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 From The Desk Of
Ron Walters
Columnist Page
Friday, February 4, 2005; Page 19
Tale of Two Black Republican Women
One of the ironies of being Black in America is that even in the 21st century, we have to respect the "two-ness" that quality of being Black that Dr. W. E. B. Dubois spoke about in his famous book, The Souls of Black Folks, written in 1903. The two-ness is a consciousness of being at once of African origin with a special history of struggle against odds in America and also an American, part of a grand experiment in multiracial, multinational living under the goal of achieving a Democratic state bounded by equal rights and opportunities.
This quality relates to two prominent Republican women one well known and one not so famous. The famous one is Condoleeza Rice, the new Secretary of State replacing the retiring Colin Powell and when I have been asked by the media whether I am proud that a Black woman has been finally named to such a post, I say yes. Then, I quickly caution then that what is important about here role, since is not the Secretary of State for Black people, but for all Americans, that as such she will be carrying out the policies of the president and that is the important criterion of assessment as it was with Powell.
In this sense, there is a certain value to her role in the State Department that is unique. She is very close to President George Bush, affirmed by the fact that at her swearing-in ceremony at the State Department, he said that he and his wife "loved her" then wondered aloud whether he was supposed to have admitted it. This quality will be the determine factor in her administration and when she speaks, it will be recognized by foreign leaders that it is the voice of George Bush talking. So we should get it too.
By agreeing to be the Secretary of State, she has also agreed to be the unquestioning megaphone for a set of highly questionable ideas about how America should use its power abroad in the 21st Century. The war in Iraq is the signature policy of this administration and it has corrupted the image of this country abroad with its long time allies and deeply poisoned the view of Americans to many young Muslims for generations.
This war is not based on "spreading democracy" but this has been used to cover up more practical motives of the control of oil by a clique of wealthy oilmen in America and the Middle East, the dispensation of lucrative contracts to corporate friends, the enhancement of the security of Israel, and watering of the Right wing movement in this country that has always been hawkish. Spreading Democracy in this manner means depriving needs communities in this country of the resources they need for personal and collective development. That is the consequence of Condoleeza's mandate, should we cheer about that?
The other Black Republican woman is not as well known as Condoleeza. She is Kay James Cole, head of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Ms. Cole was Secretary of Health and Human Services in the administration of the then Governor of Virginia, George Allen, now a stalwart of the radical Right in the U. S. Senate. Ms. Cole has announced her departure, having completed the task of changing the personnel rules for the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services.
She leaves OPM, having just participated in changing pay and personnel rules for 850,000 civil servants in the newly created department of Homeland Security. These rules make it easier for people to be relieved of their jobs and places salary and upward advancement more dependently on performance reviews. Blacks are heavily employed by government at every level, with about 25% in the Federal employment, so such changes in rules provide a dangerously subjective tool for the largely white supervisory force to severely weaken Black federal employment.
This has been a goal of conservatives for some time, and Stephen Barr of The Washington Post feels that these changes open the door for changes at other key cabinet agencies. The changes at Homeland Security were designed to some extent with the backing of the federal employee unions on the grounds that it was a highly sensitive agency. But cabinet secretaries at other agencies have noticed the new rules and have voiced an intention to employ them, putting the federal employee unions on the defensive and creating the possibility of a series of future court battles. This is almost certain, since many of these agencies appear to want to discard the historic 15 grade General schedule for federal employment and its built-in protections for personnel.
So, we are proud of Rice and Coles in one instance, but the impact of their roles would so much to harm the opportunity for Blacks in this country. That is how they must be judged, not their color or their gender.
Dr. Ron Walters is Distinguished Leadership Scholar, Director of the African American Leadership Institute and Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland College Park. His latest book is: White Nationalism, Black Interests, by Wayne University Press. |
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