Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Conyers isn't color blind
From The Hill, we have the full text of a letter Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) sent to Secretary of State Clinton last week:
Dear Secretary Clinton:
As you know, the 42 member Congressional Black Caucus met with Rajiv Shah, the Administrator of the U.S. AID yesterday to discuss the crisis in Haiti. I was alarmed and chagrined to learn that none of the approximately dozen staff he brought with him were African American. This is so serious an error in judgement that it warrants his immediate demotion to a subordinate position at AID. It is well known that there has long been an under-representation of minorities in key positions within the State Department. I am confident this Administration will immediately begin addressing this problem.
I look forward to meeting with you on this matter.
Sincerely,
John Conyers, Jr.
Member of Congress
A number of observations:
1. It's good that Rep. Conyers can at least count to 12, sort of.
2. Somehow, someone named "Rajiv Shah" (which we can reasonably infer does not tend to indicate someone of Anglo-Saxon or European origins) is not the correct color of non-white to satisfy Rep. Conyers.
3. The State Department hasn't exactly been holding cross burnings over the past couple of generations, and it isn't a stretch to say that it has been one of the better bastions of Liberalism within the executive branch of the federal government during that time (Justice also comes to mind). The two previous Secretaries of State have had levels of melanin that presumably were more satisfactory to Rep. Conyers, although their politics was perhaps less satisfactory from his perspective. Point is, if State can't be politically correct enough for him, he is going to really struggle with other departments.
4. While I am sure that there are many excellent African-American employees at State, perhaps assigned to areas of long-standing and key strategic importance to the U.S., how could it possibly matter what the racial make-up of a particular task force is? Does Rep. Conyers believe the Haitian people will be offended and that their situation will be made worse? At this point, isn't Haiti happy to receive aid from pretty much anyone? If there is an earthquake in Mexico, should it be State Department policy to make sure that there is at least one Mexican-American on the Hill to brief Congress and then to visit government officials in Mexico City?
I actually agree with President Obama that it would be good to get race out of politics in the U.S. Interestingly, one way of doing that is by actually getting race out of politics -- as in, don't count noses of one color or the other, especially when there is a crisis in a nearby country.
8 Comments:
By 
JPMcT, at
Wed Feb 10, 07:27:00 AM:
Perhaps the matter sould best be addressed by the Supreme Court...now that they have a new justice experienced in matters of white/black bean counting.
Have they NO shame????
By 
, at
Wed Feb 10, 11:17:00 AM:
Barack really didn't mean it when he said he wanted race out of politics.
If he did, a good place to start would be to urge the Congressional Black caucus to admit non-blacks. Currently non-blacks are not allowed to join.
By Georg Felis, at
Wed Feb 10, 11:39:00 AM:
Imagine the same letter written by a Republican member of Congress with the words "White" and "Black" switched. Howls of Racism would echo throughout DC, and an effort to forcably remove said Congresscritter from office would be in full bloom by the end of the day.
So how is it less racist written this way?
By , at
Wed Feb 10, 12:04:00 PM:
Where do i sign up for the next Anglo Saxon disaster? I feel especially qualified for any crisis in either Edinburgh or Glasgow. If there is any expertise needed, say economics or medicine, I would do my best to learn it quickly.
M.E.
By , at
Wed Feb 10, 12:40:00 PM:
Who cares about what the most blatantly racist and unconstitutional organization wants?
The Congressional Black Caucus should not be a recognized group.
By , at
Wed Feb 10, 12:44:00 PM:
"Currently non-blacks are not allowed to join."
Also. No conservatives need apply.
By , at
Wed Feb 10, 02:35:00 PM:
It has been apparent for a long time that the Congressional Black Causus is the most blatantly racist government organisation out there. I would like to thank Rep. Conyers for making that obvious. Now perhaps we can vote out this racist group and seat color blind representatives to replace them.
By John Cunningham, at
Wed Feb 10, 04:02:00 PM:
I forget which blog had this comment on it, but it was great. the guy proposed offering to the Black Caucus a deal where only food grown by black farmers would be sent to Haiti, only meds invented by blacks and produced in black-owned factories, etc...only black pilots would fly in supplies.
what a bunch of scummy racists!
