"Their leaders seem more intent on vying with blacks for permanent victim status than on seeking recognition for genuine progress by Hispanics over the last three decades." -- Linda Chavez on Latino/as
Linda Chavez, an anti-affirmative
Latina favored by conservatives because of her last name, would have us think that Blacks, Latino/as, and other people of color are looking for handouts and preferential treatment. Ironically, it is she who
has benefited professionally and financially by trading on her own Latina heritage. Like many conservatives, she claims that segregation was defeated and white prejudice almost completely eradicated after Congress passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act . She goes as far as saying (as many black and brown enablers of racial conservatives do) that it has been liberals that have derailed Latino/a progress. I call those who deny the reality of racism racial conservatives. I have addressed their shoddy scholarship earlier (click here).
You might know of Chavez, she testified against Supreme Court Judge Sotomayor during Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings last year. Chavez has a particular dislike for Latino/as in general and for Puerto Ricans in partiucular, but I will not explore that today. I will address her sub-standard scholarship and self-loathing when I address Black and Brown conservatives at a later date. Chavez had to step down as a nominee for Labor of Secretary under the catastrophe known as the Bush II administration because, yes, she hired an illegal Latina immigrant. She denied knowing said individual was here illegally though the person in question contradicted that denial. Later, Chavez herself would issue an admission of sorts and was forced by Bush’s handlers to step down.
Therefore, if I call Chavez a hypocrite (she admonished Clinton appointees who did the same), it’s not character assassination, it’s an observation. Calling her a come mierda (shit eater) can be perceived as an attack on her character, but -- fuck it -- she’s a shit eater if ever there was one...
Chavez and other racial conservatives believe the United States has made better progress in removing racial barriers than progressives and people of color acknowledge. The shift began, they argue, during the 1950s. And when the Civil Rights movement succeeded in abolishing Jim Crow, white racism had all but withered away. As a result, at least according to Chavez and her masters, affirmative action programs are unnecessary and in fact are a form of “reverse racism.”
