STAR STAR PARKER COMMENTARY: Barack Obama's Strange Ethnic Politics

The conservative Republican commentator opines about the liberal Democratic U.S. Senator and presidential candidate: "[National Council of La Raza] is sort of the Hispanic NAACP. Speaking before an audience of about 2,000, Obama, according to The Wall Street Journal, 'compared last year's massive immigration rallies led by Hispanics to the civil-rights marches of African-Americans in the 1960s...' Regarding the population of illegals in our country today, Obama assured the crowd that 'I will never walk away from the 12 million undocumented immigrants ...' How odd for a candidate for the presidency of the United States to include looking out for the interests of illegals as a campaign promise."

She continues: "How about his equating immigration rallies to the civil-rights movement of the 1960s? The analogy is, to say the least, bizarre. And it again gives a sense that the senator's left-wing vision of the world is far closer to his heart than to our own Constitution and how it relates to our citizens. The injustices that blacks suffered had to do with lack of equal treatment and due process of law for our own citizens because of their race. The civil rights of blacks, U.S. citizens, protected under our Constitution, that were being violated were clear. What exactly are the rights of illegals that, according to Obama, are being violated? They have violated us, not we them. Again I ask: What country, or what entity, is it that Obama is seeking to lead and exactly whose interests and what values is he looking to preserve and protect?"

My response: La Raza has nowhere the storied history of the NAACP, and is hardly fit to be a peer. Not to mention that (non-black) Hispanics have had more privileges than blacks in this country due to racism and colorism, so for folks to claim that their challenges are equal to ours is ridiculous. However, I do agree that Sen. Obama is pandering to Hispanics at black expense....which may further add fuel to the argument that he is"not black enough" for black folks to trust with votes. His position that illegal immigration - the overwhelming majority of whom are Hispanic - don't undercut the employment prospects of working-class and poor blacks (a question that he was asked at the recent convention of the National Association of Black Journalists) is a foolish one. Not to mention how they siphon funds from public services that - if we're going to have them - should only go to citizens and legal residents.