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Telling It Like It Is

Erin Aubry Kaplan is asking the question of the day in today's L.A. Times: Why are so many politicians of color (and I would add any other high-profile Democrats) dismissing the Governor's racist comments?

Kaplan is one of the first writers in a mainstream publication to call this autrocity -- both the Governor's comments and the compliant reaction that followed -- out for what it is, and her analysis is completely spot-on:

I especially recalled — with a cringe more intense than Arnold's, I assure you — the story Schwarzenegger himself told a porn magazine in 1977 about how he and other bodybuilders "jumped" on a black woman at Gold's Gym in Venice; asked if it was a "gang bang," he said yes. The colonialist notion that blacks, especially mulatto women, are notable only for their sexual prowess and availability is hardly new — which is why it's so disturbing to detect it in the remarks of the governor of California in 2006. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

Even more uninspiring is the so-what response by some Latino and black politicians to this whole affair. Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia of Cathedral City, the Puerto Rican lawmaker who was the subject of his remarks, is a Republican before she's a Latina, so she can be expected to accept (or decline as unnecessary) his apology.

But it's discouraging to see Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) and Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier) blow off any negative implications of Arnold's remarks. Is the price of success for Latinos the sense of ethnic identity and common destiny that fueled their rise in the first place?

The black acquiescence bothers me even more — because we know what Arnold meant. The media led with the Latino angle, but the governor's most incendiary comment was that it's "black blood" that makes the difference. Such a worldview calls to mind Jim Crow, the Southern legal system based on strict percentages of "black blood" — also known as the one-drop rule — that segregated public facilities and governed daily life for much of the 20th century.

It is times like these when leaders are distinguished by which side they choose to stand on. With the exception of Phil Angelides and Rep. Barbara Lee, every elected Democratic official in this state has chosen the wrong side, and they should be ashamed of themselves.

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