natina
03-21-2013, 07:39 AM
GOP, confront your racism problem
may consider offensive.
(CNN) -- When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he reportedly said Democrats would lose the South for a generation. At the time, 115 of the 128 senators and representatives from the 11 former Confederate states were white Democrats.
Today, all Democratic congressmen from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia are black, except for John Barrow of Georgia; and all Republican congressmen from these states are white, except for Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Part of that has to do with policy. And a lot of that has to do with the white backlash Johnson correctly predicted.
So if Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and his cohorts are really serious about bringing minorities into their big tent, they need to do more than massage the party's message. They need to do more than rethink its policies. They have to be honest about who is in their tent already.
I applaud the effort of the RNC's 98-page Growth and Opportunity Project report. But it's hard to characterize it as an honest assessment of the party when it doesn't include the words "racism," "racists" or "racist" in it. How can this so-called "autopsy" be accurate when it doesn't include the cause of death?
I'm not saying the Republican Party is full of bigots.
I'm saying history teaches us that the Republican Party is where white racists in the South turned for shelter in response to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the remnants of that migration is still impacting its image today.
To characterize the Republican Party's difficulties to grasp the country's new demographics as "they're too old and white" oversimplifies a conversation that is much more nuanced than that. The reason why some minorities -- particularly blacks -- have a distaste for the Republican Party is because ........
MORE HERE PLUS VIDEO
GOP, confront your racism problem
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/granderson-gop-racism/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/granderson-gop-racism/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/granderson-gop-racism/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/granderson-gop-racism/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
may consider offensive.
(CNN) -- When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he reportedly said Democrats would lose the South for a generation. At the time, 115 of the 128 senators and representatives from the 11 former Confederate states were white Democrats.
Today, all Democratic congressmen from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia are black, except for John Barrow of Georgia; and all Republican congressmen from these states are white, except for Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Part of that has to do with policy. And a lot of that has to do with the white backlash Johnson correctly predicted.
So if Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and his cohorts are really serious about bringing minorities into their big tent, they need to do more than massage the party's message. They need to do more than rethink its policies. They have to be honest about who is in their tent already.
I applaud the effort of the RNC's 98-page Growth and Opportunity Project report. But it's hard to characterize it as an honest assessment of the party when it doesn't include the words "racism," "racists" or "racist" in it. How can this so-called "autopsy" be accurate when it doesn't include the cause of death?
I'm not saying the Republican Party is full of bigots.
I'm saying history teaches us that the Republican Party is where white racists in the South turned for shelter in response to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the remnants of that migration is still impacting its image today.
To characterize the Republican Party's difficulties to grasp the country's new demographics as "they're too old and white" oversimplifies a conversation that is much more nuanced than that. The reason why some minorities -- particularly blacks -- have a distaste for the Republican Party is because ........
MORE HERE PLUS VIDEO
GOP, confront your racism problem
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/granderson-gop-racism/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/granderson-gop-racism/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/granderson-gop-racism/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/granderson-gop-racism/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn