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Subject: Rights Leaders Expect Race Relations to Test Clinton; Many Blacks Awaiting
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 04:42:03 EST
Message-ID: <10.1992Nov11.044204@AmeriCast.com>

Rights Leaders Expect Race Relations to Test Clinton; Many Blacks
Awaiting Time When Rhetoric Is Translated to Policy<By Lynne
Duke=Washington Post Staff Writer=

President-elect Clinton spoke often during the campaign of racial
inclusion and the strength of the nation's diversity, but black
leaders and civil rights activists say the real test of Clinton's
approach to racial issues will come when his administration has
to take positions on such contentious matters as minority scho-
larships, affirmative action and civil rights enforcement.

An equally important measure, they say, will be the extent to
which he includes inner cities in his overall economic stimulus
program.

While providing few specifics during the campaign, Clinton spoke
in broad terms of his "full commitment" on issues of importance
to blacks. In the election night speech he delivered in Little
Rock, Ark., last Tuesday, he described his victory as a "clarion
call . . . to bring our people together as never before so that
our diversity can be a source of strength in a world that is ever
smaller, where everyone counts and everyone is part of America's
family."

With such words, Clinton "has set a standard by which we can
judge his actions," said Eddie Williams, head of the Joint Center
for Political and Economic Studies.

Clinton can make a stamp on American race relations through the
tone of his leadership, his Cabinet and judicial appointments,
his administration's positions in Supreme Court cases, its civil
rights enforcement and its overall economic policy. Clinton's ap-
pointment of former National Urban League president Vernon E.
Jordan Jr. to chair his transition team was widely hailed as a
sign of the new president's commitment to diversity.

But Clinton, who built his political base among his party's
moderates and is expected by many observers to be more conserva-
tive on social policy than Democratic presidents of the past,
crafted a winning coalition in part by convincing formerly way-
ward white Democrats that neither the candidate nor the party was
a captive of special interests, including the interests of blacks
and other minorities.Minorities as Special Interests<

Roger Wilkins, a George Mason University historian and Johnson
administration civil rights official, who said during the cam-
paign that Clinton was avoiding issues of import to blacks, said
he suspects that Clinton views blacks and other minorities as
special interests. That may mean, said Wilkins, that Clinton will
not make inner-city job creation and other such programs related
to minorities inherent features of his economic policy.

"The problem, it seems, is that he has accepted the Republican
formulation of those (problems) as special interest claims on the
national treasury," said Wilkins. "The whole tenor of the cam-
paign was to say we are new Democrats, we are different Demo-
crats, and the next thing was to say we're hard on crime and
we're hard on welfare." In the coded language of racial percep-
tion, Wilkins said, that "means we don't cater to black people."

But Barbara Jordan, a professor of government at the University
of Texas at Austin and former congresswoman, said that Clinton
does not view his inner-city constituency as a special interest
group.

"I believe that Bill Clinton understands that the economy and the
problems which plague it cannot be separated from the problems
which plague the inner city," said Jordan, who says she will not
be a member of a Clinton administration, despite reports suggest-
ing she would. "Bill Clinton understands that we cannot do any-
thing about the inner cities or school dropouts or high unemploy-
ment among minorities unless we have an expanding, growing econo-
my."

Clinton's approach to "economic justice" issues such as inner-
city revitalization is likely to spark a battle among those who
are vying to shape the new administration's race-related agenda,
said Rep. Mike Espy (Miss.), one of Clinton's most ardent black
supporters and one of the more conservative Democrats in the
Congressional Black Caucus. Espy said the battle lines will be
drawn on whether social programs need more spending or more effi-
cient management, and over whether government ought to create
more opportunities for minorities or demand more responsible han-
dling of opportunities that already exist.

Espy said the new Democratic Party's message to blacks is, "We'll
extend opportunity, but there's got to be some responsibility as
well; and we believe in equal opportunity, but not equal outcome;
and we'll provide the resources and you have to do the rest."

"He will put a heavy burden of responsibility on black people
themselves and particularly on black leaders," said Williams.

Some cite as an example Clinton's criticism during the campaign
of comments made by black rap singer Sister Souljah that were
perceived by many as a call to arms against white people. In a
speech to a meeting here of Jesse L. Jackson's National Rainbow
Coalition, Clinton criticized the group for hosting an appearance
by Souljah the previous night. It was perceived by many as a slap
at not only Jackson but blacks in general. In a Joint Center for
Political and Economic Studies survey this fall, 30 percent of
black respondents said that Clinton had been "cooler and less
friendly to black leaders" than Democratic nominees of the past.
Civil rights advocates expect a Clinton administration to be far
more aggressive than the Reagan or Bush administrations in en-
forcing  laws against discrimination in employment, education,
housing and voting. Under Bush, the battle over whether the 1990
civil rights bill would lead to quotas in the workplace resulted
in passage of a modified 1991 version that the Justice Department
is applying more restrictively than civil rights activists would
like. Justice Department officicals argue, for instance, that
discrimination cases pending at the time the act became law
should not be covered by its provisions.

"There have been those making arguments over the last 10 years
that you don't need (civil rights laws), it's not a serious prob-
lem anymore," said Ralph Neas, executive director of the Leader-
ship Conference on Civil Rights. Under Clinton, he said, "The
presidency should once again be used as a bully pulpit to make
sure that all Americans understand why civil rights laws were
enacted in the first place."Affirmative Action in Education<

The Clinton administration also will have to contend with the
controversial matter of affirmative action in higher education.
In December 1990, the Education Department's Office for Civil
Rights declared illegal scholarships earmarked specifically for
minorities. Criticism from civil rights advocates and others,
however, caused education officials to rescind their finding. The
issue has remained under review ever since.

More recently, Bush education officials said that an admissions
policy at the University of California-Berkeley Boalt Hall School
of Law violated federal law because it held minority students to
a different standard than non-minorities. The school's dean stat-
ed at the time that Berkeley was in the mainstream of law schools
trying to achieve student body diversity in a nation where levels
of academic achievement differ by race and ethnicity.

The practice by government agencies of setting aside a percentage
of contracts for minority bidders also was targeted by the Repub-
lican administrations. The issue will be addressed again by the
Supreme Court this term in Northeastern Florida Chapter of Asso-
ciated General Contractors of America v. Jacksonville, Fla. A
lower court ruled that the contractors' group challenging a set-
aside program did not show that it locked them out of bidding for
contracts.

The tenor of Clinton's message on racial diversity and civil
rights and his record in Arkansas suggest to some that as
president he would support such "race-specific" policies. Clin-
ton, said Espy, supports affirmative action and set-aside pro-
grams. Bob Nash, a Clinton campaign policy adviser, said 50 per-
cent of Clinton's staff as governor was female and about 25 per-
cent of the staff was African American or Hispanic.  Race-
specific policies have been politically divisive in the past,
said Nash, because whites "tended to think: 'If someone else gets
something, they're taking it from me and, therefore, I don't want
them to have it.' " Clinton, he said, will try to show people
that "instead of concentrating on how much of the pie I get or
you get, let's work together to increase the size of the pie."

"I tend to think that Bill Clinton looks at bringing people out
of poverty and addressing the issue of race relations as basical-
ly economic issues. We cannot afford to have one person who is
not well-educated, well-skilled and well-trained and produc-
tive."02:09 11-11C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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