[...] Perhaps Bush became more outspoken in his NAACP critique because he knew Education Secretary Rod Paige, a black "lifelong" NAACP member, was about to spring his own stinging critique of the NAACP in The Wall Street Journal's editorial page last Thursday, the same day that Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Bush's Democratic opponent, addressed the group.
Directing his remarks at Bond and Mfume, "who have accused black conservatives of being the 'puppets' of white people, unable to think for ourselves," Paige took a hard-line approach: "You do not own, and you are not the arbiters of, African-American authenticity," he wrote.
The current NAACP leadership, Paige wrote, "has managed to take a proud, effective organization in a totally new direction: naked partisan politics." Partisanship has prevented the group from recognizing Bush's initiatives--which Paige calls unprecedented--in appointing more African-Americans to high-profile posts, committing more funds to fight AIDS in Africa, promoting minority homeownership and supporting trade and aid for African and Caribbean nations.
Paige defended his own department's big project, the controversial No Child Left Behind education-reform law, which the NAACP has sharply criticized for being underfunded. Paige praised the law for bringing the nation's first federally funded school-choice programs, which he said have mostly benefited minorities. "Poll after poll has shown that African-American parents support school choice, which is directly at odds with the NAACP's position on the issue," he said.
That's true, although those same polls tend to show that most black parents also support smaller classrooms, better pay for teachers and other ideas that do not take money from public schools. At least Bond and Mfume appear to agree with Paige that "education is truly the civil rights issue of the 21st Century." Unfortunately, that's about all they agree on and both sides have spent more energy taking potshots at each other than reaching out for common ground in pursuit of their common goal. [...]
| That's the middle (not the also-tasty end) of Clarence Page's registration-required Chicago Tribune column "NAACP vs. GOP: Preaching to the choir"
posted in articles on July 18, 2004 5:02 AM | t (0)
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