Can We Talk About The Congressional Black Caucus For a Moment?

Over at Ta Nehisi Coates' spot he has a post up about Vietnamese-American Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao's intention to try to join the Congressional Black Caucus. I have to admit something, when I first read his post I felt a certain indignation about the premise of the article that he linked to which was basically that Cao might not be allowed to join the CBC just because he wasn't black even though he was elected from a majority black district. For some reason I was instantly indignant that anybody would dare accuse the CBC of excluding people just because they were not black. I had my rebuttal already formulated about how this was just another attempt to promote the notion of reverse racism. But as I clicked through TC's links and started doing a little googling I came to find out that there was one problem with my indignation.

I was wrong.

Setting aside for a moment that I should have known better because TC isn't the kind of journalist based on his body of work that would push a "racist black folks" meme unless there was some validity to it, I am still shocked by this revelation.

You see the Congressional Black Caucus DOES discriminate on the basis of race. Evidently it is allowed to do so based on Congressional rules governing such organizations. But as my father told me many times growing up, just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD do it. Besides the fact that Cao's exclusion would be used against them politically, the mere fact that the CBC wouldn't want to include a person who will be representing a lot of black constituents in a part of the country that has been through so much in the last 3 years is just not a good look IMHO. It begs the question, is the CBC about representing black folks, or are they about representing black politicians?

Now my embarrassment didn't end with just finding out that I was wrong about the CBC's racially discriminatory practices. It was heightened by the fact that these practices were on full display when it came to a white jewish Congressman by the name of Stephen Cohen who happens to represent my hometown of
Memphis the 9th Congressional district of Tennessee. How I totally missed this story is beyond me. I could blame it on a lot of things but I won't. I pride myself on keeping up with the politics of my hometown. My father and many of my extended family still live in Memphis and who knows maybe one day I will move back there. So I have always felt like it was important to keep tabs on what was going on there. But not only did I miss the story of how Steven Cohen was re-elected to the House of Representatives by defeating one Nikki Tinker who has been described quite accurately in my opinion as a black Ann Coulter and was backed by the CBC, I also had totally missed the story about Cohen being rebuffed in his stated intention to try to join the CBC when he was first elected to the House in 2006. Now because I missed the story I am betting that others did too so I feel like to understand the Cao situation it makes a lot of sense to delve into the Cohen situation and what happened with him.

So the story goes that in 2006 Stephen Cohen while campaigning for Harold Ford Jr's vacated seat in the House pledged to seek admission into the CBC. The reasons for doing so would seem to be obvious. In representing the 9th district of Tennessee which is basically Memphis, Cohen would be representing a district that is 60% black. But a funny thing happened when he arrived in Washington. Before he could ever reach out to the CBC they reached out to him, and not in a good way. Evidently the old guard just wasn't having it and let it be known in no uncertain terms. Just check out this reporting from Politico from last year:

Cohen said he became convinced that joining the caucus would be "a social faux pas" after seeing news reports that former Rep. William Lacy Clay Sr., D-Mo., a co-founder of the caucus, had circulated a memo telling members it was "critical" that the group remain "exclusively African-American."

Other members, including the new chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., and Clay's son, Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., agreed.

"Mr. Cohen asked for admission, and he got his answer. ... It's time to move on," the younger Clay said. "It's an unwritten rule. It's understood. It's clear."

Well I don't think it can get any more unambiguous than that. It didn't matter what Cohen's district looked like. It didn't matter what kind of politics Cohen was promoting. It didn't matter if he was willing to vote with them on major issues. For the CBC the only thing that mattered was the color of Cohen's skin and that, to me, is incredibly ironic. For a group that was formed in part to help combat discrimination against people on the basis of race, the fact that they are engaging in the very same behavior is pretty damned disturbing.

But the story doesn't end there. Just this year Cohen was up for re election and he was opposed by one Nikki Tinker who ran a very devisive campaign encorporating both race baiting and Jew baiting. But in an unprecendented move, the CBC endorsed not the incumbent Democrat in Cohen, but the embarrasing and repulsive Tinker evidently just because she was black. I say that because when I look at Cohen's record it would seem that he have been a very progressive Congressman over the last two years and I couldn't find a major issue that he differs with the CBC on. Thankfully my hometown represented and voted overwhelmingly for Cohen back in August. But what does it say about the CBC when they would back such a horrible person instead of a guy who has done a good job over the last two years just because she was black and he wasn't?

It doesn't sound to ME like they cared about the black folks in Memphis on that one.

Now I understand the urge to want to keep some things exclusive to black folks. For many many years in this country we were never allowed to have anything of our own. And then when we finally were, we were still given second class treatment. So there is a certain pride in keeping some black organizations exclusively black. But as TC points out, even the HBCU's never discriminated against white people from being admitted. In his words

HBCUs are clearly set up to educate black kids--but they don't bar white kids from coming. They just tell them to expect a heavy dose of Baldwin--as they should.

And I get that some people think that when you start allowing white people into a historically black organization that you run the risk of losing the focus. But as President Elect Obama has said, the focus should come from the top. Just like you can allow white people in there is nothing that says you can't kick them out if they are disruptive or are trying to lead your organization down a path that is in conflict with the path already chosen. So to me that argument only holds water if you feel that you have such WEAK SAUCE that just by admitting in a white person will somehow confer all of your power to them.

So now we come back to the present day question about whether Anh Cao should be allowed into the CBC. To me it should be a no brainer. Not only could the CBC help shape the way that Cao votes on major issues, they could also potentially influence him to cross the aisle. I mean doesn't that just make sense? But even if he doesn't, are we so stuck on political partisanship that if he votes like a Democrat we will still treat him like a Republican? That to me would be in a word STUPID. But hey I could say the same for rebuffing Stephen Cohen as well. In the immortal words of Forrest Gump "Stupid is as stupid does", truly.

Surely the CBC can come up with a formula whereby if a non black person is elected from a district where black folks are in the majority, they can join the caucus. If not they run the very real risk of rendering themselves irrelevant by inviting scorn and derision for not practicing what they preach, and rightly so.