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GOP In Denial About Its Race Problem

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Sun Dec 22, 2002 at 10:15:59 PM EST
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An African-American ex-White House staffer says the GOP is in denial about its race problem. We agree, but it seems the staffer is in denial as well--about what it is the Republican party stands for. She asserts, astonishingly to us,

"In its soul, and in its history, the GOP is a party of moderates. We are at our core a party of abolitionists, suffragists, civil rights supporters and fighters for the individual liberty of all people."

The author begs the GOP to reach out more to Black professionals like herself--the black middle class. What about the less fortunate African-Americans, what does the GOP offer them? The GOP has offered a solitary, ill-advised response to crime for decades: Build more prisons and increase penalties. Does the staffer really think it is okay that compassion is extended only to successful, productive members of society. Where does that leave these African-Americans:

  • 1.4 million African American men, or 13% of black men, are disenfranchised, a rate seven times the national average. Given current rates of incarceration, three in ten of the next generation of black men can expect to be disenfranchised at some point in their lifetime. In states that disenfranchise ex-offenders, as many as 40% of black men may permanently lose their right to vote.
  • Nearly one in seven (13.4%) black males aged 25-29 were in prison or jail in 2001, as were 1 in 24 (4.1%) Hispanic males and 1 in 55 (1.8%) white males in the same age group.
  • 46% of prison inmates in 2001 were black and 16% were Hispanic.
  • Black males have a 29% chance of serving time in prison at some point in their lives; Hispanic males have a 16% chance; white males have a 4% chance.

    (Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics and The Sentencing Project)

    As the ACLU reminds us:
    The war on crime and drugs has disproportionately targeted people of color for arrest, prosecution and long, mandatory prison sentences so that today, one-third of all black men in their twenties are either behind bars, on probation or. Voting districts created to provide fair representation have been undermined by lawmakers and by the courts, and felony disenfranchisement laws have robbed hundreds of thousands of minorities of their right to vote. Segregation and discrimination in housing opportunity still exists, and a backlash against affirmative action in employment and education threatens to slam the door of opportunity in the faces of those who are most deserving. Anti-immigrant laws have stripped away basic civil rights for many of the nation’s ethnic minorities. We have come a long way since Jim Crow ruled the South, but deeply entrenched discrimination, subjugation, subordination, and racial violence are still with us and affect not only African-Americans, but Latinos, Asian Americans, American Indians, and Arab Americans as well."
    Spare us the GOP "compassionate conservative" jingle.

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