HispanicVista Columnists

Notas por La Casa Politica
Barak’s Black?
By Steven J. Ybarra, JD

I have always known since I was in college that I was incompetent.

When I won my first National, Championship in Oratory at Riverside City College there was no mention of my winning it at the annual awards dinner. I watched in shame as my parents sat without saying a word as every other “great” speaker was given their due at the dinner.

At that moment, I knew I was not competent to be mentioned when white people were receiving their due.

When I came back from winning my next two national championships at Whittier College, I remember the newspaper editor asking why my trophies were important. Mind you, no one in the history of Whittier had ever won a national championship. So in order to make Richard Nixon look good they created a memorial trophy with his name and mine on it. Dick had once placed third in a regional tournament.

When I was at Community Legal Services, after graduating with the American Trial Lawyers Award at USC, I came up with a theory of how to protect welfare recipients from the ravages of the RayGun administrations war on the poor. The director, a white woman from Beverly Hills said , “this is great we need to find a national expert to move this forward “. Once again I figured I was an incompetent court qualified expert in welfare law.

After calling all the white welfare experts in California who all asked her if I was not working there anymore, she finally came back and said it is your case. ( I knew all these men and women btw)

When I was elected to the DNC after spending $ 103.00 and coming in fifth in the election I expected that these battles over my incompetence was over. After all, I had the credentials of being the former chair of the Chicano Latino Caucus of the California Democratic Party with the largest membership ever in the history of the party. I had successfully led the battle to get unrestricted mail ballots in California. I was selected by the Secretary of State as the most qualified advisor on elections after a competitive bid.

(The folks who came in second were retired registrars with great reputations.)

And of course there was the whole GOTV director for the Warner campaign where I helped Blacks and Browns heal the wounds of the New York’s mayor’s race and work together to win. A first by all accounts from those who knew the history.

So I figured it would be easy to get the DNC to listen to the need of Latino Voters.

Boy was I wrong.

Once again, I was incompetent. In the 2000 election, after helping Oregon move its Latino registration to record levels and then having a 95% return rate in mail ballots in Pueblo Colorado. I found that according to the minorities in the east coast, I was a loose cannon and incompetent. After all, how could these claims about increasing voter participation and getting the HI spanic voter to vote by mail be true ( 59 times) ?

When the 2004 election came along after four years of asking where is the budget and what is the plan for Latino voters. Two mail ballot projects were designed by me to increase turnout in Florida and Ohio along with the other 13 states where Latino voters would make the difference. Oops sorry we don’t believe that this is good for minorities I was told. “Civil Rights” leaders are afraid that this will make voters not vote.

And of course, there is the whole GOTV ( commonly known as get in the money) thing that we have to do in minority communities because these voters need to be educated.

Silly me, I found out I couldn’t expect my community to think on their own.

So instead, I spent the summer training about 3000 activists waiting for the call to go to work. I finally volunteered in Reno Nevada (one of the states I had targeted) and watched as Latino voter were intimidated at the polls during early voting and then when the machines broke, as I said they would, tired of waiting for seven hours in the cold went home. Oh yeh we lost Nevada after spending a billion dollars.

In the past four years, I and other loose cannons have continually asked the question

What is the Budget and Where is the plan for Latino votes?

It is the question of the day and has been so for the eight years I have been on the DNC.

The other day I listened to Barak’s speech . I, as many of you I am sure, was surprised to find out he is black. If he is, it means of course that he is qualified to be president. Of course, with Bill Richardson’s endorsement he could become insignificant.

The problem he will have as the nominee is that for the last forty years, Latinos have been kept out of the decision making process in national DNC politics. How could we expect a Hawaii kid to know that, we cannot?

It is an ancient axiom that political power is never given it is only taken. Latino voters will take the power by use of the mail ballot as they have done in California. They will make up their minds because no one of the Democratic east coast power brokers will spend any money on making the message a Latino message with Latinos in charge of the execution of a real campaign plan.

In the fall election, just like every election since Bobby Kennedy (95% Latino vote), no special effort by the DNC or the “Candidate” will be made to get the Latino immigrant to become a voter and no effort will be made to register Latinos to vote and then to get them to vote either in person or by mail. to become an active voter. If there is no goal for Latino votes forty to fifty percent will either not vote or vote republican. ( McCain wants us.)

Here is one for you the DNC consistently fails to meet its affirmative action goals when it comes to HI panics .( How can there not be enough HI spanics in Colorado to be on the delegation.) Come on Howard!

The east coast power brokers are very careful not to talk about the black brown divide. The fact is, it exists due to the exclusion of the Chicano Latino community from decision making over the last forty years. When the Latino community hears the word minority, we know it means black. Barak’s mention in two lines of the need to educate Hispanics and Asians students does little to give comfort to those who know that affirmative action means not us.

The maxim by Willy Brown that Mexicans don’t vote has and continues to be not a statement but an order. Because if Mexican Americans vote as they do in California the power will shift. At least that is the fear by the “Civil Rights” big thinkers. (tell that to the new speaker of the California Assembly)

I personally don’t get what all the hubbub is all about. As my friend MJW who is an old African American says, “ after all Barak has what every American president had before him , a white mother.”

Folks keep asking me how I will vote at the convention and what if it is one voter who decides. I respond, I hope it is me. Because I am going to ask the candidate where is our place at the table. Because we are tired of just cooking cleaning up and getting blamed when the party goes bad. For the languaged minorities like Mexican Americans and Asians whose well of new members is constantly filled from outside the old USA there is a belief that nothing anything will change in this election if Barak is the nominee.

No matter who the nominee is he/she must make sure that there are competent Chicanos Latinos and Hispanics and Asians who are at the policy and budget table.

Here is my final loose cannon statement, tell us what is the budget and where is the plan. Because if you don’t have one, you will lose again pendejo.

PS Hillary stop whining and start going door to door. The media vampires are sucking your coffers dry.

©Steven J. Ybarra JD is a retired civil rights attorney who operates a consultant company in California. He is a member of the Democratic National Committee and a long time political activist. Contact Steven at: sjybarra@aol.com, This article is copyright by Steven J. Ybarra JD, originally published in www.Hispanicvista.com but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media if this entire credit paragraph is attached.