A White Disease?
"Vote Latino" Crowd Still Doesn't Get it  

Tom Duggan

Last November a group of active and vocal Latino elites in Lawrence started a campaign to get more "Latinos" elected to city positions. In the Spanish language media they ran commercials and published columns/articles touting the importance of "taking over" the city from "Anglos" and voting "only for Latinos" as a show of Latino pride and "power."  

Since then, (and because it failed) Latino candidates and elected officials have been engaged in damage control, at least when speaking to "Anglos," saying that it was not a campaign to encourage Latinos to "only vote for Latinos" but a "get out the vote" campaign that was well intended but somehow, mysteriously went wrong.  

What went wrong, however, were not the idealistic good intentions of Latino activists to encourage more Latino participation being twisted by a few renegades in the Latino community. No, what went wrong was the mistaken belief that Lawrence voters who do not speak Spanish would never know about the hypocrisy of candidates who say one thing to the Spanish press "Vote Latino" and the opposite "I'm for everybody" to the English only press.  

And as the result of that miscalculation the Vote Latino campaign backfired. Two years ago, so called "Anglo" voters were willing to put aside race and racial issues to support Latino candidates based only on issues and experience. City Counciolors were tolerant and open minded enough to elect a Latino as the Council president in a show of colorblind political activism.  

The reason for such tolerance and open minded voting by Anglos in Lawrence was because race was not made an issue by those Latino candidates and the good will generated by Latino candidates who wanted to represent everyone regardless of race impressed almost everyone.  

But, because most of the Latino candidates this past November were exposed saying "Vote Latino" to the Spanish press and "I'm for everybody" in the English only press, not only were Latino candidates rejected by most white voters but the backlash filtered to the race for council president.  

Note to the Vote Latino crowd: do not be surprised when you make racist statements against any group that said group will reject you and your candidates for your behavior not your race.   

Some "Anglo" councilors, afraid of reprisals and illegitimate (yet very powerful) charges of racism spoke only off the record to tommyduggan.com about the council president race. What they said was a wakeup call to the "Vote Latino" crowd and those who supported it. The message sent (though clearly not received) was that racism will not be tolerated regardless of who is being targeted or who is doing the targeting.  

"Anglo" voters would certainly reject a candidate who campaigned on the issue of "being white" and "stopping Latinos" from getting elected and participating in city government. And they certainly would not elevate such a candidate to Council President or Vice President on the heels of such racial division.  

But the "Vote Latino" crowd still doesn't get it.  

After the City Council voted for Patrick Blanchette as council president and Gil Frechette as council vice president (both "Anglos") the Spanish press (most of whom participated in "Vote Latino") painted their election to leadership positions as "racist" and "revenge" for Latinos opposing the evil, white power structure in the City of Lawrence.  

Their evidence was that all of the white councilors voted for white councilors. As though racism is a disease resulting in white people supporting white people. But racism and prejudice is not just a white disease. And while there is still a fair number of racist and prejudice "Anglos" in the city of Lawrence, there seem to far more (or at least far more vocal and blatant) racists who are Latino.  

Much as been written and said in the Latino press about the failure of the "Vote Latino" campaign and the backlash that has resulted in a step back for Latinos in Lawrence. But, they blame their failure on the "racists Anglos" whom they say were "more organized" to get "their candidates" elected as though a hooded group of white politicians were in the back room of city hall scheming to keep Latinos down.  

Their solution is not to abandon the racist and divisive Vote Latino campaign that failed and resulted in the loss of a Latino voice in the council. No, in a fervor to convince their supporters and themselves that they were right to promote "Vote Latino," their solution is to "be more organized next time."  

One would think that a failed campaign like "Vote Latino" would jar them into realizing that good people who are tolerant and open minded about electing all races, regardless of race will only be tolerant and open minded for so long. But, when their tolerance is exploited by candidates and elites in the Latino community to attack all "Anglos" as patently racist and exclusionary of Latinos - that good will and tolerance tends to fade.  

The problem is, those who promote such racist ideas and campaigns still don't get it. It is their racist behavior that was rejected by Anglo voters not the race of those running. If race were an issue Marcos Devers would not have topped the ticket citywide two years ago and he certainly wouldn't be council president.  

The philosophy behind this kind of "Vote Latino" thinking is that racism is a white disease, that when "Anglos" get together to promote "Anglo" candidates, even if it not based on race, it is somehow rooted in an evil plot of exclusion while "Latinos" who blatantly promote candidates based solely on race is positive and progressive because it promotes "diversity."  

I am often puzzled that the mainstream media either turns a blind eye to this kind of racism and discrimination or supports the idea that racism is a white disease. Perhaps the newer immigrants to this country need to get away from the "Vote Latino" crowd and learn what racism really is - and isn't.  

Years ago, (not that many I am loathe to admit) Latino candidates could not get elected in Lawrence because of racism.

That has dramatically changed. It took a long time, lots of hard work and the willingness of people like Marcos Devers and Jose Santiago to prove to those residents that voting based on race was destructive to the community.  

I only hope that it doesn't take as long for prominent Latinos in Lawrence to learn that same lesson.  

Unfortunately, it seems like they still don't get it.

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