symposium

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Jan 8, 2001 | by J.C. Watts, Jr., | Paul Gottfried

Many have charged that the "Contract With America" or other Republican efforts have adversely affected African-Americans. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it is a racial slur to say black families don't need a tax break or don't want a government that plays by the same rules as everyone else.

Are we Republicans without blame? Absolutely not. As Republicans, we must make every effort to reach out in greater numbers to those who share our values. Black Americans are closer to our beliefs than our Democratic counterparts would ever want to admit. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich once told the Los Angeles Times that our party needs to spend four times as much effort assuring the black community that they will not be discriminated against as compared with the amount of effort we've put into saying we're against quotas and set-asides. I agree. This is the real challenge to the Republican Party, and I encourage all Republicans prayerfully to consider this: The party that Frederick Douglass defended can still appeal to minorities.

Gingrich said that one of the things he learned during his tenure as House speaker is that blacks -- who only 30 years ago faced segregation, discrimination and state police who were beating them -- have a legitimate fear that the country, in the absence of a strong federal government, could slide back into that environment.

But does that mean we should continue to fight discrimination with discrimination? No. It does mean that we need to continue to look for solutions that will help heal, not divide. It also means that the Republican Party -- the party of Lincoln and the Emancipation, the party that truly believes in independence -- needs to go out of its way to communicate with black Americans. It means that we look to the full force of the law to prevent discrimination and that we preach against it at every turn. It means that we have zero tolerance for those who ever would dare judge someone by the color of his skin. And, lastly, it means that we continue on a course of racial reconciliation, not division.

Promise Keepers, a Christian men's group, has said that racial reconciliation is the only way to end discrimination. What better party to bring about that unity than the Republican Party? Our party must strive to restore the original meaning of Martin Luther King Jr.'s words when he urged all Americans to judge people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. To do so, we must recognize that the struggle for civil rights today is not strictly about legal rights but about expanding the reach of economic opportunity and restoring respect for traditional values.

Someone once commented to me that our country doesn't have a race problem; it has a grace problem. It's going to take a lot of grace to create the American Dream for all people. But I, for one, am better able to envision the Dream fulfilled by the principles of the Republican Party than those that guide the Democratic Party.

When we talk about expanding the reach of economic opportunity and restoring the respect of traditional values, I can see the American Dream. When we talk about individual freedom and personal responsibility, I can see the American Dream. When we talk about redeeming ourselves by living up to the noble principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, I can see the American Dream.