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Leonel Martinez: Don't let fear stifle diversity

BY LEONEL MARTINEZ, Contributing columnist
e-mail: lmartinez@bakersfield.com | Wednesday, Apr 30 2008 1:36 PM

Last Updated: Thursday, May 1 2008 7:12 AM

If you doubt that many Americans are still confused about race and ethnicity, take a trip to Arizona.

There, state lawmakers recently sent to the House of Representatives legislation that would deny state funds to public schools, community colleges and universities with organizations “based in whole or in part on race-based criteria.” The bill's backers argue that these groups promote cultural chauvinism, separatism and even sedition.

No one argues that public schools should embrace groups that preach genuine racial hatred. I once interviewed an Oildale Klansman who believed that the races should live in separate regions divided by huge, concrete walls. I certainly didn't give him a big hug.

But here's something some people don't seem to get: You can promote ethnic pride without teaching racial superiority. Kern County's own Cesar Chavez, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, understood that when he said, “Preservation of one's culture doesn't mean contempt for others.”

Is that so hard for others to understand?

Apparently for supporters of the legislation, known as SB 1108. Rep. Jack Kavanagh, a member of the Arizona House Appropriations Committee, was perhaps too honest when he told the Arizona Republic, “If you want a different culture, then fine, go back to that culture.”

Oh, really? So does that mean that in California, members of the Kern County Basque Club, the Italian Heritage Dante Association and the Kern County Scottish Society should resign and book a flight overseas? We can't have any of that nasty cultural appreciation, you know.

And Republican Rep. Russell Pearce, who authored the bill, accused one school district program of sedition for purportedly suggesting that the border between the United States and Mexico be erased, with Mexico and U.S. Hispanics taking over the American southwest, according to Arizona's Capitol News Service. I haven't seen any military tanks on the horizon yet.

Let's say for the sake of argument that some groups in Arizona schools really are racist. School administrators are closer to the problem and therefore better qualified to deal with it, not state legislators, who may be flexing for voters. Banning all groups that deal with race is not the answer.

Supporters say SB 1108 is aimed at the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, known as MEChA, which has chapters in colleges and high schools. Yet the group's stated goals are building Latino leadership, promoting higher education and forging positive race and ethnic relations. We can't have any of those nasty positive ethnic relations, you know.

But we in California have seen all this nonsense before.

When Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante ran unsuccessfully for governor during a state recall in 2003, opponents attacked him for being a former member of MEChA. Talk radio pounced on the issue and before long, Republican gubernatorial candidate state Sen. Tom McClintock compared MEChA to the Klan despite the minor detail that MEChA has never hanged anyone.

I chatted briefly with the portly and soft-spoken Bustamante during a Bakersfield fundraiser and we joked about how his mom was probably praying a rosary for his candidacy, not that it did any good. Bustamante has since faded from public life, turning out not to be a grenade-lobbing seditionist after all.

Can someone please tell legislators in Arizona?

Leonel Martinez's column appears every other Thursday. Readers may send comments or suggestions to lmartinez@bakersfield.com or leave a voice mail at 395-7631.