¿Qué pasa con la raza?


Are Hispanics in government putting race before ideology when they support the Gonzales nomination?

I've been pissed about Ken Salazar's introduction of Alberto Gonzales to the Senate Judiciary Committee. I'd rooted for Salazar as he ran against W-esque beer heir Pete Coors in the 2004 race for an open Senate seat in Colorado, and was gratified when he won. I was glad first and foremost because he was a Democrat who seemed to support the ideals of our party.

When I heard his kind words for Alberto, I was disappointed:

I am honored to introduce to the Senate Judiciary Committee Judge Alberto Gonzales as the president's nominee to be our nation's next attorney general. I do so at the invitation of Judge Gonzales. He and I come from similar backgrounds. We both understand the struggles people face as they try to build a better life for our families in America.

Sure, there are some similarities between their backgrounds, and they're of the same check-box ethnicity. But the man stands so clearly against something that all Democrats ought to hold dear -- the primacy of the rights of the individual above the prerogatives of the state -- that it's sickening to hear Ken give voice in support of his nomination.

In what sense does Gonzales "understand the struggles" of the people who have been incarcerated without hearing or trial by the US? In what sense has he evinced the slightest concern for the downtrodden? To what extent can we trust him to safeguard the rights of the least among us when it's so clear that he has cultivated the ability to compartmentalize his thinking about human rights, allowing certain rights for some and none for others?

From the Christian Science Monitor:

"I agree with President Bush when he said that in many ways Mr. Gonzales embodies the American dream. The American dream, however, involves more than the ability of the poor and dispossessed to gain power and prestige," said Kennedy. It also involves respecting "the dignity and worth of all human personality," he added, citing Martin Luther King Jr. - a standard violated by torture and abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo, he added.

Why does the fact that he's got the same color skin make Ken Salazar like and trust this man? Why do so many Latino groups believe he's anything other than a Tío Tomás? In the same CSM article that contains the Kennedy quote above, one Hispanic activist opines that Gonzales' ethnicity confers greater access to the administration:

"We know Gonzales," says Ms. Navarrete. As chief counsel to the president, "he was accessible and made himself and the administration more accessible to Latino organizations across the country."


¡Idiota pendeja! As long as the access of Hispanics to the government is in any way contingent on particular Hispanics holding particular offices, nothing has been won.

I just don't get it. I didn't feel the slightest twitch of an inclination to support Bobby Jindal, even though he's Indian, because I knew he was a fascist scumbag. Then again, it's not lost on me that (despite the fact that we're occasionally mistaken for each other by roving gangs of urban whites) the Hispanic and Indian-American experiences don't have a lot in common.

Posted: Mon - January 31, 2005 at 03:31 PM   | Category:     |   |   | |


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