Asserts the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga professor and head of the National Republican African American Caucus, in response to RNC chairman Michael Steele's statement urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to resign over his comments about President Obama: “If RNC Chair, Michael Steele is truly concerned with racism, then perhaps he needs to first begin within our own party. There are certainly enough issues with race for him to have his hands full in dealing with this right here within the Republican Party. There also are a few within the GOP leadership, he also may wish to ask to step down.”
She continues her statement: "As a 30-year veteran African American Republican and as the head of the National Republican African American Caucus, I find it offensive to see and hear this kind of meaningless rhetoric. It is simply another way of posturing and playing to partisan unrest. Something this party and nation do not need. We are a nation in need of healing. Racism is a cancer which we all should seek a cure. Not just for ourselves, but for our future generations. We should not be a nation divided by race. We should be a nation that celebrates its ethnicities, as we seek to live and thrive together as one nation. Many of us (African American Republicans) have tried to sit back and look the other way, but when this kind of silly and meaningless rhetoric is espoused with such callousness and lack of sincerity, you can’t be silent. I don’t like having to speak out against my own party or its leadership. But if we do not, this continues, and it makes it appear that all African American Republicans are a part of this foolishness. Because of this, many of us have bowed out of the GOP political mix. It also makes it hard to recruit other African Americans into the Republican Party, at a time when the Party needs to attract us.”
More from Dr. Howard-Hill: “We have some serious problems within the Republican Party; especially down South. This is not to say that all White Republicans are racists. There are many who are not. Nor are all African Americans who are Republicans experiencing this kind of treatment. There are some in states such as California and Ohio who have had the luxury of acceptance and have been embraced by party leadership. However, in states such as Tennessee, unfortunately, this has not been the case....So Chairman Steele, we invite you to be fervent in the same commitment you have to challenge Democrats, to also call for a change within the GOP; where what you do actually can have an impact in changing the racial climate in America.”
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Jean Howard-Hill: "GOP, First Clean Up Your Own House"
