Sunday, February 7, 2010 Page 5-A

Mixed race means what for Blacks?

I used to wonder how people eally felt after they had lived hrough great social upheavals. I imagine, for example, that the mergence of air travel must have een starkly unsettling to people at he turn of the 20th century, who ad lived their entire lives, up to hat point, knowing only travel by and and sea. All of a sudden, the whole paraigm had changed for them and hey were forced to move away from hat had always been familiar and aken for granted, and toward that hich was suddenly the nescapable new reality. I?m beginning to feel that way bout the emergence of the ?mixed ace? phenomenon, here, in the .S. I?m not concerned at all, that here are now more and more peole who proudly self-identify as mixed race.? I?ve always believed hat people should be proud of hoever they are. What I am concerned about, owever, is whether the ?mixed ace? movement carries the potenial over time to reduce Black peole, the racial identity I have always nown, to statistical and cultural rrelevance in the U.S. For example, it?s now Black History Month. How many more years if this trend continues will Blacks ave the demographic significance o qualify for such an annual culturl recognition? I never thought I?d ever have to hink about that. But according to 2008 U.S. Census stimates, 5.2 million people in the .S. identified themselves as elonging to ?more than one race,? n increase of 3.4 percent over the revious year, marking ?mixed race? s one of the fastest-growing demoraphic categories in the country. The election of the first ?mixed ace? president Barack Obama ? ust four months after 2008 Census ata were released ? is expected to ncourage even more people to elf-identify as ?mixed race? in uture Census counts. There are caution signs to note owever. First of all it seems those hose ?mix? includes African genes re still finding that they are a disinct minority in America even as ompared to their ?mixed race? eers. WASHINGTON ? Hope and hange, allow me to introduce you o money and lobbyists. Compromise and bipartisanship, come meet ideological purity. Now, let?s see if we can get some work done. With his rousing State of the nion speech, President Barack bama almost had me persuaded, nce again, that he can change a olitical culture that is self-indulent, hyperpartisan and steeped in onied special interests. He was by urns funny and contrite, firm and ature, using his bully pulpit to rge Congress to abandon a ?peretual campaign where the only oal is to see who can get the most mbarrassing headline about the ther side ? a belief that if you lose, win.? Though the president has had a ough first year ? a year of Republian obstructionism, bipartisan petiness and legislative sausage-makng ? his powerful commitment to eep on trying to overcome gridlock estored my idealism. For a oment or two. Then I remembered that there ere lobbyists and professional ollsters and cynical party hacks ho were already at work to turn So it seems the topic de jour this eek is bipartisanship. I must dmit, it?s refreshing to hear our lected officials on both sides of the isle talk about the need for both ides to work together and put parisanship aside in the interest of the ommon good. Now, I know what ou?re thinking: I?ve heard this efore and sooner rather than later, he politics as usual will prevail and artisan bickering will rule the apitol again. I?ve been in Washington now for almost 15 years and I have to tell you I, too, have heard all of this before and to no surprise nothing has changed in D.C. except to report that they are more personal, more mean-spirited and petty than ever. Among those classified now as ?mixed race,? only 10.9 percent are Black/white mixes. That group is outnumbered by white/Asian persons at 11.9 percent and by white/Native Americans, the highest, at 17.3 percent. Now, I?m going to start a little trouble. Before there can be ?mixed race? children, of course, there must clearly be interracial parents. And here a Pew Research Center report points out that in 73 percent of all Black/white mixed race couples, the husband is Black. That must be indicative of something but I?ll refrain. I?m sure the ?sisters? will have a great deal more to say on that topic. For me, the issue as always must be reduced to a political calculation and whether ?mixed race? people will eventually become their own separate voting bloc. While it?s now still too early to tell, I have read that ?mixed race? Americans have begun to express some dissatisfaction with Obama because they consider him ?one of their own,? yet ?he does not champion the ideas of ?mixed race? identity,? as a local woman in an interracial marriage was quoted. The noise from that particular debate I?m sure will grow louder as we approach future election cycles. Even at this early stage, I can?t help noticing however that ?mixed race? self-identifiers only voted 74 percent for the ?mixed race? president as compared to 92 percent for the Black race-only self-identifiers. Is that where we?re heading? Will ?mixed race? voters line up more and more to vote for ?mixed race? candidates or will they tend to vote as they did in 2008, more for the white candidate than Black voters did? Even further will they ? having grown more secure in their own mixed identity ? begin to move out of predominantly Black and predominantly white neighborhoods the State of the Union speech into a partisan call to arms. While no political opponent yelled out ?You lie!? during the speech, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., suffered no loss of stature for doing so last September. As Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has noted, ?After he raised a few million dollars off of it, I was thinking, ?Why didn?t I say that??? As for Democrats, Obama?s call for less intra-party combat was wasted on them, too. They waited an entire 14 minutes ? according to the Talking Points Memo Web site ? before they sent out to reporters video clips from the speech with an embarrassing headline. Look to see that same video, in which Republicans failed to applaud Obama?s call for a tax on banks, in ads soon. Of course, those advertisements will be expensive to run in large markets and will require more campaign donations.

Did cameras kill the friendly politics of yore?

I?m a history buff and love to read and learn about the past, especially when it involves politics and World War II events. History has reminded me that partisan politics is nothing new, but in times of great national peril, and or when a problem is so complex, partisanship is thrown out the window. So, with the United States fighting two wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan, a strong undercurrent of economic In this Jan. 20 photograph, Holly Springs Mayor Andre? DeBerry speaks at the grand opening of the 2010 census local office in Tupelo, Miss., stressing the importance of the data gathered every 10 years. African Americans, who are typically undercounted, now have to contend with the ?mixed race? category on census forms. ? AP PHOTO/THE NORTHEAST MISSISSIPPI DAILY JOURNAL, THOMAS WELLS and into predominantly ?mixed race? communities? Will they establish ?mixed race? schools and universities? Hey, wait a minute. I?ve already seen this movie. We?ve already had an uncomfortable history of what were then predominantly mulatto and light-complexioned communities, schools, churches, universities and social clubs in the U.S. Even some of our most prominent HBCUs were known in years past, as being predominantly populated by mulatto or light-complexioned students. In fact, some of those institutions and organizations are still functioning today. Hey, I remember leaving North Philadelphia one night to go to a Some observers thought the president was impolite to take on the Supreme Court?s recent deci- uncertainty and with tensions rising in Iran, China and North Korea, can anyone not make a rational argument that this is the perfect time to work together and find solutions for the common good? We saw a flash of bipartisanship after the Sept. 11 attacks, when lawmakers voted in favor of attacking Afghanistan and al-Qaida in retaliation for the murder of nearly 3,000 innocent lives. Since then, we have not seen much bipartisanship, and it?s sad. My theory is that oddly enough, with the presence of cameras recording every move in the House and Senate Chambers, lawmakers are more compelled to ?act? in front of the cameras on behalf of their party in what I thought was just another Black community along Lincoln Drive when I was in college. I will never forget being told by one of the young ladies there that I was ?too dark,? and she just couldn?t bring herself to dance with me (I probably don?t need to mention that I actually hadn?t been invited to the party, but that some friends and I had heard about it on the street). Most of that kind of complexionbased class consciousness ? thank God ? has begun to dissipate in our community over recent decades. But, now, with the emergence of an otherwise sincere ?mixed race? movement, I?m not so sure what to expect. Aside from Black History Month, the question now is whether Black sion on campaign finance. Obama wasn?t rude; he was right. With a ruling that was as ?activist? as any of more partisan constituencies back at home. In other words, with the evolution of C-SPAN, the 24-hour news cycle, and with the advancement of technology that records every sentence of a lawmaker?s speech and movements in Washington, tensions rise and partisanship rules. I recall, having a conversation with a senator who at the time had been serving his country for 30 years in the Senate telling me, ?I recall a time ? the good old days ? in the 1960s and 1970s where we just sit down in each other?s office over a drink and hash out a deal. No cameras. No press. Republicans and Democrats working together like two old friends.? businesses will lose customers who were previously Black and whether we will need or support Black radio stations or newspapers, once all those in our community who might possibly claim ?mixed race? status have done so. Will advertisers start focusing more and more on reaching ?mixed race? consumers at the expense of the African-American market? And how long will it take them to determine the ?annual buying power? of ?mixed race? people? Not long, I would guess. Once those of us who are not only part-white, but also part-Asian, part-Cherokee, part-Apache, and part-Comanche, are finished selfidentifying, will there be enough Black Americans left to form a criti- the last 20 years, an ideologically riven court overturned precedent, granted corporations the rights of humans and opened the floodgates to influence-peddling, many believe, from foreign interests. Already, corporations flood voters with pseudo-facts from outfits whose names pervert the truth. A giant polluter that poisons groundwater near schools, for example, might fund a group called ?Clean Water for Kids.? With the latest Supreme Court ruling, Saudi princes might fund a front called ?ForeignOilSavesUSA.? The money is poisonous. So are the politics of fear, opposition and obstruction. Inside the Beltway, it?s fashionable in some quarters to take an above-the-fray, pox-onboth-their-houses view of congressional dysfunction. It?s fashionable, but not factual. Democrats aren?t paragons of virtue. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., has rightly been mocked and scorned for an ugly bit of behindthe-scenes pork-barrel deal-making that promised his vote on the health-care bill in return for millions for his state. His vote-sale outraged many, and understandably As a new staffer on Capitol Hill in 1996, I asked him naively why that was still not the case. He pointed to a group of reporters and television cameras standing behind a rope line and said, ?That?s? the reason why. I act differently now that they follow me around everywhere and my constituents want to know why I am working with the Democrats so much when they see me on TV in committee hearings. Before the cameras came in, we worked in committee all day long to work out a bipartisan deal.? Sadly, committee hearings are no longer like that. They are usually tennis matches back and forth where both sides try to hit the ball cal mass? How far below 40 million people will the Black Census count drop? In South Africa, during the Apartheid era, in an effort to create divisiveness among non-whites, the ruling Afrikaner population established its own racial classifications. They consisted of Blacks, whites, Indians, and Coloureds (their version of people who were of ?mixed race?). As part of the bargain, Coloureds were permitted to live and worship separately from Black South Africans and were also permitted to vote for white candidates. In addition, they didn?t have to carry the demeaning ?pass cards? that were mandatory for Black South Africans. Coloureds also spoke Afrikaans, rather that the indigenous Zulu or Xhosa dialects of the dominant, Black population group. It?s interesting to note that the Coloureds who, thereby, were classified as ?not quite white,? but ?at least not Black,? in South Africa, wound up voting in significant numbers against Nelson Mandela?s presidency in 1984, in the country?s first, all-race elections. The Coloureds were reportedly concerned that a Mandela victory and a winning ANC party would take away the ?privileges? they had enjoyed under Apartheid. But that was there. So far, there?s no reason to expect a return of the old ?light, bright, damn-near white? phenomenon that existed years ago in Black communities, here, or the highly separatist profile of the South African Coloureds, but you never know. I used to take for granted the fact that I was part of a proud and growing community of people who would always find common ground and mutual support in their shared Black experience. I took for granted that, over time, 40 million Black Americans would grow to 45, 50 or 55 million. Now, I?m not so sure. As I said, I?m beginning to feel that we?re on the verge of a very traumatic time in Black history. We?ll see. A. Bruce Crawley is president and principal owner of Millennium 3 Management Inc.

Bipartisanship hopes fall victim to the right

From left, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Va., and House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio are seen on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 27 prior to President Barack Obama?s State of the Union address. ? AP PHOTO/SUSAN WALSH so. Still, it?s Republicans who have abandoned any attempt at governance. They have upped the ante on hyperpartisanship, coarsened the discourse and abandoned comity. The Republican Party has been taken over by its extremists ? held hostage by the tea-partying, giveno-quarter, brook-no-compromise ideological purists. You know that when Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., a leading candidate for governor of Georgia, challenges the president to prove he?s a U.S. citizen. Blame Republicans in the Senate for using the filibuster to outflank simple democratic processes. Because the GOP now threatens a filibuster before practically every Senate vote, an extra-constitutional supermajority is necessary for almost any bill to pass. That?s certainly not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. Sadly, this dysfunctional system is working pretty well for the folks who use it to stay in office. It?s just not working for the rest of us. Cynthia Tucker can be reached at cynthia@ajc.com. as hard as they can to embarrass, shame or intimidate the other side. Again, it?s sad. So as we embark on yet another national conversation about bipartisanship, let?s hope that this time lawmakers can roll up their sleeves and actually work together on behalf of the common good working under the premise of, if not now, when? If not us, then who? Robert Traynham is the host of ?Roll Call TV?, which can be seen on the Comcast Network. He is also a professor of politics at George Washington University. He is also an analyst for National Public Radio and TV ONE. He can be reached at: rtraynham@mac.com.

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