LOST IN TRANSLATION: LA RAZA IS NOT A RACIST ORGANIZATION

Seriously, why did it take this long for someone to call out this whole “La Raza means ‘the race’, so La Raza is racist” crap? Given that the ones who keep throwing that out have been called out for sayaing and doing a hell a lot worse, one would think that they would have been skewered a long time ago. Eh, better late than never, we suppose. Adriana Maestas from LatinoPoliticsBlog.com stepped up to the plate and knocked it out the park. She has been someone who routinely calls out the conservative political stunt to paint every prominent Black and Hispanic political figure (that doesn’t suck up to them) racists. She defended Rev. Wright when they did it to him, and now that the usual suspects like Marcus Epstein employer Tom Tancredo is popping off with his garbage, she is defending the National Council of La Raza. Any person with half a brain – which might exclude Tancredo – can see there’s no comparison to NCLR and the Ku Klux Klan, so it is unfortunate to see that these things have to be reinforced from time to time. And here’s something to think about: If Tom Tancredo, Pat and Bay Buchanan, Sean Hannity Bill O’Reilly, and the rest of these right-wing loudmouths have a problem with a group, should that not be the first clue that the group might be legit?

Adriana Maestas, LatinoPoliticsBlog.com

One of the more outrageous claims to come out of the Judge Sonia Sotomayor nomination is the notion flung to the media by former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo that the National Council of La Raza is the a “Latino KKK without the hoods and the nooses.” This comment was made in reference to Sotomayor’s membership in the largest Hispanic rights organization in the US. This is one absurd idea that needs to be explained for those who keep harping on “la raza” as being a racist organization.

One of the most obvious reasons why the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is not the “Latino KKK” is that it was founded by money from the Ford Foundation in the late 1960s to gather information about Mexican Americans and other Latino groups to help lift them out of poverty. The initial financial support came from the Council of Churches, the United Auto Workers, and the Ford Foundation grant. The founding members had academic and community leadership credentials. The founding and organization have been very public and connected to establishment organizations, where as the KKK has been more secretive and violent. Actually, history shows that Klan members had to take an oath.

Another obvious issue that Congressman Tancredo and other people forget in making this comparison of NCLR to the KKK is the violent history used to restore white supremacy. NCLR does not condone or encourage violence, and while it advocates for Latino rights and parity in U.S. society, it doesn’t promote “brown supremacy.”

In fact, some more radical members of the Latino community think that the organization does not go far enough in advocating for their interests.

While the KKK is more extreme, violent, and associated with the fringe elements of society, NCLR is definitely a mainstream organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C. and a leadership that has ties to former Congressional members, presidents, and US academic institutions. Would the President and CEO of a “Latino KKK” be honored as an influential person or appear with the leaders of other civil rights organizations like the NAACP and others? Janet Murguia, the current head of NCLR, has served in the Clinton administration, the administration of the University of Kansas, and worked in the Gore-Lieberman campaign in 2000. Her ties to the traditional political establishment run deep.

Finally, if one really wants to know who is funding or supporting NCLR, he should look to its list of corporate partners, which include Bank of America, Coca-Cola, General Motors, UPS, and Wal-Mart. Some of these organizations have been sued for discrimination and labor relations issues, and of course, some have become the recipient of government bailout money. Would these organizations lend their names to the KKK or an organization like it? I don’t think so. It would be a PR disaster. Large corporate entities have been trying to clean up their acts, not soil them by aligning themselves with a “Latino KKK.”

So the “tan klan” and “Latino KKK” assertions need to be grounded in reality before people start repeating and letting them dominate the narrative about Latino judicial or political appointees who happen to be members of NCLR.

If NCLR is in fact what Tom Tancredo is telling us it is, I know that neither I nor my Latino friends who tend to be clued into community advocacy issues, have been invited to the latest secret meeting. We don’t know what the secret oath or handshakes are.

Perhaps Tancredo knows something that we don’t, and if he does, I would like to see the evidence.