A few months ago, the right-wing mediasphere was aflame with outrage over the congressional race in Tennessee's fifth district. Former Harold Ford aide Nikki Tinker was running a race-baiting, borderline anti-Semitic campaign against Steve Cohen. Word on the right side of the street was that the race exposed “the deep, deep racial divisions within the party of Jim Crow.” The Republican Party generally avoids racial divisions by being almost entirely white -- hence little opportunity for "division." At any rate, Tinker's campaign was merely a black reimagining of right wing identity politics, and she lost badly, despite the assumptions that black folk would be easily manipulated into voting against Cohen because he's white and Jewish.
But the controversy over Cohen first started when, after beating out a crowded field of candidates to win his seat in 2006, he attempted to join the Congressional Black Caucus and was rebuffed. This set the stage for Republicans to argue, as they often do, that only white people face discrimination. That argument isn't so convincing. Nevertheless, Steve Cohen should have been allowed to join the CBC, if for no reason other than he represents a majority-black district. Cohen's victory may have come, in part, because of his effort to make good faith gestures (even failed ones) toward convincing his constituents that he wasn't just there to be in Congress, but that he was there to represent them. By excluding Cohen, the CBC isn't hurting him so much as the residents of Tennessee 5.
Now Vietnamese-American Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao, who defeated disgraced Rep. William Jefferson in Louisiana, is hinting that he might make an effort to join the CBC. The caucus should let him in, along with anyone else who wants to join. Like Cohen, Cao will be representing a mostly black district. I don't see the CBC as any different from any other Congressional group formed around a specific set of principles, and I understand the CBC's desire to keep itself focused on the unique circumstances and desires of their constituents. But people like Cao should be let in, if only because excluding them causes more problems than it's worth. Those people interested in crafting a policy agenda that caters to the needs of constituents in America's mostly black districts will remain part of the caucus. Those who are just trying to make a point will eventually leave, and once it's clear that anyone who wants to can join, it will cease being an issue worth making a big deal about. And we won't have to listen to Republican histrionics about "reverse racism."
-- A. Serwer
