News Article On Racism

Challenge Racism by Israelis on Every Front, by Gulamhusein A. Abba

It will not be long before thousands of Palestinians and their Israeli supporters will march to checkpoints and attempt to break through without waiting for "clearance" from young, arrogant Israeli soldiers manning them. Tunisian and type mass protests that are taking place all over the Middle East are bound to take place in Palestine also. No one need be surprised to see many Israelis joining them.

This is no time for a return to racism in Texas - San Antonio ...

Is it just me, or is the distinct scent of ethnic and racial tension in the air more than usual in San Antonio, blowing down Interstate 35 from the state capitol?

The ruling Republicans , still corralled in Austin, seem to have forgotten in their haste to make Texas more like Arizona that fringe behavior is bad for business.

In truth, it's bad, period. So it's disappointing to see such backward thinking gain traction inside our city limits. People in San Antonio know better.

Yet it was Sen. Jeff Wentworth 's paid advertisement in the Express-News last Sunday that painted a target on his colleague, Sen. Leticia Van de Putte , for suggesting in an earlier op-ed piece that efforts by Republicans to force through a so-called “sanctuary cities” bill was anti-Hispanic.

Of course such bills are anti-Hispanic. Isn't the whole point to target people with brown skin, even if the Texas economy so clearly depends on migrant labor?

Perhaps it's the tough guy talk about “the Democrats did it to us” as Republicans justify blatant gerrymandering to blunt the state's growing Hispanic population as Texas adds four new congressional seats.

Perhaps it's six months of disinformation about why the super majority had no responsible alternative to cutting billions of dollars out of education funding to balance the budget. A less partisan take is that Republicans abdicated their duty by not taking a hard look at the inequality of how the state collects revenues.

Wentworth has bought big ads before in the Express-News on occasions when he hasn't liked this newsroom's independent coverage of his issues and initiatives. And, to be honest, my colleagues on the business side of the newspaper are happy to take his money (which was once your money), even if we journalists think Wentworth succeeds only in drawing attention to his whacky side.

But there is nothing whacky about driving wedges between this city's Hispanics and Anglos. Wentworth and the eight other GOP senators who signed the advertisement that accused Van de Putte of “race baiting” should think carefully about the fires they are feeding.

“Us vs. them” isn't what made San Antonio. We have more than our fair share of troubles, including racism, but the city has served as a model of ethnic diversity. We've made our name by playing the racial respect card.

The former state demographer Steve Murdock was back in San Antonio last week, speaking first to a luncheon audience organized by American Sunrise , the family nonprofit founded by Henry Cisneros , its chairman, and one day later, to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

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