Dear Hillary: Are You Already Selling Out Black New Yorkers?
I want to congratulate you on your recent electoral victory as senator of the state of New York. Undoubtedly you are one of the most influential, if not controversial, Americans of our time, and your presence in the august halls of Congress will make every citizen of New York and the nation take notice. I'm sure many are saying, "Give 'em hell, Hillary!" You already have Trent Lott quaking in his boots.
Now, this was made possible by black politicians, like Charles Rangel, and organizations like the aforesaid NAACP. These people have learned a lesson that I'm quite sure they imparted to you: The black electorate won't hold you politically responsible for not looking out for their interests.
I'm troubled by recent postelection comments of yours. You mentioned that you're going to be working on issues pertinent to upstate voters. Also, you mentioned supporting a measure that would do away with the Electoral College. What troubles me is not that you have mentioned these issues, but that you seem to be forgetting a crucial bloc of voters: black and Latino voters. Let's face it, when Democrats say they're going to get out the vote, they really mean get out the black vote.
Your husband has made a career of loving blacks but stabbing them in the back. He is not a racist, but quite cynical when it comes to blacks. As a New Democrat he has a nice menu of code words and activities to inform middle-class Americans (read: white) how he'll deal with crime (black), welfare (black) and Jesse Jackson (really black). He knows that elite blacks can be bought off with affirmative action sinecures, while those making $50,000 or less can't afford a night in the Lincoln bedroom.
Although I cast a ballot for him in 1992, I did not vote for your husband in 1996, and I didn't vote for Mr. Gore in the recent election. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Clinton, I did not vote for you either. For one thing, I didn't like the idea that you, a nonresident of New York, could bogart your way into the electoral process. Not that I was surprised by it. Charlie Rangel assured you a dedicated black base that could be easily manipulated by emotional appeals to Dr. King and a host of other black martyrs.
If your opponent had been Rudolph W. Giuliani, I would have held my nose while I manned the phones for you. It would have been in my interest to have seen a stake driven through Mr. Giuliani's political career. Mr. Giuliani, to many of us black New Yorkers, has blood on his hands.
You, however, were less than sterling when it came to championing the causes and interests of the very people who voted for you. You barely said a word about the issue of police brutality in New York, and when you did you tiptoed away from it. You also seemed interested in dissing the Puerto Rican community when it came to releasing Puerto Rican activists from jail. Your position on the death penalty is morally indefensible, given that the death penalty unfairly falls upon people of color and the poor.
Well, you are a New Democrat, which means a lukewarm form of Republican.
I'm quite sure you can get away with these hijinks, because blacks are a politically vulnerable people these days. With so-called black leaders like Jesse Jackson shamelessly shilling for you New Death Democrats, and black intellectuals like Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West turning out coffee-table literature, one can take great comfort in the fact that black people can be manipulated into voting against their interests. There's no Malcolm X exhorting them to look at the records and the activities of the candidates?not to be bamboozled by their flattery and rhetoric. No, those days are gone; tricknology reigns. Boy, if the X were here, he would have a field day with you. (Oh, I didn't mean that kind of field day.)
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Let me reiterate precisely how you lost my vote. Repeat: You said virtually nothing about the issue of police brutality in New York. Both you and Rep. Rick Lazio were MIA on this issue, causing a demonstration at both your and Lazio's New York offices demanding that you address the issue. When I sent a letter to the highly esteemed senior senator of New York, Daniel P. Moynihan, regarding the Diallo shooting, his office didn't bother to communicate with me. Instead, I received a letter from the Mayor's office, because my letter was forwarded there. I also sent a letter to Mr. Schumer. No response.
Police brutality is of national concern to many blacks. I trust you haven't picked up Mr. Moynihan's and Mr. Schumer's disdain for such issues.
When you mention your concern for upstate New York's economic situation, I'm wondering if you're going to suggest introducing more prisons to depressed upstate economies. The construction of more upstate prisons has the obscene effect of making white upstaters lust for more incarcerated dark bodies. What spurs this are the ridiculous drug laws (the Rockefeller drug laws in New York state) that allow thousands of people to be arrested and convicted for nonviolent drug offenses. What drives this is the insane "war on drugs," virtually an undeclared war on black and Latino people in the United States. You New Democrats and the Republicans both play the crime game at the expense of others.
The supreme irony is that you so-called New Democrats have tried to out-Republican the Republican Party, and it cost you the White House. One of the reasons the voting was so close may be due to the large numbers of minority ex-felons who are kept off the rolls in Florida. According to the online edition of Mother Jones ("Voteless in Florida"), "The cliffhanger in Florida may ultimately be decided by those who didn't vote. Hundreds or even thousands of Florida residents may have been erroneously crossed off the voter lists because they were mistakenly identified as ex-felons."
Reporter Sasha Abramsky in another article ("Barring Democracy") argues that "nearly 7 percent of the African American population nationwide is disenfranchised" because they are ex-felons. "And in seven states," wrote Abramsky, "more than one quarter of black men are now permanently deprived of the right to vote."
Haven't you gotten the full picture, Hill?
With the result of the presidential election coming down to a handful of votes in Florida, the disenfranchisement of close to three quarters of a million felons and ex-felons in the state may well have made the difference between a Gore presidency and a Bush one, according to Abramsky ("Voteless in Florida"). Considering that the majority of felons are poor, black and Latino?likely Democratic voters?had fewer than 2 percent of the disenfranchised in Florida voted, Gore would have probably been elected.
What makes this so, so ironic is that you New Democrats make a virtue out of your so-called toughness on crime, and duck how the laws unfairly fall on blacks and Latinos, your most loyal constituencies. I know that you're fishing for white votes in the suburbs, but this is really coming back to bite you and the party on your collateral asses.
What to do?
Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, has a bill that would override state restrictions and allow ex-felons to vote in national elections. I suggest you endorse it and introduce a Senate version. (And Hill, if you do this now, you'll be a big mommy when the 2004 presidential contest arrives.)
On another front, black folks are in a show-me-the-money mood. What am I referring to? Reparations. Now I know that you and your other fellow white Americans are trying to duck this, but sweetheart, this isn't going to go away. The building you'll be doing most of your business in, the United States Capitol, was built by slave labor. Read the November issue of Harper's. Your favorite people?lawyers?discuss this in "Making the Case for Racial Reparations." When you're up to speed, see Mr. Conyers. The brother has done the paperwork on this and needs some real support.
One last thing: I voted for Nader. I didn't vote for you because I didn't like the way that you and your supporters decided you had the office by divine right. I'll be watching you. You should keep in mind that, despite the ease with which many black voters have been conned, there are probably thousands of others like me. We vote. We keep score. We also believe in punishing those who do not protect our interests, or take us for granted.
In other words, we are politically ruthless.
Ciao.
Norman Kelley is the author of Black Heat. His most recent novel, The Big Mango (Akashic Books), was published in September.