| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Monday, December 30 2002 |
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| My father-in-law is a rare breed. He is a Cuban-American Democrat. Even though he lives in Miami, where most Cuban-Americans are Republicans, my 79-year-old father-in-law, who never misses an election, has always cast his ballots for Democrats.
I thought of him the other day as Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi announced that he was stepping down as Republican majority leader. By now we all know about the racially inflammatory remarks he made at Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party. But in case you need reminding, here is what he said about Thurmond's 1948 run for the presidency as a segregationist candidate:
"I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years."
Here is where my father-in-law comes into the picture: You see, he is one of those Americans who shied away from the Republican Party and people like Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond precisely because of this country's shameful history of racial segregation.
His reasons for voting Democratic can be traced back to 1946, when he left his native Cuba to begin a new life in the United States. He was 23 years old, spoke no English and was alone. But the chance at a better life in America beckoned, so he scrounged up enough money for two things. The first was a plane ticket from Havana to Miami. The second was a bus ticket from Miami to New York City. It was the bus ride that turned him into a Democrat.
The Greyhound bus took him through the segregated Deep South of the 1940s. To this day, he remembers that black passengers sat in the back of the bus. He remembers the "Colored Only" bathrooms and water fountains. Most of all, he remembers the sadness and fear he felt as he witnessed the ugly face of racism firsthand.
As soon as he became a citizen and earned the right to vote, my father-in-law became a Democrat. He did so, he says, because Democrats supported the civil-rights laws that helped put an end to segregation and institutionalized racism. He stuck with the Democrats because they also supported affirmative action, a higher minimum wage and a more flexible immigration policy. Like many minority voters, my father-in-law associated Republicans with the status quo of racism and segregation. In his mind, Democrats are the champions of the disenfranchised.
Maybe these conclusions made by one man are overly simplistic and even unfair. After all, many Southern Democrats - let's not forget that Strom Thurmond was a Democrat before he was a Republican - supported segregation to the bitter end. But fair or not, these perceptions are entrenched in the minds of many minority voters. And comments like those made by Lott only reinforce this negative view. This is probably why President Bush called himself a "compassionate conservative" during the campaign. This is probably why he wasted no time distancing himself from Lott. It's surely why fellow Republicans treated Lott like a patient with a communicable disease. They ran for cover.
I hope President Bush meant it when he said that Lott's comments do not reflect the spirit of America. They certainly do not reflect the spirit of those whose parents and grandparents felt the sting of segregation and who are still the victims of racial and ethnic discrimination - not only against blacks, but also against Hispanics and other minorities.
Trent Lott's legacy might be that racially insensitive remarks will not go unnoticed by the American public. In many ways, it shows how far we have come as a nation since my father-in-law's bus ride 56 years ago, and how far we still have to go before we finally rid our society of racism. |
