americans for Prosperity has received funding from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which supports the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute, and bankrolled Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action crusade and the infamous book The Bell Curve.        

DiverseTea is not a new phenomenon in the effort to whitewash and sugarcoat intolerant causes.  The Tea Party tried to put on its happy diversity face with UNI-TEA, which has been a flop -- although I'm sure Uncle Ruckus is a fan.  And the anti-immigrant organization FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform) created You Don't Speak For Me, a Hispanic anti-immigrant front group, and its defunct African-American counterpart Choose Black America.  FAIR, which drafted the infamous Arizona law SB 1070, has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  The law was signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who proclaimed "I love them [Latinos] from the bottom of my heart."  FAIR has received funding from the white supremacist and pro-eugenics Pioneer Fund, which supports studies linking race, genetics and intelligence.  And even as Tea Party now represents the energy of the Republican Party, the homophobic GOP claims to make overtures to gay Republicans, another oxymoron.  This, as it has alienated the LGBT community, Muslims, Arabs, Latinos, blacks and anyone who is not a straight, white conservative Christian fundamentalist.

For further proof that diversity and tea don't mix, one need only observe the movement's standard bearers who aspire to political office.  For example, Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul argued that the federal government should allow private businesses to discriminate against blacks.  Delaware Senate hopeful Christine O'Donnell said she wouldn't have lied to Hitler to save Jews from the Nazis.  Ken Buck, the Tea Party senatorial candidate from Colorado, opposes abortion even in the case of rape and incest.  He also believes that the military should not allow the openly gay to serve, and should be as homogeneous as possible.  Meanwhile, New York Tea Party gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino wants to house welfare recipients in prison, where they would receive job training and learn personal hygiene.  He likes to send racist and sexist emails, including a video of African tribesmen called "Obama Inauguration Rehearsal," which is popular on the neo-Nazi website Stormfront.

Similarly, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who has positioned himself as a Tea Party mover and shaker, demonstrated his contempt for diversity when he said that openly gay people and sexually active single women should not be allowed to teach in the classroom.

The only visible minority outreach efforts by the Tea Party seem to involve acts of outright racial animosity and intolerance.  In Harris County, Texas, a Tea Party organization is suppressing the minority vote by lodging unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud against voter registration groups, referring to the headquarters of one such group as the "New Black Panthers' office."

When I look at the current crop of Tea Party faithful, I draw parallels with the Southern segregationists of the 1950s and 1960s.  They would be right at home busting up heads at a lunch counter sit in, or hurling racial epithets at some black student being escorted to school by the National Guard.  Not unlike their forebears, the Tea Partiers reflect the sentiments of the angry lynch mob-- lacking any coherent philosophy other than jingoism, raw anger, their hatred of the "other," and a desire to return to the good ol' days, which were not so good for those other people.  And like the rabble-rousers of Jim Crow fame, they do the dirty work at the behest of oligarchs such as the Koch brothers, who find them useful if not entertaining.

Real diversity means inclusion and tolerance of different viewpoints, backgrounds, orientations and lifestyles, not tokenism.  So, if you are a diverse applicant for admission to the Tea Party gang, know what you're dealing with.  Better yet, know your enemy.  Your work is cut out for you.

Ward Connerly's Super Tuesday for Segregation

Cartoon: Emerge Magazine, March 1998


By David A. Love
Published by The Black Commentator
January 31, 2008

“Supporting segregation need not be racist. One can believe in segregation and believe in equality of the races.”

- Ward Connerly, on CNN’s “Wolf Blitzer Reports,” Dec. 13, 2002

Ward Connerly, that high profile opponent for affirmative action and Black water carrier for the new Jim Crow, has returned. He wants to eliminate affirmative action everywhere, and make a buck at the same time. And with the help of corporate philanthropy and hate groups, he wants to take us back to the future we know too well.

Connerly is plotting and planning for what he calls a Super Tuesday for Equal Rights. The purpose of his campaign is to promote ballot initiatives throughout the country that would eliminate tax dollars to affirmative action programs based on race and gender. Following similar initiatives in California, Michigan and Washington, he has targeted five states for this year’s November ballot - Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Targeting states with relatively low numbers of people of color - and undoubtedly relying on the longstanding effectiveness of racial scapegoating, particularly in hard economic times, Connerly might very well succeed in the absence of a determined and coordinated campaign to quash his efforts.

Although the anti-affirmative action forces seek to eliminate public funding of diversity based on gender as well as race, thereby harming White women as well, it is the so-called “racial preferences” that stick in the minds of people. Part of the time-tested Southern Strategy, anti-diversity campaigns is to appeal to disaffected Whites, who will act against their own interests, if it means the elimination of programs they believe are unfairly benefiting Black and Brown folks.

Destroying the King Legacy is Profitable

So, what’s in it for Connerly? The dollars, of course. Apparently, there is much money to be made in dismantling the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement, and Connerly is first in line to get paid.

In 1993, he was given a platform by California Gov. Pete Wilson with a seat on the California Board of Regents. Soon, he became a crusader against all that is important to Black people. That crusade was made possible through the support of extreme right-wing corporate philanthropy and alliances with White supremacist hate groups. Certainly, behind every puppet there is a puppet master who controls the strings, and Ward Connerly is no exception.

In 1996, Connerly, himself a beneficiary of affirmative action through a California set-aside program for minority contractors, was responsible for the passage of Proposition 209, which eliminated the use of affirmative action by the state government in hiring and university admissions. On the eve of Dr. King’s birthday in 1997, thanks to the generosity of the ultra-conservative Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and others, he formed the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI). (The Bradley Foundation has funded organizations that seek to destroy civil rights, such as the Center for Individual Rights. Charles Murray, author of the infamous book The Bell Curve, is a Bradley fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.) That same year, Connerly also formed the American Civil Rights Coalition (ACRC), the lobbying arm of ACRI. In true Orwellian fashion, these organizations embrace the antithesis of what their names suggest.

The Equal Justice Society reports that in 2003, based on IRS records, Connerly received $1 million in compensation for his anti-civil rights efforts at ACRI and ACRC. This does not include compensation he received as CEO of Connerly & Associates, his Sacramento-based real estate business.

The group Media Transparency has detailed the bankrolling of Ward Connerly’s segregationist operations by the Bradley, Olin and Scaife Foundations. When he was unwilling to disclose the funding sources of his failed Proposition 54 - which would have prevented California from collecting important racial data, thereby crippling any efforts to address racial disparities in healthcare and education - a coalition of civil rights organizations sued him. Connerly, who raised $1.6 million for the 2003 Prop 54 effort, was fined $95,000 for breaking campaign financing disclosure laws. According to the Equal Justice Society, some of his largest contributors included John Moores, Sr., University of California Regents board member and owner of the San Diego Padres ($400,000); Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News ($300,000); Joseph Coors, the late Colorado beer baron and founding partner of the Heritage Foundation ($250,000), and William J. Hume, head of the anti-labor San Francisco-based company Basic American Foods ($200,000).

White Supremacist Support for Anti-Affirmative Action Efforts

If people are judged by the company they keep, then history will not show kindness to Connerly and the foes of civil rights. In his successful campaign to eliminate affirmative action in Michigan, he allied himself with Rev. John Raternik, head of the Michigan chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC).

The CCC, a White supremacist organization, descended from the White Citizens’ Councils of the Jim Crow era and is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The CCC, which has made the issue of non-White immigration a top priority, has declared America “a European country,” opposes “all efforts to mix the races” and refers to Black people as “a retrograde species of humanity.” Well-known figures with ties to the CCC include Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (R-AR), ex-Senator Trent Lott (R-MI), Governor Haley Barbor (R-MI), the late Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, former Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice, and former Alabama Governor Guy Hunt.

Connerly, who supports segregation, welcomed the support of White racist groups in his fight against affirmative action. “If the Ku Klux Klan thinks that equality is right, God bless them,” said Connerly. “Thank them for finally reaching the point where logic and reason are being applied, instead of hate.”

Dishonoring the movement

Conservatives will point to individuals such as Clarence Thomas, Ward Connerly and others who are viewed as “brave” and “courageous” for bucking the Black establishment and taking unpopular views. But there is no bravery in what Connerly does, which is to cynically misappropriate Dr. King’s vision for a colorblind society, in order to strike a blow against the nation’s civil rights protections.

There is no honor in desecrating the graves of the truly courageous martyrs, those such as Viola Liuzzo, a mother of five from Detroit who was gunned down like a dog by the KKK in Alabama in 1965, all for fighting for civil rights. There is no honor in spitting on the memory of voting rights crusader Fannie Lou Hamer, who was jailed and beaten nearly to death by police in Mississippi, and never recovered from her wounds. Nor is there any glory in dishonoring and mocking the name of Vernon Dahmer, who was killed in a terrorist bombing, not in Iraq or Afghanistan, but in his home in Hattiesbug, Mississippi, after volunteering to pay for Black voters’ poll taxes.

A Return to Jim Crow

Years later, what we are witnessing is a concerted effort to bring the country back to the old times, at a time when the nation is becoming increasingly diverse, increasingly Black and Brown. In the absence of mandated diversity programs, the country will revert to de facto segregation.

Some people yearn for the days of exclusion and privilege, when universities maintained a quota of zero for Blacks, a rigid quota for nonwhites, Jews and others, and a place for women - in the home.

The sentiment against diversity is best characterized by President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard, who, in not allowing a Black student to live in the freshman dorms in 1922, told him, “I am sure you will understand why, from the beginning, we have not thought it possible to compel men of different races to reside together.” Lowell, in enforcing a 15 percent quota for Jewish students, stated that “anti-Semitic feeling among the students is increasing, and it grows in proportion to the increase in the number of Jews... when... the number of Jews was small, the race antagonism was small also.” In his racist view, “The summer hotel that is ruined by admitting Jews meets its fate…because they drive away the Gentiles, and then after the Gentiles have left, they leave also.”

Lowell’s ideological heirs are found in the form of Ward Connerly and the members of today’s neo-segregationist movement. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, perhaps the most prominent jockey of that movement, recently voted with the court’s majority to outlaw voluntary integration plans in the public schools. In a concurring opinion, Thomas seemed to channel Lowell when he said that “Simply putting students together under the same roof does not necessarily mean that the students will learn together or even interact. Furthermore, it is unclear whether increased interracial contact improves racial attitudes and relations… Some studies have even found that a deterioration in racial attitudes seems to result from racial mixing in schools.”

Voices of the new segregation, like the old voices of Jim Crow, are having a chilling effect on democratic tendencies in America. It is no accident that, according to Columbia University and the Society of American Law Teachers, enrollment for African-American and Mexican-American students in law schools has continuously declined over the past 15 years, despite high scores and grades from applicants of color. And while the legal profession is disproportionately White, the prisons are disproportionately Black and Latino. What can we do to stop this trend?

One group, The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, is a leader in the struggle to save civil rights and diversity programs in higher education. But groups such as BAMN cannot do it alone. People of goodwill must join together in creating a country that embraces diversity. The alternative is to allow a victory for Ward Connerly, Fox News, the Heritage Foundation and the Klan.