Obama`s “Civil Rights” Vision: Quotas, Increased Crime, More Socialism
Where does Barack Obama really stand on racial
issues? Is he the post-racial bipartisan conciliator of
his campaign image, or is he the black racial activist
depicted in his autobiography?
On this issue, for once, Obama`s stance is quite clear.
Acolytes in the Obama Cult are taught that, when
proselytizing over the phone for new converts, they
should not answer direct questions about what Obama
stands for, other than
"hope" and
"change,"
but instead should tell the inquirer to go look up
the candidate`s policy positions on
BarackObama.com.
So let`s look carefully at Obama`s "Civil Rights"
webpage.
(In case you are wondering, all three surviving
candidates` websites have an "Issues" page, but
only
Obama`s has a "Civil Rights"
subpage. In contrast, on Hillary`s
website, one of the "Issues"
sections is entitled "A
Champion for Women," but none of the “issues”
she chooses to feature is specifically devoted to race.
And
McCain`s website doesn`t give civil rights prominent
play.)
Obama`s Civil Rights page also links to a more explicit
"Plan"
handed out by Obama`s team when the Senator spoke at
black Howard University in 2007.
Here are excerpts (in italics) from these two civil
rights documents on the official Obama website:
“Barack Obama`s Record
“Record of Advocacy: Obama has worked to promote civil
rights and fairness in the criminal justice system
throughout his career. As a community organizer, Obama
helped 150,000 African Americans register to vote.“
Notice that the document doesn`t say "150,000
American citizens." It says, "150,000
African Americans." That`s not a typo or
an oversight. Obama got into the voter registration
business not out of some general commitment to democracy
but
to boost the political muscle of blacks.
“As a civil rights lawyer, Obama litigated
employment discrimination,
housing discrimination, and
voting rights cases.”
Obama likes to
brag that, as
president of the Harvard Law Review, he could
have taken any high paying legal job in the country, but
that he chose a lower paying job as a civil rights
lawyer.
Swell. But keep in mind that the more the Obama
Administration tries to carry out Obama`s personal
passion for crushing
residual examples of discrimination against blacks,
the more false positive errors it will make and
unjustly accuse whites.
In statistics, that`s called the
Type I Error vs. Type II Error tradeoff.
As I
wrote in VDARE in 2003, the unfortunate reality is
that racial quotas are the inevitable by-products of
our
anti-discrimination laws.
These laws place the burden of proof on the employer to
justify any
deviation from equal outcomes in hiring and
promotions. Lawsuits can be won. But the cost can be so
crushing that most firms will do just about anything to
stay out of court. So they use quotas.
Lots of pundits don`t understand this logic. But Obama
is a very smart guy. He gets it. That he chose to
sacrifice income in order to, in effect, push for more
quotas for
legally protected minorities is not something that
I, as a legally non-protected non-minority, find
reassuring.
“As a State Senator, Obama passed one of the country`s
first racial profiling laws.”
He cracked down on the police using racial
profiling—great! As I
wrote in VDARE.COM in 2003, despite the War On
Crime, there are still roughly five 9-11`s worth of
Americans murdered each year. And that could easily go
back up if the cops are constrained.
Simply put, the police can use either of two alternative
strategies:
-
They can sit around eating donuts and
wait for bad guys to commit crimes.
-
Or they can get in the face of potential bad guys and
prevent crimes.
To do the latter, though, they have to use the brains
God gave them to figure out
who is more likely to cause trouble.
And that`s when they get blamed for profiling.
Obama`s website goes on:
“…and helped reform a broken death penalty system.”
To give credit where it`s due:
Obama`s leadership on getting police interrogations
in Illinois videotaped was an excellent piece of good
government work to clean up a horrific situation where
cops were torturing suspects.
On the other hand, would Obama have invested so much
effort in this worthy reform if it didn`t primarily
benefit blacks?
For example, has he crusaded to cut down on
prison rape? I can`t find evidence on
Google of him paying much attention to the issue.
At first glance, prison rape might seem like a violation
of civil rights. Yet you`re forgetting that the words
"civil rights" are used solely in a
"Who? Whom?" sense these days. If whites are
violating the rights of blacks, that is a civil
rights issue. If blacks are violating (literally)
whites, as
typically happens in cases of prison rape, well,
that`s not a civil rights issue. That`s just something
the cool cops on TV shows make jokes about when
arresting the
Great White Defendant.
“And
in the U.S. Senate, Obama has been a leading advocate
for protecting the right to vote, helping to reauthorize
the Voting Rights Act and leading the opposition against
discriminatory barriers to voting.”
The "discriminatory barriers to voting" that
Obama`s against are photo-ID laws that would keep urban
political machines (like, oh, say, Mayor Daley`s Cook
County machine that helped him win big in this year`s
Illinois primary) from cheating and
would keep illegal immigrants from voting
I believe that the original
1965 Voting Rights Act was necessary and hugely
successful. But subsequent reauthorizations have
featured a cynical bargain between Republicans and
minority politicians to corral black and Hispanic voters
in
gerrymandered "majority-minority" districts.
This guarantees black and Hispanic politicians a lot of
seats in state legislatures and the House of
Representatives. But it`s also a major reason why blacks
more authentically African American than the
preppie from paradise have had so much trouble
moving up to statewide office. They have to
start their careers out as
"race men" to get elected. But unlike the
preternaturally politically gifted Obama, however, most
of them aren`t talented enough to backtrack rhetorically
later and win the votes of whites in races for
Senator or
President.
Let`s read through the rest of Obama`s "Civil Rights"
policy platform:
“The Problem
“Pay Inequity Continues: For every $1.00 earned by a
man, the average woman receives only 77 cents, while
African American women only get 67 cents and Latinas
receive only 57 cents.”
Is this a civil rights problem or a human
capital problem? That sounds academic, but the
distinction is crucial. Calling it a civil rights
inequity automatically suggests a particular solution:
even more quotas.
“Hate Crimes on the Rise: The number of hate crimes
increased nearly 8 percent to 7,700 incidents in 2006.”
Obama`s speech deploring the prosecution of the
six black football players in
Jena, LA who
stomped a white youth unconscious suggests that the
candidate has an awfully Who? Whom? view of what
comprises a hate crime. Obama orated:
"Fifty years after the events in Little Rock, we have
the recent events in Jena, Louisiana—with
nooses hanging on a tree in a schoolyard and the
overcharging of African American teens for a schoolyard
fight."
In reality, it`s unlikely that the September noose
incident had anything to do with the December six-on-one
stomping, but if Obama is right that the black star
athletes` assault was racially motivated, then the
blacks should have also been charged with a hate
crime.
“Efforts Continue to Suppress the Vote: A recent study
discovered numerous organized efforts to intimidate,
mislead and suppress minority voters.”
More of the black leftist paranoia you`d expect from a
follower of Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.
The biggest problem black voters face, as shown by
Florida in 2000, is that they tend to botch up their
ballots more often than other groups—because they have
weaker average ability to follow directions. If Florida
blacks had managed to fill out their ballots in a usable
fashion at the same rate as Florida whites, Al Gore
would have become President. But black incompetence is
not a civil rights issue, it`s a
human capital issue. Incompetence also affects lots
of people, like all the
elderly Jews in Florida who accidentally voted for
Pat Buchanan.
This could be turned into a nonracial good
government issue by a call for the use of voting
machines with error checking technology. But Obama would
never admit
that black voters,
on average, have a harder time following simple
instructions. It`s so much easier to call it a civil
rights issue.
“Disparities Continue to Plague Criminal Justice System:
African Americans and Hispanics are more than twice as
likely as whites to be searched, arrested, or subdued
with force when stopped by police. Disparities in drug
sentencing laws, like the differential treatment of
crack as opposed to
powder cocaine, are unfair.”
Which shows African Americans and Hispanics aren`t being
stopped enough.
Think about it for a moment. If Non-Asian Minorities
(NAMs) were being arrested per stop only half as
much as whites, that would show NAMs were being stopped
too much, and thus were victims of unfair racial
profiling. But, instead, the opposite is happening.
Simple logic shows that cops should be
stopping them more and stopping whites less. Then
the stop/arrest ratio would be the same. (It`s like the
mortgage default rate scam—which is
now a factor in the
subprime mortgage mess.)
Of course, Obama is proud to have passed a law to make
this worse.
“Barack Obama`s Plan
“Strengthen Civil Rights Enforcement
“Obama will reverse the politicization that has occurred
in the Bush Administration`s Department of Justice. He
will put an end to the ideological litmus tests used to
fill positions within the Civil Rights Division.”
Bottom line: More quotas, ahoy!
Obama`s Howard U. "Fact
Sheet" is much franker about Obama`s concern
that blacks
haven`t been getting enough lawyer jobs in the
Justice Department:
"Moreover, the House Judiciary Committee, under
Congressman John Conyers`s lead, has been investigating
allegations that the Criminal Section has failed to hire
a single African American attorney since 2003 to replace
those who have left – leaving this important Section
with only
2 African American lawyers out of fifty."
More jobs for the boys!
“Combat Employment Discrimination
“Obama will work to overturn the Supreme Court`s
recent ruling that curtails racial minorities` and
women`s ability to challenge pay discrimination. Obama
will also pass the Fair Pay Act to ensure that women
receive equal pay for equal work.”
Even more quotas, ahoy!
By the way, in 2006 the Illinois Senator
went out of his way to record a radio ad opposing
Ward Connerly`s Michigan initiative outlawing racial
preferences in state government. But Connerly triumphed
over Obama 58 percent to 42 percent.
“Expand Hate Crimes Statutes
“Obama will strengthen federal hate crimes legislation
and reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of
Justice`s Criminal Section.”
That`s pretty scary-sounding. (To Obama`s credit,
however, he once did
quietly send a letter to a constituent saying he
approved of an independent inquiry into the notorious
prosecutor
Mike Nifong in the
Duke Lacrosse hoax case. Granted, he was a
year behind VDARE.com, but by the very low standards
to which Presidential candidates are held, that`s not
bad.)
“End Deceptive Voting Practices
“Obama will sign into law his legislation that
establishes harsh penalties for those who have engaged
in
voter fraud and provides voters who have been
misinformed with accurate and full information so they
can vote.”
Hmmm. Do you think Obama`s Justice Department will go
after voter fraud in Obama`s own Cook County?
Do you think he`ll crack down on illegal immigrants
voting?
Do you think he`s really going to go after all the black
ministers who take "walking
around money" from political parties? By the
way, did you notice that Obama`s Rev. Wright is moving
to a
10,000 square foot mansion on a golf course in a
gated community in a 93% white suburb? Do you think
President Obama will have the Justice Dept. look into
his own church`s finances?
“End Racial Profiling
“Obama will ban racial profiling by
federal law enforcement agencies and provide federal
incentives to state and local police departments to
prohibit the practice.”
More 9/11s, ahoy!
George W. Bush`s fight against
profiling Arabs by airport security contributed to
the climate in which Mohammed Atta and his 19 friends
freely boarded four jetliners. Do you think Barack
Hussein Obama is going to do anything to make us safer
from people with, say,
Muslim middle names?
“Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender
Support
“Obama will provide job training, substance abuse and
mental health counseling to
ex-offenders, so that they are successfully
re-integrated into society. Obama will also create a
prison-to-work incentive program to improve ex-offender
employment and job retention rates.”
Not necessarily a bad idea, but mostly a state duty.
Ron Paul would say it`s time for the Feds to get out
of the way of states experimenting with criminal justice
systems.
Anyway, there are already lots and lots of programs for
ex-cons. Unless Obama has identified a few that actually
work, this is just a call for more money for his
social worker constituency.
“Eliminate Sentencing Disparities
“Obama believes the disparity between sentencing crack
and powder-based cocaine is wrong and should be
completely eliminated.”
Perhaps a good idea, but calling it a civil rights issue
just shows Obama`s racial tendentiousness. Keep in mind
that the increased penalties for crack were demanded in
the 1980s primarily by black leaders such as Rev.
Jesse Jackson and Rep. Charlie Rangel. Back then,
crack was cool and was sweeping across the black
community, with disastrous effect. Today, everybody
knows it`s the devil`s own drug, so it`s less of a
threat.
Also, it`s a myth that large numbers of NAMs are being
sentenced to prison who are mere drug users. In truth,
as Sam Quinones
pointed out in the LA Times recently, [A
familial mean street, March 30, 2008] it`s hard
to convict
gang-affiliated crack dealers of trafficking in
drugs or perpetrating violence because their
gangs threaten witnesses with death. So, they often
get put away on drug possession charges, because those
require only physical evidence.
Anyway, this is another example of where federalization,
such as determining the length of prison sentences,
which was reserved in the Constitution for the states,
just gets in the way of good government. If drug
sentencing had been allowed to remain a state
prerogative, then supporters of change could point to
how, say,
Idaho, had reduced sentencing for crack down to the
same level as powder cocaine with good results. But,
since this law was passed at the federal level,
experimentation can only take place at the all or
nothing federal level, which, reasonably enough, makes
people wary of experimenting with laws that, at great
cost, have
helped reduce the crime rate.
A better approach would be for the federal government to
pass a law allowing state governments to vote to change
the law in their state. But that would be …
States Rights, which, by
definition, is evil.
“Expand Use of Drug Courts
“Obama will give first-time, non-violent offenders a
chance to serve their sentence, where appropriate, in
the type of drug rehabilitation programs that have
proven to work better than a prison term in changing bad
behavior.”
Once again, from a non-racialist`s perspective,
shouldn`t this be a state criminal justice issue, not a
federal civil rights issue?
"Restore Professionalism to the Civil Rights Division:
Barack Obama will reverse the politicization that has
occurred in the Bush Administration`s DOJ. He will put
an end to the ideological litmus tests used to fill
nonpolitical positions within the Division and ensure
that the nation`s civil rights lawyers are just that –
civil rights lawyers."
In other words, Obama will banish anybody who has any
principled doubts about
racial preferences and put the Department of Justice
firmly back in the hands of people who make their living
off quotas.
And then there`s this doozy:
"Fight Pay Discrimination …
"Obama is also a cosponsor of Senator Tom Harkin`s
(D-IA)
Fair Pay Act. As president, Obama will support
legislation to promote paycheck equity – the right of
women to receive equal compensation to that provided
comparably qualified men.”
In other words:
comparable worth, which was such a incredibly stupid
idea that it never passed even back in the Stupid
Seventies when feminists dreamed it up. This doctrine
says that the federal government should oversee the
wages of everybody in private industry to make sure that
mostly male occupations, such as truck driver, don`t
get paid more than mostly female occupations, such as
librarian. It`s basically equity-driven socialism.
Harvard economist Greg Mankiw, author of the
best-selling economics textbook,
blogged last year when he heard about what Harkin
and Obama were up to:
"In the first edition of
my favorite economics textbook, there was a section
on comparable worth.` Eventually, my editor suggested I
take it out, on the grounds that economic logic had
finally killed off this bad idea. But like Lord
Voldemort in the first Harry Potter book
the idea
was weakened, but not dead."
In short: The totality of Obama`s career since age 23
adds up to a man who has been in the business of
taking from whites and
giving to blacks.
Or at least that`s the impression he tried to give. How
much benefit he actually did for blacks is another
question altogether.
All that we can say with confidence is that Barack
Obama`s career has been very, very good for Barack Obama.
But will it be good for America?
[Steve Sailer (email
him) is founder of the Human Biodiversity Institute and
movie critic
for
The American Conservative.
His website
www.iSteve.blogspot.com
features his daily blog.]
