TheA PUBLICATION OF POLITICAL RESEARCH PublicEye ASSOCIATES SUMMER 2002 • Volume XVI, No. 2 Moving Right On! Fairness, Family, and Faith Colorblind: White- counsel, interns, high-flying pro bono he was meticulous about finding a lawyer to lawyers, a number of publications, and a size- argue the case, recruiting [now Solicitor- washing America able and growing budget. General] Theodore Olson, a pricey Wash- CIR is one of a number of conservative ington lawyer known for winning before the By Nikhil Aziz right-wing legal advocacy organizations Supreme Court.”9 For CIR, winning the war “CIR’s civil rights litigation is based on the prin- founded to bring legal cases in support of was more important than winning a battle. ciple of strict state neutrality: the state must not rightist campaigns. It has been very successful The strategic nature of CIR’s modus advantage some or disadvantage others because in replicating liberal public interest law operandi has also been noted by lawyer of their race. firms such as the American Civil Liberties Idris Diaz, who writes that, “In all of CIR’s Race, like religion, must be placed beyond Union (ACLU).5 CIR has concentrated on university admissions cases, the lead plain- the reach of the state. Our objections to racial specific areas of concern, and within them tiffs have been White women, a strategic preferences are legal, moral, and pragmatic. zeroed in on cases that it felt would “change decision that in the court of public opinion Preferences are almost always unconstitu- the law,” as opposed to simply winning a vic- undercuts arguments that affirmative action tional when used to achieve an arbitrary tory. Changing the law has clearly been its has primarily benefited this group. Yet CIR racial diversity; they are only legal when nar- goal in the area of affirmative action, par- has hardly been an ally of the women’s rowly tailored to remedy past discrimination ticularly in higher education. (See sidebar movement.”10 In 2000, it successfully con- against identifiable individuals. As a moral page 4 on the main higher education affir- tested the constitutionality of parts of matter, preferences are dehumanizing and mative action cases that CIR has brought). the Violence Against Women Act in the reduce individuals to the color of their skin. And According to Terry Carter, CIR “does go U.S. Supreme Court.11 In two other cases, pragmatically, racial preferences almost always where its plan works best”6 which allows it Boulahanis v. Board of Regents, Illinois State add to division and discord in society.”1 to “attack affirmative action at its weakest University, and Miami University Wrestling links . . . [and] rely in large measure on con- Club v. Miami University, CIR defended servative judges who go beyond the facts of men’s sports teams that had been elimi- Introduction2 individual cases to proclaim things that nated to achieve participation proportional he Center for Individual Rights (CIR) have broader implications.”7 CIR’s lawyers to the population of women and men at Tdescribes itself as a “nonprofit public contend that it has won before judges who those universities.12 interest law firm dedicated to the defense of are not conservative, but according to jour- The pick and choose strategy CIR has individual liberties.”3 Founded in 1988 by nalist W. John Moore, “they concede that the employed with regard to cases is not new. Michael McDonald and Michael Greve, appointment of conservative judges by Pres- Colorblind continues on page 3 both previously at the rightist Washington idents Reagan and Bush have made the Legal Foundation,4 CIR is now an established courts more receptive to their arguments.”8 presence in the nation’s capital, and its influ- As David Segal of the Washington Post IN THIS ISSUE ence is felt across the country through vari- reported, “[Michael] Greve searched hard for ous high-profile cases that it has taken up, a test case that would land in the 5th U.S. Cir- Commentary ...... 2 including more than a few that it has fought cuit Court of Appeals, widely considered to Books Received ...... 32 and won in the U.S. Supreme Court. Over be a conservative bench. He then sought the last 14 years, CIR has grown from the 2 plaintiffs at the University of Texas Law Eyes Right ...... 33 founders in a small nondescript space to a School, which he had studied for months Eye Lashes ...... 33 swanky office with administrators, in-house and thought was vulnerable to attack. And

THE PUBLIC EYE 1 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye From the President ThePublicEye By Jean Hardisty Editor Nikhil Aziz, Ph.D. Design/layout or more than two decades, the contemporary political Right has built and consoli- Hird Graphic Design Fdated its political apparatus. Now in control of the Executive Branch, it is stronger Printing and enjoys wider public acceptance than at any time since the 1950s. In order to best Red Sun Press oppose the Right’s ideological and programmatic agenda, we need to know exactly how Mailing Walnut Street Center the Right is implementing that agenda. But for years the Right has specialized in obfus- cation and stealth tactics, complicating the job of unmasking its methods. PRA In this issue of The Public Eye, Editor Nikhil Aziz has assembled several articles that POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES illustrate how difficult it can be to see the Right’s hand behind frighteningly reactionary Board of Directors political maneuvers that enjoy the support of the Bush Administration. In his own arti- Joseph Agne cle, “Colorblind: White-washing America,” he analyzes the work of the cleverly-named Miguel Bustos Michael Chapman Center for Individual Rights. He describes how the rightist Center constructs cases against Jean Entine affirmative action after meticulously researching the best chances for victory, often in Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D. conservative judicial circuits. The public knows only that a named individual is bring- Michael Kozu Vivien Labaton ing a case against a university for practicing affirmative action (often a woman is cho- Mohan Sikka sen, because women benefit from affirmative action and a woman’s presence in the suit Faith Smith appears to contradict that fact). Paul Watanabe Loretta Williams, Ph.D. Two of the articles in this issue address the Bush Administration’s drive to satisfy its Lucy A. Williams Christian Right base. George W. Bush understands that his political survival depends on the enthusiastic support of the Christian Right. Here, Jennifer Butler writes chill- Staff Nikhil Aziz, Ph.D., Research Analyst ingly of the Christian Right’s takeover of the U.S. delegation to the UN, especially in Wendy Beauchamp, Information Specialist her own area of work, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). And Bill Berkowitz Chip Berlet, Senior Research Analyst writes about the Bush Administration’s “faith-based initiative,” which would divert mil- Stephanie Clark, Office Manager Kate Cloud, Director lions of federal dollars to religious organizations in an attempt to “unleash armies of Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D., President compassion” to deal with social problems. Though there is no research to support the Richard Allen Jackson, Jr., efficacy of this approach and it violates separation of Church and State provisions, as Director of Development & Communications well as antidiscrimination laws, it is directly responsive to the Christian Right’s agenda. Advisory Board And, in keeping with Political Research Associates’ mission to monitor and expose Rita Arditti Skipp Porteous antidemocratic and authoritarian trends, we asked Esther Kaplan to analyze the Ann Baker John Roberts Donna Bivens Mab Segrest increase in conspiracy theories that blame Jews for September 11, as well as anti- Sara Diamond, Ph.D. Alice Senturia Jewish violence, especially in European countries. She explores the relationship between Fred Goff Holly Sklar Jews and Israel in the public mind and in the rhetoric of public discourse, in order to Beni Ivey Barbara Simon Maya Miller Lucius Walker tease out the complex relationship between increased criticism of Israel and increased Suzanne Pharr Leah Wise expressions of antisemitism, while not neglecting the increase in anti-Arab, anti- The Public Eye is published by Political Research South Asian, and anti-Muslim violence in this country. Associates. Subscriptions are $29.00 for individuals The challenge for all activists who work and non-profit organizations, $39.00 for other Editorial Note: In the Fall 2001 issue of The Public organizations, $19.00 for students and low-income to counter the Right’s agenda is to hone our Eye we ran an article by Nikhil Aziz and Chip Berlet individuals. Outside U.S., Canada, and Mexico, add tools of opposition. One tool is knowledge on “Nationalism.” In that article Aziz and Berlet $9.00 for surface delivery or $14.00 for air mail. used Benedict Anderson’s concept of the nation as of the “architecture” of the Right, its ideo- an “imagined” community. We did not mean to imply Please make checks payable to Political Research that the nation, or nationalism, was “imaginary,” but Associates, 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, logical profile, and its stealth tactics. With that the idea of a nation is socially constructed, i.e. Somerville, Massachusetts 02144-1731. 617.666.5300 fax: 617.666.6622 this knowledge, we are better equipped to it is not a fixed historical reality. Aziz and Berlet are currently working on a longer version of that article PRA is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. All stop the Right and roll back its revolution- that makes this distinction clear, while addressing donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted ary agenda. We hope that this issue of The other concerns about the role nationalism played in by law. © Political Research Associates, 2002. anti-imperialist and anticolonial struggles, as well Public Eye leaves you, our readers, better as in the contemporary context of corporate-driven Website: www.publiceye.org neoliberal globalization. Please watch the PRA All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 equipped to do that critical work. website http://www.publiceye.org for an update. ISSUE 40

THE PUBLIC EYE 2 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

Ironically, it mirrors the National Associ- Snowblindness: Institutional nities for people of color are constructed ation for the Advancement of Colored Racism in the United States unequally.”16 As Black lesbian feminist People (NAACP) Legal and Educational nstitutional racism is a term coined by Writer and Activist Barbara Smith Defense Fund’s struggle—led by [later Iprogressives in the 1960s to capture the observes, “Racism is not primarily a set of Justice] Thurgood Marshall—to overturn way in which “racial inequality is built into negative attitudes or behaviors on the part racial segregation and “separate but equal” the structure of American politics and of individual whites. These negative atti- laws in the 1940s and 50s, culminating at social arrangements. Institutional racism tudes and behaviors are grievous and the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board goes beyond individual racist ideology and sometimes fatal, but they are in fact symp- of Education.13 CIR’s staff has adopted, acts. It pervades the ‘normal workings’ of toms of a system whose purpose is not and adapted, that basic strategy to argue merely to make people of color feel badly, that the U.S. Constitution should allow but to maintain white power and con- only legislative policies and institutional As Black lesbian trol.”17 Power and control are not always practices that are “colorblind.” In an ideal achieved or maintained through numer- world, colorblindness, if understood as feminist Writer and ical strength but through the construction “not discriminating on the basis of race,” and preservation of a biased system. “For is certainly a value that progressives would Activist Barbara Smith instance, Whiteness in the context of insti- espouse. But our society and our system are tutionalized racism affords members of the far from approximating that ideal. Just observes, “Racism is ‘White race’ dominance in settings as dif- because we have dismantled Jim Crow ferent as the contemporary United States laws and apartheid-style legalized segre- not primarily a set of and apartheid South Africa.”18 gation does not mean that we have achieved Institutional racism is certainly not genuine racial equality or justice. Racism negative attitudes or unique to the United States, and is found is not manifest simply in the attitude or act in similar forms from Britain to Brazil. In of one individual toward another. It is behaviors on the part of other world regions, such as South Asia, deeply imbedded in our system and struc- institutional oppression takes different yet tures—giving rise to the concept of “insti- individual whites. These similar forms. In India, where institutional tutional racism.” casteism is manifest in the systemic dis- In a society and system that is institu- negative attitudes and crimination against Dalits19 and “lower” tionally racist, and where simply being castes, religion also becomes a terrain for White means having privilege, being col- behaviors are grievous discrimination with the institutionalized orblind actually results in being “snow- and sometimes fatal, oppression of Muslims and other religious blind.” Journalist and Professor Robert minorities. It was institutional casteism that Jensen notes that, “White privilege, like but they are in fact Bhimrao Ambedkar, the architect of India’s any other social phenomenon, is com- Constitution, was concerned about while plex. In a white supremacist culture, all symptoms of a system steering that document through the Indian white people have privilege, whether or not Constituent Assembly: they are overtly racist themselves. There are whose purpose is not “. . . we are going to enter into a general patterns, but such privilege plays life of contradictions. In politics we out differently depending on context and merely to make people will have equality and in social and other aspects of one’s identity.”14 White economic life we will have inequal- privilege does not ignore issues of class or of color feel badly, but ity. In politics we shall be recogniz- gender. As activist Sharon Martinas rea- ing the principle of one man, one sons, “Non-ruling class white people are to maintain white power vote, one value. In our social and eco- both oppressed and privileged. They are nomic life, we shall by reason of eco- oppressed most significantly on the basis of and control. nomic structure, continue to deny class, gender and sexuality, and also on the the principle of one man, one vote. basis of religion, culture, ethnicity, age, How long shall we continue to deny physical abilities and politics. At the same social, economic, political, religious, legal, equality in social and economic life? time, they are privileged in relation to and medical institutions, systematically If we continue to deny it for long, we peoples of color.”15 placing people of color at a disadvantage. will do so by putting our democracy It is in the practices and procedures of in peril.”20 these institutions that status and opportu- Ambedkar could as easily be talking

THE PUBLIC EYE 3 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

Affirmative Action Cases in groups of four justices each. Justice Powell wrote of affirmative action in the educational setting. that the Constitution requires strict scrutiny Higher Education In Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F. 3d. 932 (5th Cir. review of all race-conscious decision-making, By Margaret A. Burnham 1996), the Fifth Circuit struck down the affir- even where Whites as a class are disfavored. Pow- mative action plan of the University of Texas ell rejected general societal discrimination as a The United States Supreme Court will likely Law School, rejecting the law school’s claim that basis for affirmative action by state universities. soon have the chance to rule on if and when its plan was a permissible means of achieving However, in a separate concurring opinion, Jus- affirmative measures can be taken to obtain student diversity. The law school admissions tice Powell found that promoting diversity in its racially diverse student bodies in public universi- procedure considered separately minority appli- student body constituted a compelling and con- ties. The Court last visited the issue in 1978. In cants, comprising African-Americans and Mexi- stitutionally permissible reason for a state med- Regents of University of California v. Bakke, 538 can-Americans, and White applicants. The ical school to adopt a race-conscious admissions US 265 (1978), the Court considered whether a students were ranked based on their GPA and approach. Powell concluded that, even though state university’s affirmative action program vio- LSAT scores and then placed in three separate affirmative action was not per se unconstitu- lated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th categories. Different admissions standards were tional in the higher education setting, the Davis Amendment and a federal law forbidding racial applied to the categories. As in Bakke, the White plan, reserving 16 places for minorities, was not discrimination in education. Absent a constitu- plaintiffs were denied admission to the school sufficiently narrowly tailored to meet the test of tionally permissible reason, a public entity like a although their numerical scores were higher than strict scrutiny. Although diversity was a com- state university may not make race-conscious those of the minority students admitted under pelling, and therefore permissible, reason for the decisions. Prior to Bakke, constitutional law pro- the Texas plan. The Fifth Circuit panel declared medical school’s race-based admissions program, vided that State decision-making based on race that the plan could not meet strict scrutiny there were other less burdensome methods by could only be sustained if the objective sought despite the law school defendant’s reliance on which the school could have achieved a diverse by the State was compelling and there was no Justice Powell’s opinion that race-conscious poli- student body. alternative route to that objective. Bakke led the cies are in some circumstances permissible to Court to examine whether this high standard of Justice Brennan, supported by three other Jus- achieve student body diversity. The Hopwood review for race-conscious decision-making, tices, argued in one of the two plurality opinions court argued that Justice Powell’s endorsement known as “strict scrutiny,” should be applied that State efforts to remedy past discrimination of diversity as a compelling objective did not even where, as with affirmative action, Whites are should not be held to the tough strict scrutiny reflect a majority view of the Bakke court—on the class disadvantaged by the State’s action. standard appropriate in other race discrimina- this point, Justice Powell wrote for himself—and The White plaintiff in the case, Alan Bakke, tion cases. Arguing that Whites have not been was therefore without binding authority. The argued that he was wrongly denied admission to historically the victims of discrimination, and Fifth Circuit argued further that Supreme Court the University of California, Davis medical that affirmative measures impose no stigma on opinions subsequent to Bakke undermined the school because an affirmative action plan favored them, Justice Brennan proposed a standard of diversity rationale, and furthermore it held affir- minority students. Bakke’s claim was based on review less than strict but nevertheless searching. mative action measures at the law school could Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the The Davis program, he argued, should be sus- not be based on the present effects of past dis- Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. The tained under a looser standard of review, because crimination within the Texas public education Davis plan set aside 16 out of 100 available “minority under-representation [at Davis] is sub- system generally rather than a discriminatory places for 4 categories of minority group appli- stantial and chronic, and the handicap of past history that could be specifically tied to the law cants. These applications were assessed by a spe- discrimination is impeding access of minorities school. In sum, the Hopwood court held that, cial committee. Bakke argued his rights were to the Medical School.” despite Justice Powell’s Bakke opinion, diversity could never be a compelling reason for an affir- violated because his numerical score was higher Justice Stevens, writing for the other four-justice mative action program in public higher education. than that of some of the 16 students admitted plurality, declined to decide the constitutional under the plan. question, relying instead on Title VI to declare In Michigan, two federal judges reached oppo- The Court held the Davis plan was unlawful the Davis plan an unlawful breach of that statute’s site conclusions on whether racial heterogeneity under Title VI. However, the justices expressed a “broad prohibition against the [educational] meets the compelling interest requirement of the wide range of opinions about whether this affir- exclusion of any individual” based on race. Equal Protection Clause. In Gratz v. Bollinger, 135 F.Supp.2d 790 (E.D.Mich. 2001), White mative action program also violated the Consti- Justice Powell’s opinion in Bakke has become the plaintiffs sued the University of Michigan, chal- tution. The dispute within the Court concerned touchstone for review of affirmative action poli- lenging the constitutionality of the college’s race- whether strict scrutiny should be applied to race- cies. To meet Justice Powell’s test of “narrow tai- conscious admissions policies. The district court conscious programs designed to correct previous loring” as expounded in Bakke, such plans must ruled that the policies were motivated by a desire invidious societal discrimination. Five justices not have rigid quotas, or install dual admission to achieve diversity, which, contrary to Hop- agreed that a state university could, in principle, systems, and race must be only one of several fac- wood, the court found to be a constitutionally employ a race-conscious admissions plan in tors employed to achieve diversity. However, permissible goal, but that some of the college’s some circumstances. But there was no agreement because the Bakke decision yielded six separate practices were not sufficiently narrowly tailored on whether such a program should be strictly opinions and two four-justice pluralities, the cir- to overcome strict scrutiny. Since 1998, the col- reviewed or meet a less onerous constitutional cuit courts have split in applying it. The lege had given additional points to underrepre- standard. Supreme Court will likely review the circum- sented minority group members in the stances, if any, under which race-conscious The Davis plan, the majority of the justices admissions procedure. The Gratz court struck admissions can withstand constitutional agreed, could not pass muster. The Court’s swing down the system employed by the college from scrutiny. In the meantime, the lower courts have vote was Justice Powell, now deceased, whose 1995-1998, which created a special category of opinion was joined in separate parts by two expressed differing views of the constitutionality

THE PUBLIC EYE 4 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

about institutional racism in the United refers to merit standards of hiring and “protected candidates” eligible for admission if too few minorities came in through the States. A classic example of institutional promotion that fail to produce proportional 22 rolling admissions process. The court found racism in the United States is “the contrast outcomes for minorities.” For the most this process to be the functional equivalent between an inner city public school, which part, groups on the Right allege that “racism of a quota, which Bakke clearly invalidated. tends to have a higher proportion of [usu- is a thing of the past: specifically, that both However the court sustained the post-1998 ally lower income] students of color, with legally-sanctioned (de jure) discrimination program, ruling that the college could con- a suburban public school which is apt to and the informal practices of de facto dis- sider race, and that its compelling interest in 23 diversity meant that it could take steps to have a majority of [usually higher income] crimination have been corrected.” How- insure that its student body contained more white students. In an inner city school ever, where the Old Right is overtly racist, than a token number of minorities. class sizes tend to be larger, textbooks are the New Right in the post-Civil Rights era The University of Michigan did not assert a often unavailable or outdated and build- obscures its racism behind the coded lan- remedial purpose for its affirmative action in ings tend to be older and in need of repair. guage of “states’ rights” and “colorblindness.” admissions. Civil rights advocates have In wealthier suburban schools, on the Amy Ansell argues that the New Right’s argued that although past discrimination other hand, class size tends to be smaller, racism is a “new racism,” which is charac- may be a more promising rationale for affir- textbooks are usually up-to-date and avail- terized by “the abandonment of a com- mative action, university defendants hesitate to cite their exclusionary racial history as the able and the facilities are generally main- mitment to equality and a redefinition of 24 basis for remedial measures. tained. Meanwhile graduates are held to the the principle of fairness.” The Right argues same standard without regard for the that, because racism has been dealt with as In Grutter v. Bollinger, 137 F. Supp. 2d 821 (E.D. Mich. 2001) a second Michigan dis- unequal preparation that different educa- a result of the Civil Rights Movement, race 21 trict court struck down the University of tional environments create.” While in should not be a consideration for hiring in Michigan Law School’s admissions policy, theory public education is the same for all, employment or for admission to educa- arguing, contrary to Justice Powell’s opinion in reality—despite desegregation—it is tional institutions, and group identities in Bakke and contrary to the ruling in Gratz, anything but equal. other than “American” are immaterial. that diversity is not a sufficiently compelling educational interest to warrant race-con- According to the Right, identity politics scious selection. Rac[e]ing the Right and pluralism weaken American culture. nstitutional racism is purposefully located Professor David Brudnoy, while acknowl- In Smith v. University of Washington Law edging the multi-ethnic, multiracial, and School, 233 F.3d 1188 (9th Cir. 2000) the Iwithin the Right’s analytical blind spot. Ninth Circuit fully adopted Justice Powell’s For the Right, colorblindness means a neu- multireligious character of the United view that diversity is a value sufficiently tral and equalizing gaze that focuses on indi- States, finds that, “We barely retain our all- compelling to pass the constitutional test of viduals and not on groups. In the United embracing values, owing to the multicul- strict scrutiny, even where there is no show- States, where individualism is a much-cel- turalists’ ideological derision of ing of a remedial purpose linked to the insti- Americanism, adoration of the exotic, and tution’s past practices. ebrated theme in the national myth, this focus on the individual extends beyond sneering of the unity that was our melting- The Smith case is back in the trial court, and rightist libertarians to the Right as a whole. pot goal. . . . Uni-culturalism is essential if in the Texas case, Hopwood, the Supreme Yet, the emphasis on individualism also cre- we’re to remain recognizably America, but Court denied review in 1996 and the case is 25 no longer on appeal. It is therefore likely that ates contradictions within the Right. The we’re in full retreat from it.” There is the Supreme Court will consider the cases Christian Right celebrates collectivities usually no acknowledgement in such con- challenging race-conscious admissions poli- such as the “family” or Christians, partic- tentions that the Right’s construction of the cies at the University of Michigan’s college ularly in the context of its claims about archetypal “All-American” is White, het- and its law school. In December 2001 the full declining morality. Similarly, the Extreme erosexual, and Christian. bench of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in Gratz and Grutter. On Right underscores race, and therefore racial Where racism exists in the form of indi- May 14, 2002, the Sixth Circuit overturned groups. vidual prejudice, the Right often advocates Justice Friedman’s prior decision in Grutter Race does not occupy the same position “racial reconciliation.” So, groups within ruling that the University of Michigan Law in the worldview of different sectors of the the Christian Right, such as the Promise School’s admissions policy fulfilled the Right, though it is always central to the Keepers, which has taken the lead in rec- State’s compelling interest in diversity. A rul- onciling the races, call upon individual ing on Gratz is expected shortly. Either one racist Extreme Right. Scholars on the Right of the Circuit’s decisions will likely be the most often dismiss the very idea of insti- Whites to repent and discard their preju- ones to reach the Supreme Court. tutional racism or treat it as having no dice, and to embrace people of color as their merit, arguing that racial incidents and out- fellow Christians. As Andrea Smith, a Margaret Burnham is Associate Professor of Native American progressive activist, writes, Law at Northeastern University. Her area of comes are always and merely a problem interest is civil rights and human rights. between individuals. Dinesh D’Souza, for “The basis of race reconciliation is, of example, writes that, “‘Institutional racism’ course, Christianity. White evangelicals

THE PUBLIC EYE 5 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye embrace race reconciliation only with those New Right blended “a militant anticom- that inequality.”37 While government pro- groups they see as sufficiently Christian.”26 munism with a libertarian defense of pris- grams, and often government action, are In the Right’s view, affirmative action tine capitalism and a traditionalist concern regarded as coercive and harmful by many and other programs designed to address with moral and social order.”32 This was a on the Right, what is not recognized by institutional racism (and sexism and het- natural outcome of an “an ideological them is that “What constitutes ‘harm’ is … erosexism) become both unnecessary (since division of labor that had developed within determined by the state and the law; and racism doesn’t exist except in individual per- conservatism that directed the tradition- the state and the law … define harm in the sonal action or thinking), and unjust (since alist emphasis on moral order, community, shadow of the dominant ideology of they do not discount race and consider indi- and constraint to the social issues while the power.”38 Essentially, those who control the vidual merit alone).27 Using polemical and discussion of economic issues stressed State make the laws, and it is they who divisive tactics, the Right attacks affirma- mainly libertarian themes of individual- define what harm (and therefore harmful) tive action as “racial quotas,” “preferential ism and freedom.”33 Despite that divi- is, and what it is not. treatment,” and “reverse discrimination.”28 sion, “Right-wing libertarians are In Hardisty’s words, “Libertarians are It cynically takes the language of the Civil reactionaries who are vicious in their con- often criticized for a heartless indifference Rights Movement, including the words of demnation of liberal programs for social to the social contract, or any other civic- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., himself, to justice, sharing with the larger Right their minded concern for the larger social good argue that individuals should be judged by abhorrence of liberalism.”34 … [to which they] respond with their their merit and character and not by their notion of ‘civil society,’ which they claim skin color. It contends that since racism, Libertarianism: Atomizing is nurtured by libertarianism more suc- when it does occur, is between individuals, Society cessfully than by any other political ideol- any remedy should be aimed at those indi- IR’s conservatism primarily stems ogy.”39 But in this “free-for-all competitive viduals who can be identified as having Cfrom libertarian roots. In its self- private sector they call civil society, liber- directly suffered an act of racism. And, it description it acknowledges that, “Its tarians show no concern for a level playing also warns that preferential treatment name was chosen to underscore that its field.”40 In this context, “equal before the accorded to a particular ethnic or racial objective would be to defend individual law” means neither equal opportunity, nor group will create resentment among oth- liberties, broadly understood to encom- equal results. The State must not actively ers (read Whites). These arguments fleshed pass both civil and economic rights . . . discriminate against any individual—true. out early on by the neoconservative scholar [and that it] offered conservative, liber- But neither should it be engaged in creat- Nathan Glazer in his 1975 book, Affir- tarian and moderate attorneys in for- ing the exact same opportunity for all indi- mative Discrimination,29 are the foundation profit firms an opportunity to bring about viduals, or in ensuring that all individuals of CIR’s opposition to affirmative action; meaningful legal change and to get the exact same results. Libertarians and also form the underpinnings of the contribute to the principled defense of would argue that individuals have free will, attack on affirmative action by the Right individual liberty in court.”35 Libertari- and with the government providing min- as a whole. Legal challenges to affirmative anism—right-wing libertarianism in this imum law and order the freedom to avail action, diversity, and a progressive higher case—accords the individual primacy of opportunity. education are only one aspect of the Right’s over society and the State.36 In so doing, This is far less than the liberal definition concerted efforts to change the face of it melds an antigovernment perspective of equal opportunity, in which the gov- education. Scholar Ellen Messer-Davidow with pro-free market fervor. The antipa- ernment has a role in ensuring that equal has researched the well-coordinated broader thy towards State intervention in the opportunity exists in fact, not simply in the- attack on campuses and higher education economy is matched by a rejection of ory. Many progressives would argue for fur- institutions across the United States, involv- State intervention in society. The State is ther strengthening the liberal equal ing conservative student, alumni, and fac- simply required to maintain the minimum opportunity concept, by adding feminist ulty groups, publications, financial support, law and order that would allow the mar- theorist Martha Nussbaum’s idea of “basic influential columnists, intellectuals, and ket free reign, and would enable individ- capability,” grounded in what Professor Jyl policy-makers.30 uals to exercise free will in society. Beyond Josephson calls “equal respect.”41 Recog- Jerome Himmelstein, a scholar of the that the State should not be in the busi- nizing that there cannot be a completely U.S. Right, has documented the devel- ness of regulating society or the economy. level playing field unless one begins from opment of the successful, although diffi- Researcher Jean Hardisty has written a clean slate, a just society ensures that each cult, synthesis of traditional conservatism previously in The Public Eye that, “Liber- individual has the basic capabilities to avail and libertarianism manifest in the emer- tarians view all government programs as her/himself of equal opportunity. Such gence and triumph of the New Right in the coercive and prefer existing inequality to basic capabilities would include health last three decades of the 20th century.31 The government programs designed to decrease care, adequate food and shelter, security,

THE PUBLIC EYE 6 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye freedom of movement, and freedom from liberty, or property, without due these categories are involved, the Court uses discrimination.42 process of law; nor deny to any per- “strict scrutiny” to determine that the law son within its jurisdiction the equal or policy serves a “compelling” government Equal Protection: Unequal protection of the laws. interest, and that it is “narrowly tailored” Causes, Unequal Effects The 14th Amendment, along with the to serve that interest or to remedy actual dis- IR, and the Right in general, invoke 13th and 15th Amendments (which ended crimination. Cthe Equal Protection Clause and civil slavery and gave African-Americans the Affirmative action policies, because rights laws while attacking affirmative right to vote) was one of three post-Civil they involve race, are reviewed under this action.43 The Equal Protection Clause (Sec- War additions to the U.S. Constitution. standard.45 CIR, in appealing the decision tion 1 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Over the years, the U.S. Supreme Court has in Smith v. University of Washington Law Constitution) reads: elaborated three standards of review, under School (see sidebar page 5 for case) asked All persons born or naturalized in the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the United States, and subject to the Amendment, for determining the consti- whether, under the 14th Amendment’s jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the tutionality of laws, policies, and programs.44 Equal Protection Clause, diversity itself United States and of the state wherein First, the class or category of individuals was “a compelling government interest they reside. No state shall make or being affected is examined. Race, ethnic- sufficient to meet strict scrutiny,” with enforce any law which shall abridge ity, and religion are considered inherently regard to affirmative action programs. the privileges or immunities of citi- suspect classifications—because they are The Supreme Court declined to hear zens of the United States; nor shall categories that historically have been the that appeal in May 2001.47 This any state deprive any person of life, basis for discrimination. In cases where does not imply that the Reprinted with the kind permission of the artist.

THE PUBLIC EYE 7 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

Rehnquist Court necessarily views diver- est.51 Author Carl E. Brody, Jr., writes that writes that formal-race is the category used sity to be a compelling State interest; but the Supreme Court “should understand the by the current majority on the Supreme it might simply be waiting for a more sig- historical context motivating the enact- Court in cases ranging from affirmative nificant case, or a more opportune ments of the Fourteenth Amendment and action to voting rights.59 Gotanda’s third moment, before putting the issue on its the 1964 Civil Rights Act . . . [and] should type, “historical-race,” takes into account docket. In fact, civil rights activists, fear- affirm the underlying rationale for affir- the vastly different historical experiences ful of how the majority on the Rehnquist mative action programs and return to a that racial groups have had in the United Court might come down on the issue of more lenient level of scrutiny when ana- States, and in so doing accounts for the diversity have at times moved to settle lyzing these programs.”52 Justice Brennan oppression and inequality suffered by cases out of court to prevent them from and three other justices argued similarly in African-Americans and other groups.60 reaching the bench.48 the Bakke case. (See sidebar page 4). Justice Thurgood Marshall’s opinion, in his One such case is Board of Education of Critical Race Theorist Neil Gotanda also 1978 dissent in Regents of the University the Township of Piscataway v. Taxman, critiques the use of colorblind constitu- of California v. Bakke, acknowledged that which was accepted by the U.S. Supreme tionalism in the “strict scrutiny” employed racial classifications are not neutral and that Court in 1997. In 1989, the Piscataway, by the Supreme Court (and advocated by they “describe relations of oppression and NJ, school board eliminated a position, as the Right) with regard to affirmative unequal power.”61 a result of which Sharon Taxman (a White action.53 Colorblindness ignores the real- In the case of affirmative action, teacher) lost her job, while Debra Williams ity that, “While the social content of race Gotanda points out, proponents of color- (an equally qualified Black teacher with the has varied throughout American history, blindness “equate race with formal-race.”62 same seniority) kept hers. The school had the practice of using race as a commonly In a conservative perspective neither the his- cited diversity (Williams was the only recognized social divider has remained torical experience of past discrimination minority teacher in her department) as the almost constant.”54 Gotanda argues for a against a group, nor the contemporary rationale for its decision. Taxman won the more nuanced view of race, including a reality of institutional racism where dis- case in the lower courts, including the three-fold definition that helps us under- crimination continues in a different and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Cir- stand better the substance of the racial more insidious fashion, is relevant. Thus, cuit. The school appealed the decision to classification. The first is “status-race,” remedial programs like affirmative action are the U.S. Supreme Court. The high-profile which takes into consideration the differ- meaningless. case roped in a number of supporters on ent social status accorded to individuals both sides who filed amicus curae (friend based on their skin color. In the pre-Civil Affirmative Action on Trial of the court) briefs. Supporting Taxman War era the inferior status of African- ffirmative action cases, particularly were groups like the National Association Americans was legal, but now the Court Athose pertaining to higher education, of Scholars (an organization of rightist endures “the legacy of status-race only in are the basis of CIR’s claim to fame. In the academics), and the first Bush Adminis- the private sphere.”55 What this means is case of affirmative action in higher educa- tration, which filed a brief at the lower court that private citizens are free to interact or tion, all roads lead to the Regents of Uni- level, while the Clinton Administration not with whom they choose, whereas the versity of California v. Bakke, 538 US 265 filed a brief along with 25 higher education State cannot exclude people based on race. (1978). The Bakke decision, as it is known, groups urging the Supreme Court not to The illustrative case of status-race is the remains controversial. Because the justices issue a broad ruling on diversity applica- 1857 U.S. Supreme Court decision in split in multiple ways to arrive at different ble beyond that single case.49 Dred Scott v. Sandford, which found the decisions on various aspects of the case, it Equal protection does not mean that the inferior status of African- left Justice Powell’s views on diversity open government is required to treat all people Americans to be implicit in the U.S. Con- to divergent interpretation by lower courts equally, across the board.50 Discrimina- stitution.56 since then. This decision is at the root of tion based on age (requiring someone to be “Formal-race,” Gotanda’s second type, CIR’s challenge to affirmative action pro- a minimum age to be able to drink or assumes that there is no connection grams, and to diversity as a compelling drive for instance), social or economic sta- between race as a classification and the State interest in the four major cases it has tus, fall within a “minimum” scrutiny social status or historical experience of fought on the issue. The cases are: Hopwood range. A third standard, that of “height- racial groups.57 The majority opinion in the v. Texas, 78 F. 3d. 932 (5th Cir. 1996) ened” scrutiny is used in cases of gender- 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision Plessy against the University of Texas Law School; based discrimination, where the v. Fergusson exemplifies formal-race think- Gratz v. Bollinger, 135 F.Supp.2d 790 (E.D. government is required to show that the ing, wherein separate but equal segregation Mich. 2001) against the University of policy or law has a “substantial” relation- was deemed to be constitutional because Michigan; Grutter v. Bollinger, 137 F. Supp. ship to an “important” government inter- it was considered racially neutral.58 Gotanda 2d 821 (E.D. Mich. 2001) against the

THE PUBLIC EYE 8 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

University of Michigan Law School; and reference to the issue of diversity in higher higher education per se was not unconsti- Smith v. University of Washington Law education as a compelling government tutional. The Hopwood decision in Texas School, 233 F.3d 1188 (9th Cir. 2000) interest. In Bakke, Justice Powell had ruled rejected Justice Powell’s opinion, and against the University of Washington Law that diversity was a compelling interest, argued that it did not reflect the majority School. within the limits of “strict scrutiny.” Fur- view. The Michigan cases fell on either side Professor Margaret Burnham explains, ther, his opinion was that while the Uni- of the diversity debate, with Gratz agree- in the sidebar on page 4, the decisions in versity of California/Davis plan did not ing and Grutter disagreeing with Justice the Bakke case and the four CIR cases, with meet “strict scrutiny,” affirmative action in Powell. In May 2002, the full bench of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Grutter in a 5-4 ruling with the majority THE LAW ARM OF THE RIGHT agreeing that diversity was a compelling The following is a list of some of the prominent, and well-funded right-wing conservative interest. In the state of Washington, Smith or libertarian legal organizations. The Federalist Society, established in 1982, has lawyer and completely agreed with Justice Powell. student chapters across the country, as well as issue-oriented practice groups. Some of the This divergence on diversity is bound for leading conservative and libertarian legal luminaries (including many who are now on the federal courts) are or have been members of the Federalist Society. the U.S. Supreme Court, where the Court most likely will decide if diversity in higher While the Federalist Society is a membership organization, the others in this list are law education is a compelling State interest. firms that bring cases at the state and federal level arguing the Right’s perspective on property rights, free speech and first amendment issues, equal protection, affirmative action, and Extracurricular Activities religion. The Center for Individual Rights is the focus of this article. The Mountain States Legal Foundation is a Denver-based law firm that brought two lawsuits on behalf of its client heodore Cross, editor of the Journal Adarand Constructors Inc., on the issue of affirmative action in federal contracting. The Tof Blacks in Higher Education, notes Southeastern Legal Foundation in Atlanta filed an amicus curae brief on behalf of the Boy that, CIR’s zeal in whipping up support for Scouts of America in their case against James Dale, a gay scoutmaster. The Landmark Legal Foundation (outside of DC) has been active against teachers’ unions including the National its anti-affirmative action crusade raises Education Association. The American Center for Law and Justice, in Virginia Beach, focuses “serious questions of legal ethics.”63 In Jan- on Church-State issues, and has been involved in cases defending antichoice protestors (what uary 1999, CIR took out full-page adver- it calls “sidewalk counselors”), and against the City of Louisville’s (KY) ordinance extending tisements in 14 major college and university protected status in employment to the categories of sexual orientation and gender identity. student newspapers, claiming “Almost We urge you to visit their websites and see what they are up to. Every University in the Country Violates Federal Law.”64 The advertisements went The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, 1015 18th St., NW, Suite 425, beyond this claim and “urged students to Washington, DC 20036 http://www.fed-soc.org sue their colleges for racial discrimina- The Center for Individual Rights, 1233 20th St., NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20036 tion.”65 They also mentioned free hand- http://www.cir-usa.org books on how students could begin a Institute for Justice, 1717 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20006 lawsuit, told them how to research their http://www.ij.org claims, how to look for lawyers who might Washington Legal Foundation, 2009 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20036 help them, and urged them to file suits even http://www.wlf.org without proof of discrimination.66 Atlantic Legal Foundation, 150 East 42nd St., New York, NY 10017 Cross contends that, “the most repre- http://www.atlanticlegal.org hensible of the new extralegal tactics of the CIR was its publicized charges that private New England Legal Foundation, 150 Lincoln St., Boston, MA 02111 http://www.nelfonline.org universities were violating federal law. The CIR created this false impression by plant- Southeastern Legal Foundation, 3340 Peachtree Rd., NE, Suite 2515, Atlanta, GA 30326 http://www.southeasternlegal.org ing its charges of university lawbreaking in student newspapers at some of the nation’s Mountain States Legal Foundation, 707 17th St., Suite 3030, Denver, CO 80202 most prestigious private universities such http://www.mountainstateslegal.com as Columbia, . . . and the University of Pacific Legal Foundation, 10360 Old Placerville Rd., Suite 100, Sacramento, CA 95827 Chicago.” Yet, as Idris Diaz notes, “CIR http://www.pacificlegal.org officials also assert that they do not object Landmark Legal Foundation, 445-B Carlisle Dr., Herndon, VA 20170 to consideration of race by private insti- http://www.landmarklegal.org tutions, such as Harvard.”68 American Center for Law and Justice, P.O. Box 64429, Virginia Beach, VA 23467 Curiously, while CIR’s ads implied that http://www.aclj.org private universities might be engaged in dis-

THE PUBLIC EYE 9 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye crimination, it filed an amicus curae brief gone beyond universities. It has also con- ered by the first five, with Olin alone in another significant case defending the tested affirmative action in the area of fed- accounting for $200,000.78 All of these right of a private organization to do exactly eral government contracts on behalf of its foundations are major donors to a variety that.69 James Dale, an openly gay man corporate client in DynaLantic Corp v. U. of right-wing causes and institutions. who filed suit against the Boy Scouts for dis- S. Department of Defense, which is pend- CIR has also received funds from the crimination when the organization dis- ing in the D.C. circuit, and in an amicus racialist Pioneer Fund in New York that has missed him as a scoutmaster, had won his curae brief in the Adarand Constructors funded “leading Anglo-American race sci- case in the New Jersey Supreme Court. CIR Inc., v. Mineta case which was dismissed by entists such as Linda Gottfredson, J. joined the Boy Scouts’ appeal at the U.S. the U.S. Supreme Court last November. Philippe Rushton, and Arthur Jensen.”79 Supreme Court along with conservative The Adarand issue first came before the The Institute for Democracy Studies and libertarian right-wing groups such as U.S. Supreme Court in Adarand Con- reports that Pioneer’s grantees have the Eagle Forum, the Independent structors Inc., v. Pena in 1995, when a 5-4 included “Florida State University psy- Women’s Forum, the Cato Institute, the majority ruled that affirmative action in chology professor Glayde Whitney, who has Texas Justice Foundation, the Southeast- federal contracting must meet “strict sought to ‘prove’ that blacks are genetically ern Legal Foundation, and the Association scrutiny.” The Court had then sent the case inferior.”80 Journalist Courtney Leatherman of American Physicians & Surgeons. In back to the lower courts to determine if the observes that the $30,000 Pioneer gave to June 2000, a 5-4 majority on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s highway CIR is listed in CIR’s financial disclosure Supreme Court agreed that the Boy Scouts program met those standards. The Tenth statement as a donation from the fund’s organization was within its 1st Amendment Circuit ruled that it did, following changes president, Harry F. Weyher.81 According to rights to exclude Dale.70 initiated by the Clinton Administration. Leatherman, “That is the only gift from a In his opinion written for the dissent, The Mountain States Legal Foundation foundation listed that way. Mr. Greve says Justice Stevens stated: and its client Adarand Constructors Inc., the omission of the foundation’s name “It is plain as the light of day that appealed that decision to the Supreme was an oversight, not an effort to hide neither one of these principles— Court, which dismissed the appeal.73 anything.”82 ‘morally straight’ and ‘clean’—says In the 1990s particularly, right-wing the slightest thing about homosexu- “Show Me the Money!” foundations targeted a broad range of ality. Indeed, neither term in the Strategic Support for institutions and groups that are involved Boy Scouts’ Law and Oath expresses Conservative Causes in policy research, advocacy, and imple- any position whatsoever on sexual ighting such high-profile cases in fed- mentation in the areas of education, eco- matters. . . . Surely there are instances Feral courts is expensive, even when the nomics, foreign affairs, media, and the in which an organization that truly lawyers do it pro bono. The funds, however, law. Commenting on the strategic funding aims to foster a belief at odds with the have been pouring in. By its own account, by conservative foundations in a report for purposes of a State’s antidiscrimina- “CIR’s budget was a modest $220,000 the National Center for Responsive Phil- tion laws will have a First Amend- during its first year of operation, mostly in anthropy, Sally Covington observes, “The ment right to association that grants from a handful of conservative foun- foundations provided substantial support, precludes forced compliance with dations.”74 Grants and contributions rose much of it on an unrestricted basis, to build those laws. But that right is not a free- from little less than $500,000 in 1992 to and sustain strong institutions . . . [with] dom to discriminate at will, nor is it almost $900,000 in 1996.75 CIR’s 1998- the percentage of grants awarded as gen- a right to maintain an exclusionary 1999 annual report showed income from eral operating support [being] the highest membership policy simply out of grants and contributions in 1998 to be among nonprofit law firms, with 62 cents fear of what the public reaction over $1.5 million; while in 1999 it also out of each dollar awarded to support their would be if the group’s membership received a one-time bequest of $1.4 million general operations.”84 Strategic funding were opened up. It is an implicit in addition to contributions and grants of also has meant that awards have been con- right designed to protect the enu- over $1.3 million.76 Some of the conserva- centrated among a small number of right- merated rights of the First Amend- tive foundations that have contributed to ist recipients and “heavily directed to ment, not a license to act on any CIR are the Lynde and Harry Bradley national policy and advocacy institutions discriminatory impulse.”71 Foundation, the Carthage Foundation, the in recognition that the national policy Justice Stevens went on to recall the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Ran- framework greatly affects conditions, issues words of Justice Brandeis: “We must be ever dolph Foundation, the John M. Olin Foun- and decisions at the state, local and neigh- on our guard, lest we erect our prejudices dation, the Adolph Coors Foundation, borhood level.”85 Additionally, funders into legal principles.”71 and the Scaife Family Foundation.77 In “targeted grants across the institutional CIR’s challenge to affirmative action has 1997 almost half of CIR’s budget was cov- spectrum in recognition that a variety of

THE PUBLIC EYE 10 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye institutions and reform strategies are nessed a resurrection of nativism and role played by the nonpartisan American required for broad-based social transfor- nationalism that both reflects and con- Bar Association in the selection and nom- mation and policy change.”86 And the tributes to this move to the right.90 ination of judges for the federal judiciary.92 changes across the board have been far- The rightward march is also evident in Ronald Reagan’s two terms as president, fol- reaching, as they have in the legal arena. the legal arena (See sidebar page 9). The lowed by former President George Bush, emergence and rapid growth of the Fed- saw the large-scale appointment of con- Conclusion: “Death by a servative judges at all levels of the federal Thousand Cuts” judiciary in the United States.93 President n 1995 CIR’s Michael Greve wrote: “I’m If we are not to be Clinton’s two terms were marked by his Ivastly more optimistic than I was even five inability to appoint judges to many vacan- years ago. The debate and the law have snowed under by the cies in the federal courts—in part because moved much, much faster than we had any of his administration’s preoccupations in reason to hope, and I’m fairly sanguine that dominant discourse of other areas, and in part because many of his the momentum will continue to go in our appointments were blocked by the Repub- direction. It will be the death by a thousand colorblindness, it is lican-controlled Senate.94 cuts.”87 CIR’s goal, ultimately, is to effect George W. Bush now has the opportu- policy change that would put societal atti- imperative that progres- nity to continue where Reagan left off, tudes on the “right” track towards a “col- including possibly ensuring a comfort- orblind” America. And it has chalked up sives understand the way able conservative majority on the Supreme an impressive record in the areas in which Court.95 Another factor in the move to the it has concentrated its efforts and resources. race is appropriated and right is the enormous financial resources However, its successes in some high profile used by the Right to being granted by right-wing foundations cases, including those on the issue of affir- and moneyed individuals to ensure that mative action, cannot be divorced from the further its agenda. In this conservative ideas and policy prescriptions larger social and political reality progressives are implemented. Cass Sunstein, writing in confront in 2002. It is now commonplace context, we must pay the New York Times, notes that, “In the last to observe that the United States as a soci- 30 years, one glaring difference between ety has moved rightwards. What is debat- particular attention to Republicans and Democrats has been that able, though, is how much and why. Republicans, unlike Democrats, have been While the reasons for this rightward shift the manipulation of the obsessed with the composition of the fed- are far too complex to analyze fully in this eral judiciary.”96 CIR is but one political article, it is clear that in part it is a reaction law, the institutions that instrument in the Right’s toolkit to make to the achievements of progressive socio- the most of an increasingly hospitable political movements including the Civil administer laws, and the judiciary. Rights Movement, the Women’s Move- people and dynamics It is important to recognize, however, ment, and other struggles for gender and that the move to the right is not inevitable. sexuality rights, economic and racial jus- that make and define Although the Right has mobilized resent- tice, and the environment. Additionally, ment against government, liberalism, and corporate-led globalization and the eco- both. That includes all progressive movements, it can, and nomic uncertainties that have come with must, be countered. In challenging this it, and the cultural globalization of the groups like CIR. right-wing resurgence, progressive and lib- United States through demographic eral groups and individuals need to simul- change, have been factors in allowing right- taneously bridge the divides of class, gender, wing ideas to gain popularity. For instance, sexuality, age, and ability, along with the various sectors of the Right have actively eralist Society for Law and Public Policy chasm of race. Further, if as progressives, recruited support using nativist, jingoist, Studies, which has gained enormous influ- and as a society, we are to overcome racial, and anti-immigrant arguments.88 All of ence in conservative administrations like gender, and other forms of social injustice, the above are particularly true vis-à-vis the current Bush Administration, for whom then we cannot ignore or cover up race, the resurgence of right-wing populism, a it has handpicked many judicial candidates, gender, sexuality and other identifiers that common thread in the various sectors of the is an important feature;91 especially now in are the basis for oppression and injustice. political Right in the United States.89 Since light of reports that the Bush White House Scholars Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres September 11th, the United States has wit- is eliminating the traditional consultative propound a “concept of political race [that]

THE PUBLIC EYE 11 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye captures the association between those 5 See the section “A Brief History of CIR” on its website. one person, one vote, while certainly a foundational fea- http://www.cir-usa.org/history.html ture of political equality, does not amount to political who are raced black—and thus often left equality. Particularly so in a society that is institution- 6 Terry Carter, “On A Roll(back),” American Bar Associa- out—and a democratic social movement tion Journal, vol. 84 (February 1998), pp. 54-58, 56. ally racist, sexist, and casteist, or that is skewed in terms of wealth and control over resources. aimed to bringing about constructive 7 Ibid, p. 57, citing Elliot Mincberg, legal director, People 21 Hardisty, “Affirming,” op. cit., p. 4. change within the larger community.”97 for the American Way. 22 D’Souza claims that the “charge of institutional racism 8 W. John Moore, “The Influence Game: A Little Group Comparing race to a miner’s canary that and the expectation of proportional representation arise Makes Big Law,” National Journal, vol. 29, no. 46 directly out of cultural relativism.” See Dinesh D’Souza, warns the miner of impending danger (November 15, 1997), p. 2323. The End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society (New through its death, Guinier and Torres write 9 David Segal, “Putting Affirmative Action on Trial; D.C. York: The Free Press, 1995), pp. 289-290. that the canary’s death diagnoses the neces- Public Interest Law Firm Scores Victories in War on Pref- 23 Hardisty, “Affirming,” op. cit., p. 4. sity for a more systemic critique. Their con- erences,” Washington Post, February 20, 1998, p. A1. 24 Cited in Ibid. See Amy Ansell, New Right, New Racism cept of political race they contend, however, 10 Idris M. Diaz, “Mischief Makers: The Men Behind All Those Anti-Affirmative Action Lawsuits,” Black Issues in (New York: New York University Press, 1997). goes beyond diagnosis in being “aspirational Higher Education, vol. 14, no. 2 (December 25, 1997), 25 See David Brudnoy, “It’s time to end the bi-lingual ed and activist,” and in attempting to “con- pp. 14-19, 15. scam,” Boston Metro, March 26, 2002, p. 6. Interestingly, Brudnoy, who is also an openly gay radio talk show host, struct a new language to discuss race, in 11 In this case, United States v. Morrison, the Supreme Court ruled in May 2000 that Congress had overstepped its was recently invited to emcee an event announcing the order to rebuild a progressive democratic authority with regard to the tort remedy in VAWA, Boston scout group’s newly created diversity awareness whereby women could sue their attackers in federal award, that recognizes scouts, scout leaders, and organ- movement led by the people of color and izations that promote diversity on the basis of race, eth- 98 courts under the Commerce Clause. The Commerce joined by others.” Clause gives Congress power to regulate inter-state com- nicity, religion, and sexual orientation. See, Tony If we are not to be snowed under by the merce. The Court ruled that gender-based violence Giampetruzzi, “Boston Scout group sends strong mes- against women did not adversely affect inter-state sage of gay-inclusiveness,” in newsweekly, vol. 11, issue dominant discourse of colorblindness, it is commerce thereby disallowing Congress the use of 43, June 19, 2002, p. 37. imperative that progressives understand the the Commerce Clause to justify the tort remedy. Many 26 Andrea Smith, “Devil’s in the Details,” Colorlines: Race way race is appropriated and used by the states rights’ champions on the Right, who emphasize Culture Action, vol. 5, no.1 (Spring 2002), pp. 4-6, 6. the Tenth Amendment, see the Commerce Clause as 27 Hardisty, “Affirming,” op. cit., p. 4. Right to further its agenda. In this context, an intrusion on the sovereignty of the states, and as a we must pay particular attention to the means for the federal government to enact laws that vio- 28 Ibid., p. 5. late states’ sovereignty. 29 manipulation of the law, the institutions Nathan Glazer, Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic 12 See the section “Cases” on its website. http://www.cir- Inequality and Public Policy (New York: Basic Books, that administer laws, and the people and usa.org/cases.html. CIR lost the Illinois State University 1975). Glazer has since changed his position on some of dynamics that make and define both. That case, while the Miami University case is pending. CIR these issues. See Nathan Glazer, We Are All Multiculturalists Now (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997). includes groups like CIR. This means that also challenged the disbursement of $3 million by the University of Minnesota to female faculty members to 30 Ellen Messer-Davidow, “Manufacturing the Attack on the Progressive Movement must also sup- resolve gender disparities in salary. The case, Maitland Liberalized Higher Education,” Social Text, no. 36 (Fall port its legal sector with more financial v. University of Minnesota, is pending. 1993), pp. 43-80; “Who [Ac]Counts and How,” MMLA: 13 See Carter, “On A Roll(back),” op. cit., pp. 56-57. The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, resources, more advocacy organizations, vol. 27, no. 1 (Spring 1994), pp. 26-41. 14 Robert Jensen’s article on White privilege first appeared and more committed lawyers, while work- in the Baltimore Sun on July 19, 1998. See 31 Jerome L. Himmelstein, To the Right: The Transforma- ing to ensure that the rightward tilt in the http://www.utexas.edu/coc/journalism/SOURCE/ tion of American Conservatism (Berkeley: University of judiciary is reversed. faculty/facul/jensen's_article.html California Press, 1990). Especially, pp. 55-60. 15 See Sharon Martinas, “Shinin’ the Lite on White Privi- 32 Ibid., p. 88. lege: Defining the Problem, Why Can’t We Just Get It 33 Ibid., p. 89. Together?” 1998. Emphases in the original. See http://www.prisonactivist.org/cws/sharon.html 34 Jean V. Hardisty, “Libertarianism and Civil Society: End Notes The Romance of Free Market Capitalism,” The Public 16 Jean V. Hardisty, “Affirming Racial Inequality: The 1 See “Civil Rights” within the Mission section of CIR’s web- Eye, vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 1998), pp. 1-18, 5. Right’s Attack on Affirmative Action,” The Public Eye, site. http://www.cir-usa.org/civil_rights_theme.html 35 vol. 13, no. 4 (Winter 1999), pp. 1-16, 4. “A Brief History,” op. cit. 2 The author would like to thank Chip Berlet, Margaret 36 17 Barbara Smith, “The Tip of the Iceberg,” Sinister Wis- Hardisty draws a distinction within right-wing liber- Burnham, Pam Chamberlain, Jean Hardisty, and Faith dom: A Journal for Lesbians, no. 52 (Spring/Summer tarianism between the paleolibertarians who subscribe Smith for comments and suggestions, and Betty Furdon 1994), pp. 54-56, 54. On colorblindness and the law see, to Old Right ideology and the rightist libertarians who for help with obtaining research materials. Kimberlé Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and are more moderate. See Hardisty, “Libertarianism and 3 See the Mission section of CIR’s website. Kendall Thomas, eds., Critical Race Theory: The Key Writ- Civil Society,” op. cit., p. 6. There is also left-wing lib- http://www.cir-usa.org/mission_new.html ings That Formed the Movement (New York: The New ertarianism which informs the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) perspective and policies. 4 The Washington Legal Foundation is also a conserva- Press, 1995). See especially, Part 4, the section on Crit- tive public interest law firm that emphasizes the free mar- ical Race Theory and Legal Doctrine, pp. 201-312. 37 Hardisty, “Libertarianism and Civil Society,” op. cit., p. 6. 18 ket. Its advisory board includes (or has included) Ted Chip Berlet, “Hard Times on the Hard Right: Why Pro- 38 Upendra Baxi, “From Human Rights To The Right To Olson (George W. Bush’s solicitor-general, who was his gressives Must Remain Vigilant,” The Public Eye, vol. 16, Be Human: Some Heresies,” in Kothari and Sethi, eds., lawyer in the Florida ballot case against Al Gore), no. 1 (Spring 2002), pp. 1-22, 17. Rethinking Human Rights, op. cit., pp. 151-166, 159. Haley Barbour (former chair of the Republican National 19 Dalit, meaning broken or downtrodden, is the name cho- 39 Committee), Former Governors Tommy Thompson (R- Hardisty, “Libertarianism and Civil Society,” op. cit., p. 9. sen and preferred by the Dalit people in India who were WI), George Allen (R-VA), and William Weld (R-MA), 40 formerly called “untouchable.” Ibid. Dick Thornburgh (George Bush’s attorney-general), and 41 Rep. Tom Campbell (R-CA). See Derk Arend Wilcox, 20 Cited in Upendra Baxi, “Law, Democracy and Human See Jyl J. Josephson, “Liberal Justice and the Political The Right Guide: A Guide to Conservative, Free-Market, Rights,” in Smitu Kothari and Harsh Sethi, eds., Rethink- Economy of Children’s Well-being,” New Political Sci- and Right-of-Center Organizations (Ann Arbor, MI: Eco- ing Human Rights: Challenges for Theory and Action ence, vol. 23, no. 3 (2001), pp. 389-406. Josephson uses nomics America, 2000), pp. 343-344. (New Delhi: Lokayan, New York: New Horizons Press, Martha Nussbaum’s theory of basic capabilities to 1989), pp. 101-117, 102. The concept and practice of ground, what she terms, equal respect, 397-398.

THE PUBLIC EYE 12 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

42 Nussbaum’s basic capabilities (first worked out together 60 Ibid., pp. 263-264. 83 See Covington, Moving a Public Policy Agenda, op. cit., with Amartya Sen) that are essential for humans to and also David Callahan, $1 Billion for Ideas: Conserv- 61 Ibid., p. 264. function are a combination of inherent individual capac- ative Think Tanks in the 1990s (Washington, DC: ities and external conditions that enable the utilization 62 Ibid. National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, of those capacities. See Martha Nussbaum, Women and 63 See Theodore Cross, “African-American Opportunities March 1999). Human Development: The Capabilities Approach (New in Higher Education: What are the Racial Goals of the 84 Covington, Moving a Public Policy Agenda, op. cit., pp. York: Cambridge University Press, 2000). Center for Individual Rights?” Journal of Blacks in 31-32. 43 For instance a CIR press release states, “The lawsuit con- Higher Education, no. 23 (Spring 1999), pp. 94-99, 85 Ibid., p. 32. Emphasis in the original. tends that such disparities were a consequence of racial 95-96. 86 Ibid., p. 33. preferences in the admissions process that violate the 14th 64 Ibid. Amendment's Equal Protection Clause and Title VI of 87 Michael Greve, “Segregation, 90s Style, and How to Fight 65 Ibid. the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” See “CIR begins second It,” Weekly Standard, December 25, 1995, p. 31. Cited lawsuit against University of Michigan,” http://www.cir- 66 Ibid. in Cokorinos, et al., Assault on Diversity, op. cit., p. 13. usa.org/press_releases/grutter_v_bollinger_pr.html. 67 Title VI of the Civil Rights Act states that: No person in Ibid. Emphasis in the original. 88 See Doug Brugge, “Pulling Up the Ladder: The Anti- the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or 68 Diaz, “Mischief Makers,” op. cit. Immigrant Backlash,” Defending Immigrant Rights: An national origin, be excluded from participation in, be Activist Resource Kit (Somerville, MA: Political Research 69 See the amicus curae brief filed by CIR at denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination Associates, 2002), pp. 1-17. This is an updated version http://www.lambdalegal.org/binary-data/ under any program or activity receiving Federal finan- of the original article that appeared in The Public Eye, vol. LAMBDA_PDF/pdf/94.pdf. The Boy Scouts cial assistance. 9, no. 2 (Summer 1995), pp. 1-10. were claiming the right to association under the First 89 44 See http://www.constitutioncenter.org/sections/work/ Amendment to exclude Dale. See Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons, Right-Wing Pop- educlinks.asp ulism in America: Too Close For Comfort (New York: Guil- 70 See CIR’s press release on the ruling at http://www.cir- ford Press, 2000). See also, Berlet, “Hard Times on the 45 Ibid. usa.org/press_releases/dale_v_boy_scouts_pr2.html Hard Right,” op. cit. 46 See http://www.cir-usa.org/legal_docs/smith_v_wash 71 See the dissent at http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/ 90 See the Fall 2001 issue of The Public Eye, vol. 15, no. 3. ington_certpet.PDF 99-699.ZD.html This was a special issue after September 11, 2001, deal- 47 Curt A. Levey, “Diversity on Trial,” National Review, June 72 Ibid. ing with nationalism and nativism in the United States. 11, 2001. See http://www.cir-usa.org/articles/levey_pro 91 73 See http://www.mediatransparency.org/court_watch.htm The Federalist Society was founded in 1982 and is based filing_nro.html in Washington, D.C. See Lee Cokorinos and Julie R. F. 74 “A Brief History,” op. cit. 48 See Nicholas deB. Katzenbach and Burke Marshall, Gerchik, The Federalist Society and the Challenge to a “Not Color Blind: Just Blind,” New York Times, Febru- 75 CIR Annual Report 1995-1996 (Washington, DC: CIR, Democratic Jurisprudence (New York: Institute for Democ- ary 22, 1998, reprinted in Faye J. Crosby and Cheryl 1996) and CIR Annual Report 1996-1997 (Washington, racy Studies, 2001). See also the mediatransparency.org VanDeVeer, eds., Sex, Race, & Merit: Debating Affirmative DC: CIR, 1997). website an article on the Federalist Society that first Action in Education and Employment (Ann Arbor: appeared in the March 2000 issue of the Washington 76 CIR Annual Report 1998-1999 (Washington, DC: CIR, University of Michigan Press, 2000), pp. 48-55. Monthly, http://www.mediatransparency.org/Stories/fed- 1999). In 2000, the gifts and contributions amounted dies.htm; Neil Lewis reports that 17-20 of the 70 can- 49 See Matt McGann, “Late-Breaking: MIT Involved in to over a million dollars. CIR Annual Report 1999-2000 didates interviewed until April 2001 were recommended Brief to Supreme Court Supporting Affirmative Action,” (Washington, DC: CIR, 2000). directly by the Federalist Society’s headquarters. See http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/activity/o/observe 77 See Sally Covington, Moving a Public Policy Agenda: Neil A. Lewis, “Bush to Reveal First Judicial Choices r/www/1-1/articles/mm3.html. One of the most ring- The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations Soon,” New York Times, April 24, 2001. ing endorsements of diversity in higher education is a (Washington, DC: National Committee for Responsive study by the former presidents of Princeton (William G. 92 See the press release by Nan Aron, president of the Philanthropy, July 1997). Covington’s report lists CIR Bowen) and Harvard (Derek Bok) universities. See Alliance for Justice, criticizing the Bush Administration as having received over $1.2 million in 13 grants from William G. Bowen and Derek Bok, The Shape of the River: for excluding the ABA.http://www.afj. these conservative foundations between 1992-94. See p. Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College org/jsp/news/abarelease.html 29. See also the mediatransparency.org website for details and University Admissions (Princeton: Princeton Uni- 93 on CIR funding sources. http://www.mediatransparency. See the Alliance for Justice’s Judicial Selection Project versity Press, 1998). org/search_results/info_on_any_recipient.asp?57. report on judicial nominations. http:// 50 See http://www.constitutioncenter.org/sections/work/ Michael Greve was also a program officer at the Smith www.afj.org/jsp/report2000/home.html educlinks.asp Richardson Foundation. See, Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki, 94 Ibid. The report also notes that while Clinton appointed “The Men who would End Affirmative Action: U-M is 51 Ibid. more non-White and female judges than all of his pred- next Target for Outspoken Crusaders,” Detroit Free 52 ecessors combined, his appointments did not necessar- See Carl E. Brody, Jr., “A Historical Review of Affirma- Press, August 25, 1998, p. 1A. ily restore the ideological balance in the judiciary as most tive Action and the Interpretation of Its Legislative 78 of his nominees were moderate centrists. Intent by the Supreme Court.” See Diaz, “Mischief Makers,” op. cit., p. 18. http://www3.uakron.edu/lawrev/brody.html 79 Lee Cokorinos, Connie Montoya, et al., The Assault on 95 On some of George W. Bush’s earliest nominees who are Diversity: Behind the Challenges to Racial and Gender Reme- neither moderate nor centrist see the People for the Amer- 53 See Neil Gotanda, “A Critique of ‘Our Constitution is dies (New York: Institute for Democracy Studies, 2000), ican Way website http://www.pfaw.org/issues/judici- Color-Blind’,” in Kimberlé Crenshaw et al., eds., Crit- ary/reports/bush_judic/nominees.html ical Race Theory, op. cit., pp. 257-275. Critical Race p. 14. For CIR coverage, see pp. 12-15. Assault on Diver- Theory emerged in the 1980s as a field of legal scholar- sity looks at both the political and the legal battle against 96 Cass R. Sunstein, “Tilting the Scales Rightward,” New ship distinct from both liberal and conservative legal the- diversity. Groups such as Ward Connerly’s American Civil York Times, April 26, 2001, p. A23. Rights Institute and Linda Chavez’s Center for Equal ory. It built on both the work of the Civil Rights 97 Opportunity are in the political battle, while CIR is one Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres, The Miner’s Canary: Movement of the 1960s and Critical Legal Studies that Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy initially radicalized legal theory in the 1970s. See “Intro- of the main arms of the legal battle. On Pioneer fund- ing see also Cross, “African-American Opportunities,” (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. duction,” in Kimberlé Crenshaw, et al., eds., Critical Race 12. Theory, op. cit., pp. xiii-xxxii. op. cit., pp. 97-99. Cross writes that CIR has received Pioneer grants on three occasions. 98 Ibid. 54 Gotanda, “A Critique,” op. cit., p. 258. 80 Cokorinos, et al., op. cit., Assault on Diversity, p. 14. 55 Ibid., pp. 262-263. 81 Courtney Leatherman, “Bashing Sacred Policies: A Pub- 56 Ibid. lic-Interest Law Firm Aims to Defend the Politically Incor- 57 Ibid., p. 263. rect,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 41, no. 13, November 23, 1994, pp. A18-19, 19. 58 Ibid. 82 Ibid. 59 Ibid., p. 264.

THE PUBLIC EYE 13 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye “New Sheriff in known as Beijing+5, they did not have a sig- Department advocated the agenda of the nificant impact on international agree- Christian Right at Preparatory Committee Town”: The Christian ments made at Beijing+5. meetings for the Special Session.5 Christian Right Shapes U.S. Christian Right groups at the UN con- Right leaders were appointed to the U.S. tinue to strengthen their interfaith ties and delegation for the Third Preparatory Com- Agenda at the globalize their message through regional mittee meeting for the Special Session. United Nations conferences and their newfound political These included William Saunders of the power in the international arena.3 Their Family Research Council, Bob Flores of the By Jennifer Butler shared commitment to opposing lesbian, National Law Center for Children and gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT), Families, and Paul Bonicelli, executive Introduction women’s and children’s rights, abortion, and director of the National Center for Home t the beginning of 2001, Christian international cooperation has enabled them Education. These individuals oppose chil- ARight leader Austin Ruse of the to overcome centuries of divisive sectari- dren’s and women’s rights and the U.S. Catholic Family and Human Rights Insti- anism. In addition, Christian Right groups ratification of UN treaties.6 Saunders and tute (C-Fam) rejoiced, “There’s a New continue to strengthen their ties to social Bonicelli, were joined by Janice Crouse of Sheriff in Town,” a victory cry picked up by conservatives in other religions, including Concerned Women for America and John other Christian Right organizations like Muslims, Jews, and the Church of Jesus Klink, an experienced UN negotiator who Concerned Women for America.1 A new Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). once worked for the Holy See, on the U.S. U.S. Administration that showed clear sig- Many would consider C-FAM to be the delegation to the Special Session. Charles nals of its willingness to advance Christian leader of “profamily” efforts at the UN. MacCormack, the president of Save the Right views at United Nations (UN) meet- However, of equal importance is the World Children Federation, Inc., was the only ings has enabled the Christian Right to Family Policy Center based at the Brigham nongovernmental representative from a dominate the U.S. agenda at many UN Young University Law School, a Mormon moderate NGO. meetings, in particular the Preparatory institution. The Family Research Council The U.S. delegation also included right- Committee Meetings (PrepComs) for the (FRC), one of the flagships of the Christ- wing members of the Bush Administration UN General Assembly Special Session on ian Right has also thrown its weight behind such as Wade Horn, assistant secretary for Children. The Right won some symbolic these efforts. Other groups include family support in the Department of Health victories at the Special Session on May 8- Concerned Women for America, United and Human Services. Horn is a founder 10, 2002. It has also managed to influence Families International, Real Women of and former president of the National Father- in smaller but significant ways UN meet- Canada, and the American Life League, to hood Initiative and a key leader in the ings on women, population, and the name a few. conservative Fatherhood Movement.7 The AIDS pandemic. At one time “profamily” Special Session enabled Christian Right organizations, having newly arrived at Appeasing the Christian Right leaders to further establish and cement the UN, complained of being excluded ow did a president who ran on a plat- relationships with their counterparts and from UN meetings and ignored by the U.S. Hform of “compassionate conser- supporters in the Administration. State Department. Now their views are vatism” and bipartisan cooperation hand espoused by U.S. delegations, and Chris- over U.S. delegations to the UN to the Why Oppose Children’s Rights? tian Right leaders from organizations like Christian Right? George W. Bush is acutely onservatives have long viewed the UN the Family Research Council are even aware of the fact that his father may have Cas a beachhead for communism and invited to join the official government lost his bid for re-election because he failed have been fearful of internationalism.8 delegation to UN meetings. to win support from the Christian Right.4 White conservative evangelical fiction por- Two years and a change of government The UN Special Session on Children pro- trays the UN as the end time world in the United States have put Christian vides the Bush Administration an oppor- government of the antichrist. These fears Right or “profamily” organizing at the tunity to win points with Christian Right intensified as the Cold War ended, the UN far ahead of where it was when this voters without losing moderate votes, since millennium neared, and the UN organized author first exposed these efforts in The news media pay little attention to UN a series of international conferences during Public Eye, in Fall 2000.2 In 2000, while meetings. While many moderate Republi- the 1990s to mobilize political will to “profamily” organizations had reached a cans would actually be appalled to hear that address the world’s most pressing issues.9 new level of organizing at the United a world meeting on the well being of chil- Christian Right fears about the UN reached Nations and showed surprising strength by dren had been politicized, the Bush Admin- a new peak during the 1994 International slowing negotiations at the UN review of istration could bank on that constituency Conference on Population and Develop- the Fourth World Conference on Women not catching wind of this. The U.S. State ment (Cairo) and then the 1995 UN

THE PUBLIC EYE 14 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

Fourth World Conference on Women well.13 Christian Right opposition to the the Convention lies partially in the fact that (Beijing) as they witnessed the impact of UN social agenda complements the ten- its nearly universal ratification makes it a international agreements on women’s rights dency of U.S. conservatives to mistrust norm. When the world’s lone superpower and abortion. international cooperation and the UN. claims to base its foreign policy on human Adopted before the Cairo and Beijing Sadly, conservative opposition to U.S. rights and the rule of law, yet undermines Conferences, the UN Convention on the ratification of the Children’s Convention the treaty and very concept of children’s Rights of the Child (1989) and the Plan of and the concept of children’s rights, and rights, it both weakens the resolve of the Action of the 1990 UN Summit for Chil- now their disruption of progress at the UN international community and diminishes dren were drafted primarily under the its own position as a world leader. Reagan Administration and signed under his successor President George Bush with- A Shift in Christian Right out conservative protest.10 Ironically many Clearly what has changed Strategy: Trojan Horses and of the articles of the Convention on the Strange Bedfellows Rights of the Child (Children’s Conven- is not how the Christian he Christian Right’s realization that UN tion) now opposed by “profamily” groups Tmeetings have a tremendous impact on were heavily influenced by these two Right views the UN, but social issues led to a surprising change in their Administrations and represented U.S. organizing strategies. Prior to 2000, the Cold War victories.11 For instance, Article its strategy for under- Christian Right primarily opposed the Fourteen on freedom of religion was aimed United Nations by calling on Congress to at addressing the Soviet Union’s violations mining the UN’s work. decrease funding, engaging in campaigns to of religious freedom. Still, aroused by the “get the US out of the UN,” and using their Cairo and Beijing conferences, the Chris- Many of these organiza- extensive media network to convince its tian Right began to direct its wrath at the constituency that the UN and its treaties, Children’s Convention, convinced that tions that do not support especially on women and children, sought the concept of children’s rights was a con- to undermine the family and the nation. The spiracy by liberals to undermine the tra- the UN or its principles failure of the Children’s and Women’s ditional family by destroying parental Conventions to reach the Senate floor for a authority and unleashing the powers of gov- have managed to slide vote on ratification were due in large part ernment to intervene in the family. to the Christian Right and Senator Jesse Although nearly every article of the Chil- through the UN com- Helms (R-NC), who served as chair of the dren’s Convention calls on state parties to Senate Foreign Relations Committee when 14 respect or protect the rights of parents as mittee of member Republicans controlled the Senate. part of strengthening children’s rights, Today, rather than critique the system many White conservative evangelicals are nations that reviews from the outside, a number of Christian convinced of rumors propagated by Chris- Right and conservative organizations have tian Right groups. They have been led to NGO applications for decided to use a Trojan Horse strategy. By believe, for instance, that the Convention infiltrating the system of an organization would give the UN the power to take away consultative status. they oppose, they hope to stall, influence, their children or encourage children to and even undermine its work from within. sue their parents.12 In March 2000, Austin Ruse of C-Fam In fact, a significant percentage of the addressed the Cardinal Mindszenty Foun- U.S. population learns about UN confer- Special Session on Children actually under- dation in Anaheim, CA: “Should the US ences primarily or only through a far-reach- mine international progress on issues many get out of the UN? That’s a question I ing Christian Right media network, a conservatives care deeply about. The always steer clear of, principally because to situation intensified by the fact that the “rights-based approach,” as it is often participate in the UN in the way that I do, mainstream media in the United States called, moves governments from viewing you must at least have a veneer of sup- seldom covers UN conferences. The Chris- children as property, to treating them as porting the UN.”15 Clearly what has tian Right has developed an impressive human beings with rights protected by a changed is not how the Christian Right media network of radio programs, websites, legal system. Human rights activists around views the UN, but its strategy for under- and listserves that reaches not just millions the world use the Children’s Convention mining the UN’s work. Many of these of conservative evangelicals and mainstream to push reluctant governments to improve organizations that do not support the UN Americans, but a growing global network as the situation of children. The strength of or its principles have managed to slide

THE PUBLIC EYE 15 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye through the UN committee of member Nations Economic and Social Council rights treaties bring international pressure nations that reviews NGO applications for (ECOSOC).17 Over 2,000 NGOs have to bear on governments and are used by consultative status.16 Many smaller, less consultative status with the UN, enabling human rights activists worldwide to effect known Christian Right and anti-abortion them to attend most UN meetings to mon- change. Another sign of the growing influ- organizations have already been granted itor the negotiations, share information, ence of NGOs is the fact that they are often consultative status, including United Fam- and advocate their positions with ambassa- invited to serve in an advisory capacity on ilies International, the International Right dors and government delegations. NGOs government delegations at UN meetings to to Life Federation and American Life have been very influential at the UN, and share their expertise and help facilitate com- League. Other “profamily” organizations have often been at the forefront of encour- munication between governments applying for consultative status are Fam- aging the UN to initiate or move forward and NGOs. ily Research Council, the Heritage Foun- on efforts to address the world’s problems. “Profamily” NGOs lobby conservative dation, and Concerned Women for NGOs were instrumental in getting the governments, including majority Catholic America. UN to establish the office of the UN High and Muslim nations such as Nicaragua, The average U.S. citizen is unfamiliar Commission on Human Rights in 1994, in Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Algeria, and with the impact of NGOs on the United advancing the concept of the International Egypt. They also work through the Holy Nations, especially on issues like human Criminal Court to try war crimes, and in get- See/Vatican, which has observer state sta- rights, racism, the environment, and disar- ting the UN to address women’s advance- tus at the UN and participates fully in UN mament. NGOs can register to have con- ment and global racism through world conferences. Thanks to the lobbying of sultative status with the United conferences.18 UN conferences and human “profamily” groups, the United States is Reprinted with the kind permission of the artist.

THE PUBLIC EYE 16 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye now included in this conservative block that multilateral funding is the only form of aid The European Union (EU), a negotiat- opposes women’s and children’s rights. acceptable to national governments. ing block which often has enough power to Governments and NGOs normally at odds stand up to the United States (as it did in with one another have become strange UN Special Session on negotiations on the International Criminal bedfellows in their opposition to women’s Children: Chair of Negotiations Court), surprisingly played a weak role in rights, abortion, homosexuality, and calls United States “Impossible” the negotiations, angering many other UN children’s rights. The United States finds he goal of the UN Special Session on member states and negotiating blocks.21 itself cozy with Iran, Sudan, and Libya. TChildren was to review progress made Many delegates and NGOs observed that Once accused by Christian evangelicals of on the Plan of Action of the World Sum- the EU lacked experienced negotiators and being a dangerous cult, Mormons have mit for Children and to strengthen inter- a clear strategy. The delegation from Spain not only been included in conservative national attention to emerging issues, leading the EU negotiations was often evangelical advocacy efforts but actually including the sexual exploitation and sale accused of taking positions that did not rep- lead the initiative. of children, use of child soldiers, and the resent the EU. President Bush had visited devastating impact of the AIDS pandemic Spain just before the Special Session, and Attacks on UN Agencies on youth and children. Many of these members of Opus Dei, a right-wing hile Christian Right NGOs claim issues can be solved only through interna- Catholic group, were on the Spanish Wthey support UN principles and tional cooperation, and conservative oppo- delegation. In the end, both the EU and the should have consultative status, they con- sition to international agreements can slow coordinator of the final negotiations, tinue to misinform their networks about progress on the mobilization of resources Ambassador Hanns Schumacher from Ger- the UN’s work and spread rumors about for resolution. many, bowed to U.S. intransigence in an UN agencies. Throughout the winter as Negotiations were grueling. In informal apparent effort to prevent a U.S. walk out UNICEF (the UN Children’s Fund) briefings and conversations delegates con- and possibly even a withdrawal of mobilized to assist children in Afghanistan, fessed that they feared that the United funding from UNICEF (the United States they also found themselves fighting a States would walk out of the proceedings funds a significant portion of UNICEF’s wearying public relations campaign against as it did in Durban at the UN World Con- budget). Many government delegates, espe- rumors circulated by Christian Right ference on Racism in September 2001. cially the Rio group of Latin American groups.19 In March 2002, based on an Adding to this fear, just before the Special countries which took a progressive stance unsubstantiated, fantastic rumor propa- Session the United States announced it on many of the controversial issues com- gated by Population Research Interna- would “unsign” the International Crimi- plained bitterly to NGOs and in their clos- tional that UNFPA supports forced nal Court treaty, removing itself further ing statements that they had negotiated abortions in China, Congressman Chris from the international community. In openly and in good faith, only to be Smith prevailed on President Bush to addition, during negotiations the United excluded and ignored while the EU and the withhold $34 million allocated by the States threatened that it would opt out of United States cut a deal behind the scenes.22 Senate for the UN Population Fund. The the traditional consensus building process, Towards the end of the negotiations, United States contribution represents and force a vote on certain paragraphs of NGOs watched the Rio group and the Like approximately 14 percent of UNFPA’s the Outcome Document if it did not get Minded Group (industrialized nations not budget. Despite the fact that the U.S. its way with child rights, reproductive in the EU) angrily marching out of nego- State Department has closely monitored services, and the death penalty. Most UN tiations to regroup, stating they felt betrayed UNFPA programs in China and annually documents are adopted by consensus for by the process. Defending himself from given them good reviews, and the fact the sake of diplomacy. Having demon- allegations that he had been biased towards that UNFPA’s programs have lowered the strated the lengths to which it was willing the United States, and that he had struck incidence of coercive family planning in to go, the United States left other countries a deal with it without consulting other del- China, and despite the lack of any evi- little negotiating room. Any country can egations, Ambassador Schumacher at the dence, these funds continue to be withheld. register a “reservation” on issues that rep- end of the Special Session let it be known Congressional and White House faxes resent the consensus of the international privately that the United States had been and phone lines were inundated with mes- community but that they are unable or “impossible.”23 Indeed, while the United sages from conservatives. Progressives and unwilling to subscribe to. NGOs implored States allied itself with the Holy See and moderate Christians could not compete. the U.S. delegation to “use the recognized conservative Muslim nations (Sudan, Ironically, the withholding of these funds process for reservations and not to further Libya, Iran) on reproductive health issues, will only increase maternal and infant impede the progress of nations on the and abstinence-only approaches to sex 20 deaths, abortion, and the spread of STDs, Outcome Document.” Their pleas were education, most of these delegations were especially in countries, like China, where ignored. willing to accept compromise proposals

THE PUBLIC EYE 17 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye where the United States did not. Document for the Special Session, which tant to progressives because it connotes Surprisingly, no NGOs were allowed to is supposed to set the pace for the next five the importance of empowering people to observe most of the negotiations, which to ten years, does not affirm the centrality be proactive in making choices about their took place mainly in small, private infor- of the Children’s Convention or the rights- health. Care is considered to be more reac- mal meetings rather than in the Prepara- based approach to children’s issues. tive, referring to caring for people after tory Committee for the Special Session. While the Christian Right opposes the they are sick. The United States however Governments attended informal negotia- Convention on the basis of fears about claimed that the word reproductive services tions at the end of April and beginning of compromising national sovereignty and included abortion. The word “services” May to try to work out sticking points family privacy, the U.S. government may technically includes abortion services only before the Special Session convened, but in fact resist the Convention for even more if a UN member state defines it as such. Pre- to no avail. By Thursday, May 10, delegates significant reasons. The Children’s Con- vious consensus language around repro- were forced to negotiate the entire night and vention, unlike many other international ductive services does not call for the into the morning. NGO leaders found human rights treaties, combines elements legalization of abortion, but only insists that themselves waiting outside conference of political and civil rights with economic where abortion is legal, it be safe. The room doors to hear about the state of and social rights. The United States has United States capitalized on a misstep of a negotiations from delegates willing to brief been a strong supporter (at least in its Canadian delegate at a PrepCom for the them. NGO representatives on both ends rhetoric, if not always in its actions) of polit- Session. The delegate stated that “services” of the political spectrum—progressive and ical and civil rights, but has generally did include abortion (meaning in his coun- Christian Right—kept vigil outside the opposed economic and social rights, which try). The United States, under pressure negotiation rooms. As delegates filed out it identifies with socialist and communist from Christian Right groups,26 used this of sensitive negotiations, some clearly values.25 While the United States has a bad misunderstanding to insist that the inter- angry and a few near tears, both groups of track record on domestic and interna- national community was trying to trick oth- NGOs sought to encourage delegates and tional economic policies (even under the ers into unwittingly agreeing to legalize get up-to-date information on the pro- Clinton Administration), the current abortion. In the end, the word “services” was ceedings. U.S. delegates always stopped to Administration is known for its adamant dropped, but governments did commit to debrief with the Christian Right NGOs opposition to antipoverty measures and its make reproductive health care consistent before moving on to take their break. sympathies with corporate interests. The with the Cairo and Beijing conference Under the influence of the Christian Children’s Convention threatens the hege- agreements, which do contain strong lan- Right, the U.S. delegation, until the final mony of the neoliberal capitalist economic guage on reproductive rights. Additionally, hours of negotiations, remained unwilling model that eschews the notion that gov- the United States, with some conservative to compromise its conservative positions ernments should be required to provide Muslim governments, helped torpedo on the most hotly debated issues, which basic economic entitlements to citizens, efforts to strengthen government commit- included child rights, reproductive services, even the most vulnerable among them. ments to sex education, by inserting an the family, and the death penalty. Through- Economic justice issues, however, are too abstinence-only approach to sex educa- out the preparatory process and in the often conveniently obscured by the more tion. The paragraph was finally removed all final negotiations, the United States suc- dominant national sovereignty rhetoric of together when governments could not cessfully opposed any reference in the Out- the Right used during negotiations and reach a compromise. come Document to the centrality of the captured in the media. In the paragraph on the family, the Convention or child rights.24 The Con- United States failed to block language vention on the Rights of the Child is the Mind Your Language affirming that “various forms of the fam- most universally ratified UN convention he United States also undermined ily exist,” and were unable to insert fam- in history—the United States is the only Tlanguage on reproductive health, ily values language, including language country that has not ratified it (during the although surprisingly it was less successful that would exclude LGBT families. Special Session, Somalia signed the treaty on this issue. Efforts on the part of nego- The United States did register an expla- and announced it would ratify immedi- tiators to seek consensus failed as the United nation of its position in the official ately). United States insistence on impos- States rejected all compromise language, Session records, clarifying that with regard ing its opposition to the Children’s even language that the Holy See supported. to the phrase “various forms of the fam- Convention on the rest of the world infu- In the world of UN negotiations, one word ily exist,” the United States understood riated government delegates, whose gov- can make or break an agreement. The that to “include single parent and ernments have relied heavily on the United States adamantly advocated for the extended families.” Children’s Convention as a tool to words reproductive health “care” as opposed Although little mention of this was strengthen children’s rights. The Outcome to “services.” The word “services” is impor- made in the media, the United States,

THE PUBLIC EYE 18 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye along with some Muslim countries, also approach to children’s issues, and block- rights such as universal healthcare for vehemently opposed Outcome Docu- ing the abolishment of capital punish- children and reducing childhood poverty, ment language calling on states to end cap- ment for minors. Why then did the United or continuing to allow capital punishment ital punishment for children. The EU States expend so much energy on the for offenses committed before the age of made this issue a top priority, sacrificing word “services?” eighteen. Again, although U.S. opposition its position on reproductive health to win Clearly the removal of “services” helped to child rights was controversial interna- a weak paragraph calling on governments the United States score points with the tionally, the U.S. public debate focused that have not abolished the death penalty Christian Right, but both the delegation more on arguments based on sovereignty to comply with relevant provisions of and Christian Right leaders must be well and parental authority rather than U.S. international human rights instruments, aware that reference to the Cairo and Bei- resistance to addressing child poverty, a including the Children’s Con- theme more Americans might vention, which the United resonate with. States has not ratified anyway. If true, the smoke screen So after all the blood, sweat, It is possible that the United States theory could hold important and tears, what did the United finds the Christian Right a convenient implications for progressive States under the Christian organizing. For decades the Right’s leadership accomplish? smoke screen to hide policy stances it Christian Right has galvanized The Christian Right has been lower-middle and working class celebrating the elimination of can less easily defend, especially to moder- conservative evangelicals to sup- the word “services” from the port political candidates that text as their major victory. ates and conservatives. For instance, it is appeal to their social and reli- While the Right can accurately gious concerns, but promote an claim that it blocked progress easier for the United States to defend its economic agenda that benefits on reproductive rights, in real- the wealthy and the upper-mid- ity, it was not able to erode past stance on more controversial issues such as dle class at the expense of others. gains because of the document’s For this reason, the Christian reference to Cairo and Beijing. abortion and LGBT rights than to defend Right has had less success in In retrospect, the debate over drawing Catholics and people of “services” appears to be a straw its opposition to economic rights such as color to its agenda, although it man—a fabricated issue that is trying and has made some drew all the attention and universal healthcare for children and progress. Catholics are more energy, but was not an issue for supportive of antipoverty ini- which the United States was reducing childhood poverty, or continuing tiatives and the Catholic willing to “fall on the sword.” Church opposes the death “Profamily” groups also failed to allow capital punishment for offenses penalty. For the sake of political to introduce through the U.S. expediency, the Right has to delegates a family values agenda committed before the age of eighteen. downplay its economic agenda into the family paragraph. so that it does not alienate its Given the fact that the Christ- supporters and so that it can ian Right had the world’s superpower in its jing conferences negates that victory. While appeal to a wider base of support. Con- pocket, and opponents of U.S. policy were the U.S. Administration may be under versely, progressives could create a broad seriously weakened, it is actually surpris- strong pressure from the Christian Right, it power base on economic justice issues that ing that the Right secured so few victories. may also have something to gain from col- might split the Christian Right, drawing In fact, while it is of course important for laborating with the Right. It is possible that conservative Catholics and White evan- progressives to assess gains made by the the United States finds the Christian Right gelicals, especially the women in their Right, perhaps the key question now is: a convenient smoke screen to hide policy ranks. More research is needed to evaluate why wasn’t the Christian Right more vic- stances it can less easily defend, especially to the ways in which the Christian Right torious? If it is true that the United States moderates and mainstream conservatives. might be a smoke screen for the more could get almost anything it wanted and For instance, it is easier for the United States basic economic agenda of the Right.27 most likely did, its primary concerns to defend its stance on more controversial would be those issues that it won clear vic- issues such as abortion and LGBT rights tories on: undermining the rights-based than to defend its opposition to economic

THE PUBLIC EYE 19 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

Proposing a Progressive oppressive and intolerant as epitomized by growing. Progressive organizations, espe- Response Jerry Falwell. All evangelicals, for instance, cially those in the United States where the he working together of a global do not subscribe to the views of the Chris- UN is little understood, can also help by TReligious Right presents new chal- tian Right, as many mistakenly believe. educating their constituencies about the lenges for national and international pro- Many support the UN’s work and much importance of international cooperation gressive activists. Several areas of progressive of its social agenda. There are progressive and the UN’s impact on issues such as organizing should be strengthened. First, groups such as Jim Wallis’ Sojourners and women’s rights, racism, development, eco- progressives need to understand religious moderate ones such as the National nomic justice, and the environment. diversity and be willing to partner with Association of Evangelicals. World Vision Just as the Christian Right learned its religious organizations in reaching out to is an example of an NGO with a large organizing strategies from the Left, pro- faith-based constituencies. In most societies, conservative evangelical constituency gressives now need to learn from some of culture and values are largely shaped by reli- that supports the work of the UN and that the successes of the Right. The Right has gious views. Most sociologists now reject the does excellent work on human rights. capitalized on technology from radio to the theory of secularization that posited that Such groups can bridge the gap between web and uses it to reach a broad grassroots societies would become less religious conservatives and progressives and can be constituency. They can mobilize their net- because of modernization. Robert Wuth- strategic partners in advocacy work, works for a call in or letter writing campaign now, a scholar of American religion, spec- especially when there is a conservative to Congress far better than groups on the ulates that evangelicals could very easily have U.S. Administration. Left. The Right has also cultivated a new become a liberal political force rather than The Republican Party is not mono- generation of leaders for its movement. a conservative one had progressives chosen lithic either. Party moderates would prob- They invest heavily in college and youth to mobilize them.28 Progressive organizing ably be outraged to discover that UN organizing. Right-wing groups at the UN will remain weak unless it finds better ways conferences were being placed in the hands have trained young adults to do advocacy of reaching out to religious groups and of hardliners. During his election cam- and involved them in their efforts in a way communicating through religious values paign, Bush had to satisfy the Christian that few, if any, other NGOs have done. while maintaining their firm stance on Right without losing moderates. Bush Progressive NGOs, ever wary of separating Church and State. could only afford to turn the Special attempts to regulate NGO participation at Progressive religious organizations will Session over to hardliners when these the UN, will need to find ways to ensure need to take leadership in helping other actions were done in the dark. Exposing that U.S. political agendas do not domi- NGOs understand how religion can be them to the media might result in a polit- nate UN meetings and work against dem- both a positive and negative influence on ical cost to Bush, undermining his self- ocratic participation and fair play in the society. The UN is just learning how to have portrayal as a “compassionate conservative” process.31 NGOs will need to take the lead conversations about the impact of reli- that fosters bipartisan efforts. in designing guidelines for NGO partici- gion on international issues.29 September The fact that the Christian Right feels pation that guarantee fair, balanced par- 11th, the AIDS pandemic, and debates a need to be present at an institution it does ticipation and access. At UN meetings, over reproductive rights are examples of not like reveals just how successful inter- many NGOs have often focused on net- issues that require cooperation with reli- national progressive organizing has been. working and educational exchanges and less gious communities to be resolved. Ecu- Those progressive organizations that have on lobbying governments. Progressive menical Women 2000+, Catholics for Free not yet considered the value of global NGOs now will need to spend more time Choice, and Religion Counts are groups involvement might reconsider. In the 1970s on lobbying and on training one another that are leading the way on such debates. the Women’s Movement recognized the in influencing UN meetings. Obtaining Religious organizations, in particular coali- power of organizing through the United consultative status at the UN is one vitally tions of liberal, moderate, and mainstream Nations and building global women’s net- important way to further a progressive conservative religious groups, are well sit- works. By organizing globally, they have put agenda internationally. uated to hold Christian Right NGOs gender analysis and feminist issues on the If the United States continues to provide accountable for the misinformation they agenda of international organizations, gov- a platform for the Christian Right at inter- are spreading. ernments, multilateral organizations, and national meetings, then in the next three Progressives often fail to recognize that foundations. Other movements are also to eight years we may see the advances made religious organizations, even conservative capitalizing on this, from the LGBT Move- by human rights activists over the past ones, hold diverse political perspectives. ment to antiracist organizations.30 The two decades undermined or at least stalled. They either lump religious organizations presence of large numbers of progressive As it gains strength, the Christian Right together as being humane as symbolized by organizations will be needed even more so coalition at the UN is influencing other UN the Dalai Lama, or they see all of them as now that the Christian Right presence is meetings as well. Individuals associated

THE PUBLIC EYE 20 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye with the Heritage Foundation and the dren. We respect that for many countries; the CROC [sic. 19 The following reflect “profamily” efforts to put the U.S. CRC] serves as this basis. However, we have chosen a dif- contribution to UNICEF’s funding in jeopardy: C- Independent Women’s Forum were placed ferent approach . . . this body should go forward and Fam, “UNICEF ‘Major Funder’ of Group Promoting on this year’s U.S. delegation to the UN acknowledge that there is more than one way to frame our Abortion/Pornography for Children,” Friday Fax, vol. future actions for children. And action is needed here, not 5, no. 3 (January 11, 2002). Also C-Fam, “UNICEF Commission on the Status of Women, ‘words, words, words’ [to quote Hamlet].” Work Imperiled by Associations with Pro-Abortion 32 Groups,” Friday Fax, vol. 4, no. 9 (February 16, 2001). which meets every March. Conservative 6 See Family Research Council, “UN Committee Takes Aim groups influenced the Special Session on at Family Structure and Morality,” Culture Facts, Febru- Articles also appeared in the Washington Times. AIDS held during the summer of 2001.33 ary 21, 2001. http://www.frc.org/get/cu01b4.cfm#title7 20 The Child Rights Caucus, “Open Letter from the Child See also the National Center for Home Education, “UN Rights Caucus to the Honorable Tommy Thompson, US A strong “profamily” lobby has been pres- News Update,” HSLDA News, June 14, 2001. Secretary of Health and Human Services and the US Del- ent at the preparatory meetings for the UN’s http://nche.hslda.org/docs/news/hslda/200106140.asp egation to the Special Session on Children.” The Child The update states, “Among the United Nations interna- Rights Caucus includes hundreds of national and inter- review of the Sustainable Development tional treaties and activities monitored by Home School national NGOs from around the world. 34 Legal Defense Association is one of the most dangerous Conference, to culminate this summer. As 21 Interviews with UN delegates, and “Excusive Analysis the world’s lone superpower, with both attacks on parental rights ever—the United Nations of the Final Hours of the Outcome Negotiations,” On Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Because the Record, vol. 3, issue 15 (May 20, 2002). financial and veto power, in a still evolving the UN is holding a Child Summit this September, the 22 institution such as the UN, the United CRC is taking center stage worldwide this year.” Ibid. 7 23 States carries significant weight in UN Sarah Stewart Taylor, “Fatherhood Movement Has Range Ibid. of Ideology, Agenda,” Women’s Enews, May 23, 2002. See 24 U.S. positions were made clear in NGO briefings and negotiations. When it becomes the voice http://www.womensnews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/584 numerous news accounts of the proceedings. See also, The of Christian Right groups at the UN, it fur- 8 Timothy LaHaye, Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth’s Last Child Rights Caucus, “Open Letter,” op. cit. ther enables the Christian Right to export Days (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 25 See William F. Felice, “Conceptualizing Collective March 1996). LaHaye’s book was on the New York Times Human Rights,” in William F. Felice and Richard Falk, its brand of Christianity to the world. bestseller list. LaHaye is the husband of Beverly LaHaye, Taking Suffering Seriously: The Importance of Collective the founder of Concerned Women for America, now seek- Human Rights (New York: State University of New York Jennifer Butler is Associate for Global Issues ing consultative status at the UN. Press, 1995), pp. 21-34. A similar discussion in the with the Presbyterian Church (USA) UN 9 Major conferences include the status of children (1990), context of implementing the Convention on the Elim- environment and development (1992), human rights ination of Racial Discrimination can be found in William Office, in New York City. (1993), population (1994), social development (1995) F. Felice, “The UN Committee on the Elimination of All the status of women (1995), and racism (2001). Forms of Racial Discrimination: Race, and Economic and

10 Social Human Rights,” Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 24, Cynthia Price Cohen, “The Drafting and Implementa- no. 1 (2002), pp. 205-236, 216. In 1993, the Clinton tion of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” ICCB Administration accepted in principle the indivisibility News (Winter 1996-1997), pp. 10-11. ICCB News is the of human rights at the UN World Conference on Human End Notes newsletter of the International Catholic Child Bureau’s 1 Rights in Vienna. However, that still has not led to rat- Concerned Women for America, “A New Sheriff in Town: North American Regional Office. ification by the United States of the International U.S. Delegation delivers a definitive speech to U.N. General 11 See Cynthia Price Cohen, “Role of the United States in Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights that Assembly,” Highlights, February 1, 2001. See Drafting the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Cre- was signed by the Carter Administration in 1977. http://www.cwfa.org/library/nation/children/2001- ating a New World for Children,” Loyola Poverty Law 02-01.shtml 26 The Bush Adminstration at other international meetings Journal, vol. 4 (Spring 1998), pp 26-38. has supported reproductive services, most likely because 2 Jennifer Butler, “For Faith and Family: Christian Right 12 For more on “profamily” myths about the Children’s they were not under pressure from the Right. See Advocacy at the United Nations,” The Public Eye, vol. 14, and Women’s Conventions, see http:// Gabrielle Engh, “US Charged with Hypocrisy at Prep- nos. 2-3 (Summer/Fall 2000), pp. 1-17. www.ew2000plus.org/news_myths.htm Com After Bush’s endorsement of Reproductive Health 3 The World Family Policy Center (WFPC) has sponsored Services in Quebec,” On the Record for Children, vol. 3, 13 Cynthia Rothschild, Written Out: How Sexuality is Used issue 1 (September 10, 2001). www.ngosatunicef. two international World Congress of Families (WCF) to Attack Women’s Organizing (New York: International org/OTR/v3/01a2.html. meetings, one in 1997, the second in 1999 just before Bei- Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and Cen- jing +5. In 2003 they will have a third. The planning team ter for Global Women’s Leadership, 2000), pp. 34-35. 27 I am indebted to Glenn Zuber, an expert on the evan- boasts a wide range of leaders, including Munawar Saeed gelicals and Christian Fundamentalism for our conver- 14 Susan Kilbourne, “Political Opposition to the Conven- Bhatti who serves in the Permanent Mission of Pakistan sations that have helped me to flesh out this theory. to the UN, Archpriest Nikolay Balashof, representative tion on the Rights of the Child,” ICCB News (Winter of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department of Exter- 1996-1997), pp. 12-13. 28 Robert Wuthnow, The Restructuring of American Religion (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), p. 185. nal Affairs, Rabbi David Lapin of Toward Tradition, and 15 Catholics for a Free Choice, Bad Faith at the UN: Draw- Alan Osmond, eldest performer of the original Osmond ing Back the Curtain on the Catholic Family and Human 29 See Geoffrey Knox, ed., Religion and Public Policy at the Brothers. The Vice President of FRC, William Mattox and Rights Institute (Washington, D.C.: Catholics for a Free UN (Washington, D.C.: Religion Counts, 2002). The Austin Ruse of C-Fam, both of who were on the planning Choice, 2001), p. 18. report can be ordered by calling 202-332-7820 or email- team of the second WCF remain on the team. Between ing [email protected]. 1999 and 2003 they will have hosted regional conferences 16 There is a rule-one of the few-that above all, NGOs in Washington, D.C., Arizona, California, and Alberta, requesting consultative status must be in support of the 30 Rothschild, Written Out, op. cit. UN’s mission and vision. See from ECOSOC Resolu- Canada. “Profamily” leaders claim the Arizona meeting 31 Some of the progressive groups working at the UN drew 1,000 participants. tion 1996/31-49th plenary meeting-25 July 1996 , Part include Ecumenical Women 2000+ http:// 1), Arrangements for Consultation with Non-govern- 4 Richard L. Berke, “Political Memo: Bush Shapes His Pres- wwww.ew2000plus.org); Catholics For Free Choice mental Organizations, http://www.un.org/esa/coordi- (http://www.cath4choice.org); the International Gay idency with Sharp Eye on Father’s,” New York Times (online nation/ngo/ version), March 28, 2001. and Lesbian Human Rights Commission 17 To obtain an application to become an NGO with con- (http://www.iglhrc.org); and the Children’s Rights Infor- 5 See the Press Release #82, U.S. Mission to the United sultative status at the UN go to http:// mation Network (http://www.crin.org). Some other Nations, June 12, 2001, Statement by Ambassador E. www.un.org/esa/coordination/ngo/Documents/appli- useful UN-related websites for progressive activists Michael Southwick, deputy assistant secretary of state for cation.htm include: http://www.un.org/womenwatch; http:// international organization affairs, Preparatory Commit- www.ngosatunicef.org; and http://www.unhcr.ch/ 18 For more information on the numerous successes of tee for the General Assembly Special Session on Children, html/racism/ June 12, 2001. The release states, “Concrete targets NGOs, read William Korey, NGOs and the Universal Dec- …should form the basis for our future actions for chil- laration of Human Rights (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 32 Ellen Sauerbrey, 1998 Republican nominee for governor 2001). of Maryland, was appointed to head the delegation. Sauer-

THE PUBLIC EYE 21 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

brey is known for a strong antichoice stance, advocating faith-based initiative posed a major chal- limited government, personal responsibility, and free Tilting at enterprise. The NGO members were Kate O'Beirne of lenge to the separation of Church and National Review, Nancy Mitchell Pfotenhauer, president Faith-based State. In opposing it, Barry Lynn, execu- of the Independent Women's Forum, and Winsome A. tive director of Americans United for Sep- Packer, formerly of the Heritage Foundation. O’Beirne’s Windmills: Over a experience is recorded in the National Review. See aration of Church and State unequivocally http://www.nationalreview.com/kob/kob032102.asp. Year in the Life of declared that, “Bush’s plan is the single 33 Conservative groups focused mainly on the Special Ses- greatest assault on church-state separation sion on Children meetings, which took place close to the President Bush’s Special Session on AIDS, but managed to have a signif- in modern American history. Funneling bil- icant presence at the AIDS meeting. “Profamily” analy- Faith-based lions of tax dollars to houses of worship is sis of their victories can be found in C-Fam, “Pro-Family 4 Delegations Claim Victory on UNAIDS Declaration, Initiative certain to lead to lawsuits.” Friday Fax, vol. 4, no. 28 (June 29, 2001). The proposal highlighted the presi- 34 The sign-in list for the U.S. delegation briefing revealed By Bill Berkowitz dent’s desire to unleash “armies of com- that at least half of those present were from “profamily” groups. See also, Janice Shaw Crouse, “Stumbling Blocks t may seem like several lifetimes ago, passion” to deal with America’s social on the Road to Johannesburg: Day 5-Thursday High Ibut it was only on January 29, 2001, problems. And it would build his creden- Jinks,” Daily Highlights, April 5, 2002, (Beverly LaHaye Institute) http://cwfa.org/library/nation/2002- when President Bush unveiled a cornerstone tials as a “compassionate conservative,” a 04_un/2002-04-05.shtml of his domestic policy agenda—“charitable term he used repeatedly during the cam- choice.” Amidst great fanfare and sur- paign. Stripped of alliteration, “compas- rounded by Christian, Jewish, and Muslim sionate conservatism” is the political clergy, the president unveiled his faith- packaging of the Right’s long-term goals of based initiative, issuing an executive order limited government, privatization, dereg- creating the White House Office of Faith- ulation and the creation of a new social con- Based and Community Initiatives tract. The president’s initiative was an (OFBCI).1 He appointed longtime crimi- extension of the “charitable choice” pro- nologist and political scientist, John DiIulio, vision woven into the 1996 welfare to head up the operation. “reform” bill by then-Senator John The president’s scheme aimed at elim- Ashcroft, which allowed religious institu- inating any barriers that might prohibit tions, with little government oversight, to faith-based organizations from receiving compete for government funds to provide government funds to provide an array of welfare services.5 social services. The initiative also offered tax incentives to encourage greater chari- Assembling the Faith-based table giving. Lewis C. Daly, from the Insti- Te a m tute for Democracy Studies, characterized he White House Office of Faith-Based the president’s ambitious proposal as “a bold Tand Community Initiatives created effort to transfer a sweeping range of gov- liaison offices in five Cabinet departments: ernment social services directly into the Health and Human Services, Housing and hands of America’s churches.”2 Urban Development, Justice, Education, The National Gay and Lesbian Task and Labor. In addition to the appoint- Force’s Policy Institute recently published ments of longtime “charitable choice” sup- a report titled Leaving Our Children Behind: porters Tommy Thompson as secretary of Welfare Reform and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisex- health and human services and John ual and Transgender Community. The study Ashcroft as attorney general, the Adminis- described “charitable choice” as the mas- tration stocked the White House Office and sive “transfer of tax dollars to religious its branch offices with seasoned veterans of institutions…[that] often would come the conservative movement and the Reli- with no demand for fiscal accountability, gious Right. Some of the key appoint- no requirement that religious institutions ments were: not discriminate, and no safeguard against John DiIulio: In the mid-1990s, DiIulio, recipients of social services being subjected a Democrat, gained a measure of notori- to proselytizing and other forms of coer- ety and a seat at the conservative policy- cive activity.”3 making table due to his hard-line position As originally proposed, the president’s on juvenile crime. When he predicted,

THE PUBLIC EYE 22 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye Reprinted with the kind permission of the artist. albeit incorrectly, that there would be a mas- ica’s Promise: Civil Society and the Renewal of the Christian Legal Society’s Center for sive crime wave of “unprecedented bru- of American Culture.6 He was also a founder Law and Democracy. tality” by children and teenagers, whom he of the National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI) called a “generational wolf pack,” his star and author of The Faith Factor in Father- Where’s the Beef? rose within conservative circles and the hood.7 The NFI was founded in 1994 “to o faith-based programs really work? “we’re tougher on crime than you are” lead a society-wide movement to confront DThis critical question has been virtu- bunch in Congress. DiIulio resigned under the problem of father absence.”8 The group’s ally overlooked in the debate over the pres- fire, mostly from conservatives, in mid- mission is to “improve the well-being of ident's faith-based initiative. While most summer 2001. children by increasing the proportion of supporters have a sheath of anecdotes at the Don Eberly: Eberly, who served as deputy children growing up with involved, respon- ready, there is no solid empirical evidence director for the Office of Public Liaison sible, and committed fathers.” Wade Horn, that religious institutions actually perform during the Reagan Administration, was also a founder and former president of better than secular ones. Even John DiIulio named DiIulio’s deputy director. Eberly is the NFI is assistant secretary for family admitted that there is no proof religious pro- one of the primary advocates of “civil soci- support in the Department of Health and grams outperform nonreligious programs.9 ety,” which will shrink government by Human Services. Byron K. Johnson, a University of Penn- handing over responsibility for the social Carl Esbeck: Prior to his appointment as sylvania criminologist with the Center for safety net to faith-based organizations, head of the faith-based initiatives office in Research on Religion and Urban Soci- corporate and community groups, and the Department of Justice, Esbeck worked ety—a think tank started by DiIulio— philanthropists. Eberly has written sev- with the Federalist Society’s Religious Lib- expressed his doubts as well. During his eral books on the subject including, Amer- erties Practice Group and was the director earlier tenure at the Manhattan Institute,

THE PUBLIC EYE 23 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

Johnson had passionately argued that, the unlimited potential for discriminatory and individuals to provide resources to “religious belief is a proven and powerful hiring practices by many religious organi- faith-centered and community groups… tool in combating community problems.”10 zations who are fundamentally opposed to [and] encourage the full recognition and Later, he appeared to change his mind, hiring gays and lesbians. But unexpected the vital role such groups must play in telling the New York Times that, “we’ve cre- opposition to the president’s initiative came American life and culture.”17 ated an office out of anecdotes…. From the from a coterie of Religious Right leaders In early July, Salvation Armygate under- left to the right, everyone assumes that faith- including the Revs. Jerry Falwell and Pat mined these efforts to put the initiative on based programs work. Even the critics of Robertson. They were troubled that the ini- firmer ground. The Washington Post DiIulio and his office haven’t denied that. tiative would allow organizations like the revealed that Karl Rove and Don Eberly had We hear that and just sit back and laugh. Church of Scientology, the Nation of Islam, been secretly meeting for several months In terms of empirical evidence that they and the International Society for Krishna with officials from the Salvation Army in work, it’s pretty much nonexistent.”11 Consciousness to receive government sup- order to win the charity’s political and Dr. David Reingold of the Indiana port.13 Richard Land, president of the financial support for the president’s ini- University School of Public and Envi- Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and tiative. In exchange, the Salvation Army ronmental Affairs is also skeptical about Religious Liberty Commission, said he wanted a firm commitment that “charita- the so-called successes of faith-based pro- would not touch faith-based money “with ble choice” legislation would allow religious grams. He compared the results of faith- the proverbial ten-foot pole.”14 organizations to sidestep state and local based initiatives with school voucher Barely six months into the year the antidiscrimination measures barring dis- programs in that both are self-selective. Administration’s initiative had hit the skids criminatory hiring practices on the basis of According to Reingold, religious institu- and the president turned for help to sexual orientation.18 tions “are more likely to limit and filter Michael Joyce, a trusted ally in faith-based By mid-summer, after months of in- the clientele they serve. It’s an extreme matters. During his more than 15 year fighting and disagreements with religious exaggeration to say that religious organi- tenure at the Milwaukee-based Lynde and conservatives, John DiIulio resigned as zations are more effective.”12 Harry Bradley Foundation, Joyce steered director of the White House Office of In late February 2002, the Pew Chari- the conservative foundation from relative Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. table Trusts announced it had given $6.5 obscurity to a big role as major patron and According to the Washington Post, DiIulio million to the Rockefeller Institute of Gov- initiator of right-wing social policy. The “originally hoped to serve for about six ernment (RIG), based at the State Uni- Bradley Foundation has shaped the debate months, and health problems were mak- versity of New York in Albany, to establish on social issues including school vouchers, ing it difficult for him to continue.” He had the Roundtable on Religion and Social privatization, welfare reform, and “chari- hoped that the president’s plan would be Welfare Policy (Roundtable). One of their table choice.” Joyce, who had at the time enacted by then by Congress.19 In late-July primary tasks will be “to obtain a compre- recently resigned from Bradley, was brought 2001, H.R. 7, Bush’s Faith-based Initiative, hensive, impartial body of research on… on board “to undertake a private initiative passed in the House. Speaker Dennis [the] complicated issues” surrounding to help get this legislation through,” Bush’s Hastert admitted that the “thorny” issues— faith-based initiatives. senior advisor Karl Rove told the Wash- read “charitable choice”—would be left for Headed by RIG Director Richard ington Post.15 the Senate to deal with. Nathan, the Roundtable “will produce Joyce followed a time-honored conser- The Hudson Institute’s Michael research on the capacity and effectiveness vative organizing strategy. He quickly Horowitz summed up the Right’s reaction of faith-based social services, and on the founded two new organizations and set out to DiIulio’s resignation by telling the Wash- important legal and constitutional issues to raise millions of dollars. He set up the ington Post that he had been “the most surrounding government support of such Washington, DC-based Americans for strategically disastrous appointee to a sen- activities.” The George Washington Uni- Community and Faith-Centered Enter- ior government position in the 20-plus versity Law School will join the Institute prise (ACFE) to “advocate an expansion of years I've been in Washington. He has in the research, and Search for Common charitable choice, tax credits, and other taken what could have been a triumphant Ground, will play a “key role in the initia- means of bringing faith-centered and com- issue and marched it smack into quick- tive’s major convening activities.” munity solutions to social ills.”16 US sand.”20 Marvin Olasky, the so-called Newswire reported that the second organ- “godfather of compassionate conser- Trouble in Faith-based Land ization, the Phoenix-based Foundation vatism,” responded with uncharacteristic rom the outset, many civil liberties for Community and Faith-Centered Enter- restraint: “I think John is a fine professor Forganizations and gay rights groups prise (FCFE), was intended to “study and and students will benefit from having him expressed deep concern over the violation promote policies that encourage corpora- back in the classroom.”21 of the separation of Church and State and tions, philanthropies, private foundations The ball was now in the Senate’s court,

THE PUBLIC EYE 24 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye and conservative supporters were growing forced the Bush Administration’s commit- ration for Church and State once again more disenchanted with the process. Olasky, ment to “charitable choice.” In early pointed out that the “charitable choice” pro- apparently upset that the Senate would November 2001, the president sent a let- visions “violates the First Amendment…. eviscerate the legislation, thus taking the ter to Senate leaders urging passage of the [by] undercut[ting] civil rights laws by “faith” out of the “faith-based” initiative, “Armies of Compassion” bill before the allowing religiously based employment dis- wrote an extensive early-August 2001 cover end of the year. He asked for legislation “that crimination with tax dollars, pit houses of story exposing the administration’s strategy. encourages and supports charitable giv- worship against each other in a bid for fed- In World magazine, the popular evangelical ing, removes unneeded barriers to govern- eral funding and could subject needy Amer- weekly he edits, Olasky revealed icans to unwanted proselytism.”28 that the Administration had assured Then, in early February, Sena- him early on that the Justice Depart- The battle over “charitable choice,” tors Santorum and Lieberman ment’s Carl Esbeck, “a master at announced they had settled on a writing vague language,” would the separation of Church and State, proposal—the Charity Aid, finesse the discrimination issue and Recovery and Empowerment create an opening for proselytiz- and government funding of religious (CARE) Act. ing.22 Despite the “compromise,” crit- Folded into H.R. 7 was a institutions will not end with the ics of “charitable choice” were still voucher provision described by concerned. According to an Michael Barkey, president of the president’s faith-based initiative. MSNBC report, in place of “char- Center for the Study of Compas- itable choice,” the new proposal sionate Conservatism, as the “faith- Conservative ideologues and Religious “makes it clear that a religious based initiative’s saving grace.”23 group cannot be denied a govern- Clients would be given vouchers Right activists occupying key ment contract simply because it has that could be redeemed for goods a religious name or because it has and services at the institutions of public policy positions within the Bush religious art, icons, scripture or their choosing. According to Administration have an enduring symbols on display.” Barkey, “[v]ouchers maintain a The “compromise” version wall of separation between the commitment to gut the already opens up government grants to government and the service religious organizations, but elim- provider, reducing the likelihood shredded social safety net and replace it inates “charitable choice,” the most of organizational dependency [on controversial aspect of the presi- government funds] or regulatory with their version of “civil society.” With dent’s faith-based initiative.29 creep. And the government does- “Charitable choice” allowed reli- n’t support any particular religion that in mind, there are likely to be more gious institutions to compete for through a voucher plan, only government funds to provide a enables individuals to choose stealth, and not so stealth initiatives multitude of welfare services. where to go for assistance.”24 CARE expands tax deductions For many on the Right, vouch- coming down the pike. for charitable donations and, ers seemed to be the answer. Even according to Church & State the Southern Baptists’ Richard magazine, provides about $150 Land changed his tune, calling the ment support for community and million for technical assistance to smaller “voucherization” of the initiative “almost faith-based groups, and authorizes impor- charities, helping facilitate their ability to like a magic wand, [which] make[s] most tant initiatives to help those in need.”26 apply for federal grants. It also sets aside of the church-state issues that are so thorny While the Administration’s initial goals funding for a “Compassionate Capital disappear.”25 remained firm, the initiative had been Fund” aimed at developing more public- sliced, diced, chopped, and pared down. private charitable partnerships. The over- That was Then, This is Now The president gave Senators Rick Santo- all price tag for the plan is estimated at about here do things stand well over a rum (R-PA) and Joseph Lieberman (D- $12 billion. Wyear after the unveiling of the pres- CT) the lead role in hashing out a In early February 2002, Bush intro- ident’s initiative? The overwhelming gen- compromise solution.27 duced Jim Towey, as the new director of the erosity shown by the American people But opponents quickly responded to OFBCI. A close friend of Florida Gov. Jeb since the September 11 terrorist attacks rein- Bush’s letter. Americans United for Sepa- Bush, Towey worked on Capitol Hill and

THE PUBLIC EYE 25 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye in Mother Teresa's ministry before becom- 5 Cathlin Siobhan Baker, “The (Not-So) Hidden Agenda of Charitable Choice,” Religious Socialism (Spring 2000), Antisemitism After ing Florida's health and rehabilitative serv- pp. 1-5, 1. th ices director under Democratic Gov. 6 Don E. Eberly, America’s Promise: Civil Society and the September 11 Lawton Chiles. Towey also founded an Renewal of American Culture, (Lanham, MD: Rowman advocacy group called Aging with Dignity & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1998). By Esther Kaplan 7 in 1996. Don Eberly, ed., The Faith Factor in Fatherhood (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 1999). Introduction Towey’s appointment came more than 8 See http://www.fatherhood.org/ o White supremacists across the United six months after John DiIulio, citing fam- 9 “A Stark Truth for Policy Makers: Data Lacking to Sup- th ily and health concerns, resigned as the first port Claims of Faith-Based Social Program Success,” TStates, the September 11 attacks on director of OFBCI. And, in a follow-up American Atheists, April 25, 2001. the World Trade Center and the Pentagon move, Bush de-emphasized the OFBCI by 10 Ibid. were a cause for celebration. On a radio placing the agency under the wing of John 11 Ibid. broadcast that week, William Pierce, head Bridgeland, newly appointed head of the 12 Ibid. of the neonazi National Alliance, called the USA Freedom Corps. 13 Bill Berkowitz, “Faith-Based Fracas,” San Francisco Fron- attacks “a direct consequence of the Amer- tiers, April 5, 2001, p. 14. The battle over “charitable choice,” the ican people permitting the Jews to control 14 Ibid. separation of Church and State, and gov- their government and to use American 15 Mike Allen, “Bush Aims to Get Faith Initiative Back on ernment funding of religious institutions Track: Stricter Rules to Be Added For Use of Funds by strength to advance the Jews’ interests at the will not end with the president’s faith- Groups,” Washington Post, June 25, 2001, p. A2. expense of everyone else’s interests.”1 He vic- based initiative. Conservative ideologues 16 “Two New Groups Founded For Faith Based Initiative,” toriously announced the dawn of a “new US Newswire, June 6, 2001. and Religious Right activists occupying key era,” in which Jewish money, and Jewish 17 Ibid. public policy positions within the Bush manipulation of the media and the U.S. 18 Dana Milbank, “Charity Sites Bush Help in Fight Administration have an enduring com- Against Hiring Gays: Salvation Army Wants Exemption government are “no longer are enough to mitment to gut the already shredded social From Laws,” Washington Post, July 10, 2001, p. A1. guarantee the Jews’ continued hegemony.”2 safety net and replace it with their version 19 Dana Milbank, “DiIulio Resigns From Top ‘Faith- James “Bo” Gritz, a Patriot Movement Based’ Post: Difficulties With Initiative in Congress leader and former Green Beret, suggested of “civil society.” With that in mind, there Marked Seven Months at White House,” Washington Post, are likely to be more stealth, and not so August 18, 2001, p. A4. that it was the “high concentration of influ- stealth initiatives coming down the pike. 20 Ibid. ential Jews” that made New York and Wash- 3 21 Ibid. ington, D.C., attractive targets, an idea Bill Berkowitz is an Oakland-based 22 Marvin Olasky, “Rolling the Dice,” World, August 4, echoed by the likes of Swiss neonazi freelance writer covering the Religious Right 2001. See http://www.worldmag.com/world/issue/08- Ahmed Huber and the Posse Comitatus 04-01/cover_1.asp militia in jubilant references to the attacks and related conservative movements. You 23 Michael B. Barkey, “Vouchers: Faith-Based Initiative's 4 can read his column thrice a week at Work- Saving Grace,” Intellectual Ammunition, (September/ on “Jew York.” As reports began to emerge ing Assets’ workingforchange.com. October) 2001. See http://www.heartland.org/ of a surge of anti-Muslim violence across the ia/sepoct01/welfare.htm United States, World Church of the Creator 24 Ibid. leader Matt Hale wrote to his listserve: 25 Laura Meckler, “Bill has a voucher plan; Provision got little notice,” Associated Press, August 4, 2001. “Now we have to help channel this hatred 5 End Notes 26 George W. Bush, President's Letter on ‘Armies of Com- toward the Jews.” He urged his followers to 1 See Executive Order: Establishment of White House passion’ Bill,The White House, November 7, 2001. See proselytize that the attacks were due to “the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/11/200 http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/faith-based 11108-2.html control of the United States government by 2 See Lewis C. Daly, “Charitable Choice: The Architecture 27 Ibid. International Jewry and its lackeys. Per- of a Social Policy Revolution,” IDS Insights (September 28 “Bush Asks Senate Leaders to Move on Controversial haps never before,” he added, “have people 2001), (New York: Institute for Democracy Studies), 6 p. 1. ‘Faith-Based’ Bill, Says Charitable Donations are Down— been so receptive to our message.” Americans United Urges President, Congress Not to 3 Sean Cahill and Kenneth T. Jones, Leaving Our Children Advance Legislation That Violates Constitution,” Amer- Behind: Welfare Reform and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and icans United for Separation of Church and State Press The Great Conspiracy Transgender Community (New York: Policy Institute of the Release, November 8, 2001. See http://www.white- ale may have had his finger to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, December 2001), house.gov/news/releases/2001/11/ pp. 49-50. wind. On September 17th, the 29 “Charitable choice,” as noted previously, was the provi- H 4 The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, “Bush Launches Unprece- sion tucked into the 1996 Welfare Reform bill by Lebanese television station Al-Manar posted dented Assault on Church-State Separation, Says Watch- then-Senator John Ashcroft. dog Group—Giving Tax Dollars to Churches Violates a story on its website claiming that 4,000 Constitution and Will Lead to Lawsuits, Says Americans Israelis were absent from their jobs at the United,” Americans United for Separation of Church and World Trade Center on September 11th, State Press Release, January 29, 2001. See http://www.au.org/press/pr12901.htm “based on hints from the Israeli General Security Apparatus,” and that Israeli secret

THE PUBLIC EYE 26 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye police prevented Prime Minister Ariel leader called on JUI workers “to eliminate popularity of conspiracies involving Israel Sharon from traveling to New York City the the American commandos and Jews.”16 and “the Jews,” Muslims, Arabs, and South day of the attacks.7 The Anti- Defamation The rhetoric of Jewish conspiracy had Asians were overwhelmingly the targets of League (ADL) suggests that this number indeed found receptive audiences around both street level violence and public and pri- may have been plucked from the Israeli the world. vate sector discrimination in the United Embassy’s statement of concern about the Finally, it was adopted by the Taliban States. 4,000 Israeli nationals residing in New itself—in late November 2001, a Taliban But outside of the United States, many York City.8 By the next morning, when the security chief charged that the attacks were Jews and Jewish institutions did become the story reappeared on an obscure U.S.-based “the work of Jews trying to blacken the targets of vicious post–September 11 vio- website, the Information Times, it had name of Islam;”17 an unsurprising devel- lence. The murder of Wall Street Journal become 4,000 Jews. Within days, the rumor opment, given that Osama bin Laden had reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in Feb- appeared in newspapers and on listserves long before dubbed his forces “The World ruary was the most notorious instance, around the world—in Russia’s Pravda (later Islamic Front against Jews and Crusaders.18 and the most deeply disturbing. Although retracted), in papers in Pakistan, Egypt, and Nafisa Hoodbhoy, a former reporter for the Saudi Arabia,9 even circulating within the The Question of Violence Dawn, has persuasively argued that Pearl American Left, in emails with such credu- ut if the rhetoric conjured up danger- was singled out in great part for his inves- lous introductory remarks as “interesting Bous images of Jewish conspiratorial tigations into the complex ties between mil- but unconfirmed information.”10 reach, it did not seem to be reflected in a dra- itant Islamic groups and Pakistani According to Asghar Ali Engineer, a matic rise in violence—at least in the United intelligence agencies, it is almost impossi- Bombay-based progressive scholar and States. An ADL national poll conducted in ble to believe that antisemitism did not play activist who is an expert on communal vio- November found no evidence suggesting a decisive role.24 One of Pearl’s captors has lence in India, a version that the Mossad that antisemitic attitudes had worsened in admitted that his kidnappers were specif- was responsible for the attacks was circu- the United States as a result of the September ically looking for a Jewish victim. And lated broadly on e-mail networks in India 11th events.19 The ADL documented one reports that Pearl’s likely coerced last words, and was widely believed, “especially among serious September 11–related attack: A just before his throat was cut, were “My Muslims.”11 Another version, accusing synagogue in Tacoma, Washington, was set father is a Jew, my mother is a Jew, and I “Zionists” of plotting the attacks, was on fire just days after being sprayed with am a Jew,” indicated that it was Pearl’s very posted on a website linked to a ministry of graffiti blaming Jews for the terrorist attacks. Jewishness that his captors sought to anni- the Qatar government.12 The rumor made Still, ADL spokeswoman Myrna Shin- hilate.25 its way to jihad recruitment rallies in baum says that there was no significant An attack in Tunisia produced the high- Peshawar (the capital of Pakistan’s Pashtun- increase in anti-Jewish hate incidents in the est death toll of any post–September 11 dominated North West Frontier Province) wake of September 11th.20 In fact, the ADL’s attack on Jews, when an explosion at a syn- in late September, where Allama Noorul 2001 audit noted an 11 percent drop in anti- agogue on the island of Djerba killed 16 Haq Qadri, the Naib Amir of the Ahl-i- Jewish incidents from 2000 to 2001, for a people.26 Acts of violence and provoca- Sunnah Wal-Jamat called the attacks “a con- total of 1,432, including 555 acts of van- tion began to appear in Europe much ear- spiracy of Jews to pit America against the dalism and 877 acts of harassment or phys- lier, and though less gruesome than the Muslim world,”13 and in Rawalpindi (in ical assault, with no deaths.21 murder in Pakistan, and less deadly than Pakistani Punjab) in October, where Jamiat Contrast this number with those from the attack in Tunisia, they were far more Ulema Islam (JUI) leader Maulana Fazlur the American Arab Anti-Discrimination plentiful. A Muslim sheikh based in Lon- Rehman explicitly blamed “the Jews” for Committee, which recorded 520 violent don, for example, recorded and distributed the September 11 attacks and urged a U.S. attacks or explicitly violent threats—includ- tapes immediately after September 11th probe into why 4,000 Jews were absent ing six murders—directed against Arab- calling for violence against Jews and urg- from the towers and why Sharon cancelled Americans in just the first two months after ing young boys to learn to use Kalash- his U.S. visit.14 The Ahl-i-Sunnah and the the World Trade Center attacks, nikovs.27 There was an eruption of JUI are two of the numerous jihadi groups along with several hundred cases of employ- vandalism of synagogues and Jewish ceme- that first gained ground in Pakistan dur- ment discrimination, numerous reports of teries in Germany and Belgium.28 ing the regime of Gen. Zia ul Haq in the racial profiling by police, and 27 airline In October, vandals torched a Jewish ele- 1980s.15 The JUI repeated these tales at sev- expulsions in the same period.22 The Asian mentary school in southern France, leav- eral other rallies in the following weeks, American Legal Defense and Education ing behind a spray-painted message reading including one in Hyderabad (in Sind Fund tracked an additional 77 violent “Death to the Jews” and “bin Laden will province) where according to the Pak- attacks against South Asians in the first conquer.”29 The French incident was part istani English-language daily, the Dawn, a month after September 11th.23 Despite the of a wave of more than 400 attacks in that

THE PUBLIC EYE 27 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye nation on rabbis, synagogues, Jewish Jews and Muslims worldwide.”33 The report Akher Sa’a headlined; “The Jews are Blood- schools, and Jewish students documented reminds us of a similar upsurge in attacks suckers and Will Yet Conquer America,” in a report, “Les Antifeujs,” published in on Jewish targets in the early 1990s, at the and included such choice lines as “A great early March by SOS Racisme and the beginning of the Gulf War, a conflict in danger threatens the United States of Amer- Union of Jewish Students of France.30 After which the U.S.-Israeli relationship was ica. This great danger is the Jew …. Why? the report’s publication, the French violence seen by some to be central. Because they are vampires, and vampires seemed to escalate, and the final weekend The ADL’s 2000 audit of anti-Jewish cannot live on other vampires.”37 A Decem- of March was marked by a burst of attacks: violence echoed this same trend, with 259 ber 2001 comedy sketch on Dubai TV a gunman opened fire on a kosher butcher incidents reported in October 2000, just called “Terrorman,” depicted Israeli Prime shop near Toulouse, a young Jewish cou- after the intifada began, far more than in Minister Ariel Sharon drinking the blood ple were wounded in an attack in Villeur- any other single month that year. At the of Arab children—a clear reference to banne, vandals set fire to a synagogue in time, ADL National Director Abe Foxman blood libel myths that date back to the Strasbourg, and a dozen hooded attackers said, “When the crisis in the Middle East medieval Crusades, while cartoons in more crashed two cars through the main gate of reached a fever pitch, Jews around the than one Egyptian paper depicted the a synagogue in Lyon, ramming one vehi- world and in the United States became tar- American Jewish lobby through images of cle into the temple’s main prayer hall and gets for random acts of aggression and shrunken, groveling, hook-nosed Jews that setting it on fire.31 These were followed by violence,”34 a comment that became even could have been lifted directly from Nazi an organized attack on a Jewish soccer team more apt in the spring of 2002. literature.38 in a Paris suburb in April, which left one The question becomes: How do we Here in the United States, Sheikh person hospitalized. The young, masked interpret this violence and its relationship Muhammad Gemeaha, then imam of the attackers shouted “Death to Jews” as they to the Israel-Palestine conflict? Did “events Kuwait-funded Islamic Cultural Center of assaulted the soccer players with sticks in the Middle East only set off [antisemitic New York City explained back in October and metal bars.32 hatred]” as Malek Boutih, president of that “only the Jews” were capable of the Sep- But there is a critical component in the France’s SOS Racisme, said in March? As tember 11th attacks, and that “if it became outbreak of anti-Jewish violence docu- he went on to say, “There is always a good known to the American people, they would mented in “Les Antifeujs,” as well as in the reason to be anti-Semitic for those who have done to the Jews what Hitler did.”39 incidents documented in a similar, global want to be.”35 Or has the identification Ali Abunimah, vice-president of the report from the Israel-based Stephen Roth between the State of Israel and Jews as a Chicago-based Arab American Action Net- Institute: both tie the upsurge in hate whole become so well established that work, cautions that some of these transla- crimes against Jews not to the events of these acts of violence should be understood tions are questionable.40 In fact, all of the September 11th, but to a date a year ear- more specifically as expressions of rage above translations—with the exception of lier—the beginning of the al-Aqsa intifada, over Israeli policy? The evidence for both the Gemeaha quote, which was verified by and Israel’s brutal response. In fact, those readings is fairly persuasive. the New York Times—come from the Mid- Lyon attackers were ramming their cars into dle East Media Research Institute, a Wash- the synagogue at almost the exact moment Strains of Classic Antisemitism ington-based pro-Israel outfit that a former that Israeli troops were breaking down the n addition to the international popular- CIA operative has called “selective … pro- walls of Yasser Arafat’s compound in Iity of Jewish conspiracy theories about pagandists.”41 Abunimah also emphasizes Ramallah—in other words, the outbreak September 11th, there are other signs that that there are sounder voices in the Arab of violence that weekend in France closely anti-Jewish sentiment in Europe and the and Muslim communities who try to chal- matched the intensification of Israeli Arab world has strayed far from criticism lenge these kinds of statements, and that assaults in the West Bank. The Stephen of Israel and squarely into the territory of some of the language about Muslims and Roth report documents more than 250 vio- classic European antisemitism. The Saudi Arabs in the U.S. and Israeli press is equally lent anti-Jewish attacks worldwide in the Arabian broadcast company, Arab Radio vile.42 And yet, he says, “a lot of anti-Israeli weeks that immediately followed the out- and Television, produced a multimillion sentiment is indeed mixed with antise- break of the intifada in the final days of Sep- dollar 30-part dramatization of the classic mitic rhetoric imported from the West.”43 tember 2000. “Up to October some 90 anti-Jewish forgery, The Protocols of the As Martin Lee documented in a recent cases of extreme right violence were Elders of Zion, in time for a 2002 Ramadan report for the Southern Poverty Law Cen- recorded,” according to the report, but broadcast, which according to Egyptian star ter, these images have not filtered into “since October, Muslim activity has pre- Muhammad Subhi, “expos[es] all the Pro- Arab culture by accident. Alliances between dominated …. [This pattern] confirmed tocols of the Elders of Zion that have been Muslims and Nazis date back to the years the potential of the Arab-Israeli conflict to implemented to date.”36 A January 2002 before World War II, when the grand escalate ethno-religious enmity between article in the Egyptian government weekly, mufti of Jerusalem sought an alliance with

THE PUBLIC EYE 28 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

Nazi Germany.44 Since then there has trol the U.S. government”? At one level, it the conference claims to represent the been a history of Arab countries, espe- does. On the other hand, the United States entire American Jewish community.53 cially Egypt, providing safe haven for Nazis has, until recently, vetoed every UN reso- In any case it needs to be said: Though and neonazis; of freelance neonazi shock lution calling for Israeli withdrawal from identification with Israel is at least as troops joining the Palestinian and Iraqi the Occupied Territories, and Cheney intense for many Jews as identification causes; of wealthy Arab states such as Saudi himself has made remarks indicating, per- with Palestine is for many Arabs, not all Arabia and Libya financing American and haps disingenuously, that Israel’s interests Israelis and diasporic Jews support the European neofascists; and of Holocaust are at the center of U.S. foreign policy in occupation or Sharon’s escalating brutal- denialists from the United States and the region, telling Sharon on March 25th ity. A recent Ma’ariv poll showed that 63 Europe seeking out audiences in the Arab that the United States was planning to per cent of Israelis support a ceasefire and world by sponsoring conferences and trans- attack Iraq “first and foremost for Israel’s a peace agreement that would establish a lating and distributing literature. Lee calls sake.”48 And how can one argue definitively Palestinian state;54 45 per cent even support it a “peculiar bond” in its current form, that that the Star of David symbolizes Jews in the evacuation of all Jewish settlements in derives “in part from a shared set of ene- general, rather than the Israeli State in order to accomplish this end, and support mies: Jews, the United States, race-mixing, particular, when that symbol adorns the for Sharon has hovered between 35 and 62 ethnic diversity” and part from “the shared Israeli flag? As Abunimah points out, “Peo- per cent in 2002, hardly a ringing endorse- belief that they must shield their own peo- ple see Palestinians being brutalized every ment. Even as civilian Israeli casualties ples from the corrupting influence of for- night on television, and the Apache heli- began to mount last fall, a poll by the New eign cultures and the homogenizing copters being used in the attacks have Stars York-based Jewish Forward found that 51 juggernaut of globalization.”45 A key figure of David on them. Israel is the one who per cent of respondents identified with in the current alliance is Swiss neonazi attached an ancient symbol to its violent, Israeli “doves” rather than Israeli “hawks.”55 Ahmed Huber, who is a director within Al colonial operations.”49 Distinctions like these are easily lost in Taqwa, the international banking group Middle East expert Phyllis Bennis, a sen- regions where the only encounters people that apparently helped to channel funds for ior fellow with the Progressive Policy Insti- have with Jews are shots of Israeli soldiers Osama bin Laden’s operations.46 tute, describes the dynamic: “Israel the on the evening news. Mohammed Fadel, State, the army, the occupation uses the lan- a member of the post-9/11 New York Israel and “the Jews” guage of being Jews a great deal, and the City-based organization, Muslims Against t other times, antisemitism watch- symbols of being Jews, and often claims that Terrorism, and a specialist in Islamic law, Adogs may be reading sinister anti- what it does is in the name of all Jews. And says that Egyptians of his father’s genera- Jewish ideology into articles and illustrations in the Arab world, particularly among tion had Jewish neighbors, colleagues, and in the Arab media that may fairly be under- Palestinians, that language gets translated. schoolmates, and there were Jews in promi- stood as straightforward criticism of Israeli So instead of saying, ‘The Israelis came and nent positions in the government—but militarism and the Israel-U.S. alliance. shot up my house and arrested my brother,’ that’s no longer the case. “One of the unin- “There’s this idea that all of this anger must they say, ‘The Jews came …’ At a certain tended consequences of Zionism,” Fadel come from an external source, which is point it gets to be too much. Traveling there, argues, “is that you no longer have a social antisemitism,” says Abunimah, and “that I sometimes say, ‘You know, I’m Jewish,’ and presence of Jews in the Arab world. And somehow the occupation and the butchery they reply, ‘But you’re from New York!’ For without any kind of reality check in soci- couldn’t possibly explain the hostility toward them ‘the Jews’ means ‘the Israelis.’”50 ety to limit the tendency of people to view Israel.”47 Arab and Muslim identification This identification between Jews and their enemies in the worst possible way, it’s with the Palestinian cause is intense, to say Israel is reinforced by Israeli leaders and by not hard to understand how antisemitic the least: popular demonstrations of out- most of the major Jewish organizations in rhetoric can grow and spread.”56 rage over Israeli aggression were so ferocious the United States. At the height of Israeli The increase in anti-Jewish violence and widespread in March that they nearly incursions into the West Bank this spring, over the past year and a half indicates that threatened to destabilize the governments Sharon called the troop actions “a battle for the tight identification of Israel with world of Jordan and Egypt. the survival of the Jewish people.”51 Here Jewry has converted Jewish institutions, not Take as an example, in this context, a car- at home, ADL’s Abe Foxman, is fond of say- just Israeli ones, into targets of violence. toon posted on the ADL website from the ing “anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, According to the Stephen Roth report, Palestinian paper Al-Ayyam, which pic- period,”52 while the Conference of Presi- “In contrast to former Arab-Israeli clashes, tures Vice-President Dick Cheney with dents of Major Jewish Organizations push the main targets of these attacks were not Stars of David reflected in his glasses. Does a hawkish pro-Israel politics on Capitol Hill institutions identified with the State of this image, as the ADL suggests, “pro- that is out of step with the propeace Amer- Israel, but Jews and Jewish sites.”57 But mote the anti-Semitic canard that Jews con- ican Jewish majority—despite the fact that while this identification is indeed propa-

THE PUBLIC EYE 29 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye gated by racist neonazis, in their obsession Nazi flag and the Israeli flag with an equal cause, what Israel was said to be for the with the so-called Zionist Occupation sign in between.60 United States—a strategic asset.”65 Government (ZOG), and by anti-Jewish Similar images appeared on dozens of With Israel using the Holocaust to jus- propaganda in the Arab world, it is being handmade flags and signs at a massive tify its military aggressions, the temptation forged in equal part by major Jewish organ- demonstration in Washington DC in late has clearly become strong, within the izations in the diaspora, and by the State April against the Israeli occupation, where movement against the occupation, to take of Israel itself. protesters also chanted “Sharon and Hitler, that moral authority away. The trouble is they’re the same; the only difference is the this gesture has far too much in common The Silence of the Left name.”61 In February, demonstrators in with the work of Holocaust denialists— ne might hope that the Left would be France carried signs reading “Sionisme = usually overt antisemites—who try to paint Ohelping to disentangle this morass, by Nazisme.”62 A March 2002 email from a the Holocaust as a victimization myth protesting Israeli incursions on the one Pakistani progressive reads in part, “Look- invented by Jews in order to veil Jewish hand and antisemitic attacks on the other, ing at Sharon’s tanks going into Ramallah power or to make false claims to being and helping to break down the identifica- brings to my mind Hitler’s invasion of God’s chosen people.66 If advocates of tion of “Jews” with “Israel.” But outside of Poland…. The Israelis are behaving like Palestinian rights hope to free themselves the Jewish Left, that is rarely the case. Nazis now.”63 This language has become of charges of antisemitism, they must find In France, protests of the rising anti- commonplace. ways to condemn the occupation that Jewish violence have been attended Leftists could be seeing in Israel’s incur- avoid any attempt to erase the violent and primarily by Jews, but with significant sions the brutality of the Soviet Union, traumatic history of the persecution of support from Muslim organizations and whose tanks rolled into Prague in 1968, or Jews—or better yet, take a stand against Left activists from antiracist groups such the bloody violence of the Indonesian antisemitism themselves. “It is precisely as SOS Racisme. But such instances of left- occupation of East Timor. But they do not. because anti-Semitism is used and abused wing solidarity are not widespread. Just after Instead, leftists around the globe choose to by the likes of Sharon,” writes Naomi Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the racist compare Israel with Nazi rule, a choice that Klein, “that the fight against it must be National Front, came in second in the contains at least a hint of an attack against reclaimed.”67 first round of France’s presidential ballot- the Jewish experience. ing, Naomi Klein, a chronicler of the anti- Author and activist Melanie Sorting it Out corporate globalization movement, wrote Kaye/Kantrowitz a member since its incep- he debate in Europe over the signifi- the following in the London Guardian: “I tion of the Middle East peace group Tcance of the recent anti-Jewish violence couldn’t help thinking about the recent Women in Black, says, “I’ve been uncom- highlights some of the truly difficult ques- events I’ve been to where anti-Muslim fortable with the Nazi language around the tions in understanding antisemitism dur- violence was rightly condemned, Ariel conflict for years. It feels like a desperate ing this period. In the wake of an attack on Sharon deservedly blasted, but no mention attempt to shake Jews loose from their a German synagogue with explosives in late was made of attacks on Jewish synagogues, identity as victims.”64 The complication, as March 2002, local police said they were cemeteries and community centers. Or she points out, is that Israelis, too, have investigating both the German Racist Right about the fact that every time I log on to wrapped themselves in the language of and the possibility of “Arab terrorism,” activist news sites like Indymedia.org which the Holocaust in order to explain their mil- while Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate practice ‘open publishing,’ I am confronted itary aggression. Undeniably, for Jews, this dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, with a string of Jewish conspiracy theories connection has an emotional basis in the called for an investigation into possible about September 11 and excerpts from the deep-seated fear and anxiety produced by contacts between the two—each response Protocol of the Elders of Zion.”58 A recent the Holocaust, and in the intense post- reflecting a sense that the attack may be glance at the Jerusalem Indy Media site also Holocaust yearning for a safe haven. But, linked to deep historic currents of German revealed an article by racist former Klans- decades after the end of Nazism, the idea antisemitism.68 On the other hand, a sig- man David Duke, identifying him only as that Israel is the one bulwark against threats nificant leader in the French Jewish com- a former member of the Louisiana state to Jewish safety came to be used more munity, Theo Klein, argued that the Legislature.59 cynically, as well. Peter Novick writes in The anti-Jewish attacks there were not an anti- Far from issuing overt expressions of sol- Holocaust and American Life that it was in semitic wave with ties to Europe’s Nazi idarity against antisemitism, many on the the wake of the 1967 war, and especially past, but a spontaneous outburst by frus- Left have attempted to turn concern over after the 1973 Yom Kippur war, that trated immigrants living on the fringes of antisemitism on its head. On the same Indy “[Israeli] conflicts were endowed with all society—many of whom are frequent tar- Media site, one encounters a graphic the black-and-white moral clarity of the gets of racial violence themselves. A former described as a “Zionazi flag” that flashes the Holocaust, which came to be, for the Israeli French Resistance fighter, Klein emphasizes

THE PUBLIC EYE 30 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye that the State has condemned, rather than that the Muslim community in no way 7 Bryan Curtis, “4,000 Jews, 1 Lie: Tracking an Internet Hoax,” on Slate.com, October 5, 2001. endorsed, the attacks on Jews: Police guard cherishes the anti-Semitic hatred that char- http://slate.msn.com/?id=116813 synagogues, while presidential candidates— acterized the Fascist movement in France 8 ADL, “Terrorism Strikes America,” September 20, 2001, with the exception of the Far Rightist Jean and Europe before 1950.”73 If he is wrong, op. cit. Marie Le Pen—outdo each other in express- and attacks against Jews continue, then at 9 Curtis, “4,000 Jews,” op cit; See also ADL, “Anti-Semi- 69 tism in the Egyptian Media: February 2001 - February ing outrage at the violence. least their nature will be abundantly clear. 2002.” See http://www.adl.org/egyptian_media/ In late February 2002, Ariel Sharon A second challenge is to constantly test antisem_feb_may_2001.asp remarked that with “the wave of dangerous the lens through which Jewish victimiza- 10 Email from Sally O’Brien, reporter and producer for anti-Semitism sweeping France . . . [French] tion is being seen. “Any effective frame- WBAI radio in New York, September 27, 2001. Jewry could find itself facing great danger” work,” says Kaye/Kantrowitz, “must allow 11 Email interview with Asghar Ali Engineer, March 30, 2002. and announced that Israel was preparing us to really see what’s happening to people, 12 “ADL Calls on Qatar to Take Action Against anti- 70 74 to welcome Jewish immigrants, and sev- and who is really at risk.” A vision of con- Semitic & anti-Jewish Reports Featured on Web Site eral British and French intellectuals echoed temporary Jewish vulnerability that does Sponsored by Government Ministry.” See http://www.adl.org/presrele/islme%5F62/3961%5F62.a Sharon’s alarm. But others have argued not allow us to acknowledge the daily bru- sp that the furor over antisemitism has wrongly tality being experienced by Palestinians 13 “Rally warns US against Afghanistan adventure,” conflated the reprehensible acts of violence under occupation, or the intensity of anti- Dawn, Monday, September 24, 2001. with what one journalist called “one of the Arab and anti-Muslim violence in the http://www.dawn.com/2001/09/24/nat18.htm 14 th “Religious groups start recruiting fighters: Jihad against most vigorous media critiques of Israel’s United States since September 11 is sim- US,” Dawn, Saturday, October 6, 2001. policies in the European media in a gener- ply not adequate. Nor is one that refuses http://www.dawn.com/2001/10/06/nat5.htm ation.”71 As Peter Beaumont wrote in the to take at least some solace in the Muslim 15 The Pakistani media often collectively terms Islamic fun- damentalist groups in that country as jihadi groups. The London-based Observer, “For while the groups who marched in solidarity with Jews JUI (F) is a splinter group of the JUI headed by Maulana phenomenon of anti-Jewish sentiment and to protest the antisemitic attacks in France, Fazlur Rehman. The JUI is a political party whose lead- attacks in some quarters of the Islamic or the quiet but persistent Jewish-Muslim ers are Islamic clergy. community in Europe is to be deplored, so interfaith work that has taken place almost 16 “JUI asks workers to kill US forces,” Dawn, Wednesday, October 10, 2001. http://www.dawn.com/2001/ too must be the effort to co-opt it as an alibi monthly in New York City, ground zero, 10/10/nat7.htm for Israel’s behaviour and to use it to silence since the World Trade Center towers col- 17 “Taliban offers $50 million for Bush’s capture,” opposition to its policies.”72 lapsed. Timor Yuskaev, an academic fellow Dawn, Wednesday, November 12, 2001. http://www.dawn.com/2001/11/21/latest4.htm As this article goes to press, Israeli at the Interfaith Center of New York, spec- 18 “Bush enters rhetorical minefield,” Dawn, Saturday, aggression in the West Bank, and Pales- ulates that, “In the long run, this is possi- September 22, 2001. http://www.dawn.com/2001/ tinian suicide attacks against Israeli civil- bly a much more lasting legacy of the 09/22/int2.htm ians, continue, with the horrible, lopsided attacks.”75 Perhaps he is being too hopeful. 19 ADL, “ADL Poll: No Increase in Anti-Semitism in Wake of Sept. 11 Attacks,” November 2, 2001. See death toll growing weekly. So, too, have But alarmism has its dangers as well. http://www.adl.org/presrele/asus%5F12/3948%5F12.as attacks on Jews and Jewish religious insti- p tutions continued to escalate in France Esther Kaplan is an activist, writer, and radio 20 Interview with Myrna Shinbaum, April 1, 2002. and Germany, and new reports have producer. She is cochair of Jews for Racial and 21 ADL, “ADL Audit: Anti-Semitic Incidents Rise Slightly in U.S. in 2000. Increase Linked to Mideast Conflict,” emerged of anti-Jewish attacks in Russia. Economic Justice, a New York City-based March 21, 2001. See http://www.adl.org/presrele/ One critical challenge for the Jewish com- social justice organization, and the cohost of asus%5F12/3776%5F12.asp munity, and progressives everywhere, in Beyond the Pale, a Jewish public affairs pro- 22 American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, “ADC responding to these situations in the gram on WBAI radio in New York. Fact Sheet: The Condition of Arab Americans Post 9/11” November 20, 2001. See http://www.adc.org/ months ahead is to reject fear-mongering terror_attack/9-11aftermath.PDF by pro-Israeli sectors in the face of increas- 23 Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, ingly harsh international criticism of Israeli End Notes “World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks: The Anti- Asian American Backlash,” October 11, 2001. See 1 actions; to assert the distinction—rather Anti-Defamation League, “Terrorism Strikes America: http://www.aaldef.org/images/101101list.pdf What They are Saying,” September 20, 2001. See than the identity—between Jews every- http://www.adl.org/terrorism_america/say- 24 Nafisa Hoodbhoy, “Missing Links; There’s Much More where and the Israeli State; and yet to ing_092001.asp To Daniel Pearl's Murder Than Meets the Eye,” Wash- ington Post, March 10, 2002, p. B1. forcefully challenge truly antisemitic acts 2 Ibid. 25 Michael Kamber, “The Chosen One,” Village Voice, 3 and statements wherever they occur. An end Ibid. March 5, 2002, p. 55. 4 to the occupation would certainly clarify Ibid. 26 Donald McNeil, Jr., “Tunisian Jews at Blast Site: matters. As Klein said recently, “When a 5 ADL, “Terrorism Strikes America: What They are Say- A Stalwart Remnant,” New York Times, April 15, 2002, ing,” September 13, 2001. See http://www.adl.org/ter- p. A3. political solution for the Middle East con- rorism_america/saying_091301.asp flict can be found, and a viable Palestinian 6 Ibid. state coexists with Israel, then we shall see

THE PUBLIC EYE 31 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

27 “Government says police monitoring Muslim sheikh call- ing for violence against Jews,” AP Worldstream, Febru- ary 4, 2002. 28 Victor Homolo, “Germany: Jewish Leader Cites Extrem- Books Received ists,” New York Times, November 21, 2001; “Belgian Gov- ernment Condemns Brussels Synagogue Attack,” Agence France Presse, April 1, 2002. Kathleen M. Blee Mike Prokosch and 29 Jocelyn Gecker, “New Book Details 405 Recent Anti- Laura Raymond Semitic Acts in France,” AP Worldstream, March 12, Inside Organized Racism: Women in 2002. the Hate Movement The Global Activist’s Manual: Local 30 “Les Antifeujs,” published by SOS Racisme and the (Berkeley: University of California Ways to Change the World Union des étudiants juifs de France. See http://www. Press, 2002), hb, 272pp, with bibliog- (New York: Thunder’s Mouth sos-racisme.org/antifuj.htm raphy and index. Press/Nation Books, 2002), pb, 31 “Shooting in France in Wave of Anti-Jewish Attacks,” 324pp, with a “movement yellow New York Times, April 1, 2002, p. A6. pages,” glossary, and index. 32 Suzanne Daley, “Gang Attacks Jews on Sports Field in Ann Burlein France,” New York Times, April 13, 2002, p. A3. Lift High the Cross: Where White 33 Steven Roth Institute, “Anti-Semitism Worldwide, Supremacy and the Christian Right Dean E. Robison 2000/1.” See http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/ Converge Black Nationalism in American annual-report.html (Durham: Duke University Press, Politics and Thought 34 ADL, Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents (2000). See http://www.adl.org/2000audit/2000_audit.pdf 2002), pb, 282pp, with bibliography (New York: Cambridge University and index. Press, 2001), pb, 171pp, with bibliog- 35 Gecker, “New Book Details,” op. cit. raphy and index. 36 ADL, “Anti-Semitism in the Egyptian Media,” op cit. See also Matthew Kalman, “Arab TV to Spotlight Anti- Elizabeth Hartmann Semitic Program,” Chicago Sun-Times, December 15, The Truth About Fire James Q. Wilson 2001, p. 4. (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2002), The Marriage Problem: How Our 37 ADL, “Anti-Semitism in the Egyptian Media,” op. cit. Culture Has Weakened Families 38 hb, 248pp. Ibid. (New York: HarperCollins, 2002), hb, 39 Jonathan Rosen, “The Uncomfortable Question of Anti-Semitism,” New York Times Magazine, November Ellen Messer-Davidow 274pp, with index. 4, 2001, p. 48. Disciplining Feminism: From Social 40 Interview with Ali Abunimah, March 26, 2002. Activism to Academic 41 Marc Perelman, “No Longer Obscure, MEMRI Discourse Translates the Arab World,” Forward, December 7, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001, p. 6.

42 2002), pb, 413pp, with bibliography Interview with Abunimah, op. cit. and index. 43 Ibid. 44 Martin A. Lee, “The Swastika and the Crescent,” The Intelligence Report (Montgomery: Southern Poverty Law 55 66 Center, Spring 2002). See http://www.splcenter.org/ See the survey conducted for Forward by Steven M. Lin Collette, “Encountering Holocaust Denial,” intelligenceproject/ip-index.html Cohen and Market Facts Inc., 10/28/01-10/31/01. The Public Eye, vol. 8, no. 3 (September 1994), pp. http://www.forward.com/issues/2001/01.11.09/sur- 1-15. 45 Ibid. vey.html 67 Klein, “Sharon’s Best Weapon,” op. cit. 46 Ibid. 56 Interview with Mohammed Fadel, March 27, 2002. 68 “German Community Leader Furious Over Synagogue 47 Interview with Abunimah, op. cit. 57 “Anti-Semitism Worldwide,” op. cit. Attack,” Jerusalem Post, March 24, 2002, p. 7. 48 James Ridgeway, “Mondo Washington,” Village Voice, 58 Naomi Klein, “Sharon’s Best Weapon,” Guardian, April 69 Interview with Theo Klein, honorary president of the April 9, 2002, p. 26. 25, 2002. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/ Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France 49 Interview with Abunimah, op. cit. Archive/Article/0,4273,4400973,00.html (CRIF), France’s Council of Representative Jewish Orga- nizations, April 11, 2002. 50 Interview with Phyllis Bennis, March 26, 2002. 59 David Duke, “No Anti-Semitism Here,” January 2002, 70 51 posted April 26, 2002. See http://jerusalem.indymedia. Yair Ettinger, “Sharon Angers Paris with Charges of Serge Schmemann, “13 Israeli Troops Killed in Ambush,” org/news/2002/04/20814.php Racism,” Ha’aretz Daily, February 25, 2002. See New York Times, April 10, 2002, p. A1. 60 http://www.iht.com/articles/49257.html 52 Zionazi flag, posted by Free Palestine, April 23, 2002. Abraham H. Foxman, “New Excuses, Old Hatred,” See http://jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2002/04/ 71 Peter Beaumont, “The New Anti-Semitism?” Observer, speech to the Anti-Defamation League’s National 15413.php February 17, 2002, p. 28. Executive Committee in Palm Beach, Florida, February 8, 2002. See http://www.adl.org/anti%5Fsemitism/ 61 Interviews with protest participants, April 8, 2002. 72 Ibid. speech.asp 62 Nicholas Simon, “Jews in the Line of Fire,” with accom- 73 Julio Godoy, “Gov’t Urged To Stem Anti-Semitic 53Michael Massing, “Deal Breakers,” American Prospect, panying photograph, Jerusalem Report, February 25, Attacks,” Inter Press Service, January 22, 2002. 2002, p. 32. March 11, 2002, p. 18. 74 Interview with Kaye/Kantrowitz, op. cit. 54 63 Email Interview with a progressive Pakistani activist. “Most Israelis Unhappy with Sharon, Support Palestin- 75 Interview with Timor Yuskaev, March 25, 2002. ian State,” Deutsche Presse-Agentur, March 15, 2002. March 20, 2002. 64 Interview with Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, April 7, 2002. 65 Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999), p. 156.

THE PUBLIC EYE 32 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

the president either. Lind doesn’t like half the silence on the homosexual’s offensive against our president’s cabinet, especially the “peacenik” traditional culture. Ashcroft, the “liberal” Powell, and the If one wants to see the depths of this Admin- “featherweight” Rice. But then if you’re an istration’s cultural cowardice, one need only look Eyes Old Right culture warrior you’d be worried at its policy toward the Hispanic invasion of our too when the country is being invaded by country. Far from enforcing our immigration RIGHT Hispanics on one flank and faces the homo- laws and closing our southern border, George sexual offensive on another, and the Army Bush’s Republican Party is throwing itself at the WHO AM I? WHY AM I HERE? can’t do a thing about it because it’s emas- Hispanics’ feet. It now even offers Spanish les- Public Eye readers might recall these pro- culated by all the women they’ve let in. Can sons to state Republican leaders! I don’t recall foundly existential questions James Bond anyone save America? Lind sure thinks so. that even the weakest of the Roman Emperors Stockdale, Ross Perot’s vicepresidential run- Who, you ask? In Lind’s own words: ordered their legions to learn Gothic. ning mate, raised in the debates leading up “My old friend and esteemed colleague, To real conservatives, the most important to the 1992 presidential elections. Well, 10 Paul Weyrich, is a strong supporter of President war is not the pathetic war in Afghanistan, but years later he has what we can only call a Bush. In fact, he played a leading role in the culture war here at home, and in that cul- “delayed” response. defending the President from early critics, back ture war President Bush is a conscientious Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, the House in the days when some people took John McCain objector. Some other members of his Admin- majority whip (the third ranking Republican seriously. Paul continues to be quoted nation- istration, such as the weak-kneed John Ashcroft, in the House), while addressing a group of ally in praise of Mr. Bush. His positive view of are out-and-out peaceniks. In fact, I can’t find evangelical Christians at the First Baptist the President reflects what most conservatives a courageous cultural conservative among the Church of Pearland, TX, on April 12, 2002, now think: unlike his father, this George Bush lot. Either the Bush Administration actually claimed that God was using him to promote is one of us. believes in cultural Marxism, or it lacks the guts “a biblical worldview” in American politics. Sorry, but I don’t buy it. This is one of the to take it on. I’d guess the latter, since being a He said: few matters on which Paul Weyrich and I dif- ‘good Republican’ seems to require that you “Ladies and gentlemen, Christianity offers fer strongly. In my opinion, George II is a worse believe in nothing at all. the only viable, reasonable, definitive answer sell-out than George I. While George I sold out If running away from the titanic battle to the questions of ‘Where did I come from?’ on ‘no new taxes,’ George II has sold conserva- between cultural Marxism and our tradi- ‘Why am I here?’ ‘Where am I going?’ ‘Does tives out on something much more serious: the tional, Western, Judeo-Christian culture makes life have any meaningful purpose?’ . . . Only question of whether the hideous ideology of cul- George Bush a good conservative, then it’s time Christianity offers a way to understand that tural Marxism, more commonly known as Eyes Right continues on page 34 physical and moral border. Only Christian- ‘Political Correctness’ or ‘multiculturalism,’ ity offers a comprehensive worldview that will reign over America in the 21st Century. covers all areas of life and thought, every From the outset, this Bush Administration aspect of creation. Only Christianity offers has twisted itself in knots to make sure it is as a way to live in response to the realities that Politically Correct as possible (once again prov- we find in this world—only Christianity.” ing the old rule of Washington politics that EyeLASHES Source: “DeLay Criticized for ‘Only Christianity’ Democrats reward their friends and Republi- Remarks,” By Alan Cooperman, Washington Post, cans reward their enemies.) It chose a liberal Saturday, April 20, 2002. as Secretary of State because he was black and Henry Kissinger a featherweight to head the NSC because she is a black woman. It is likely to name a pro-abor- once“ said, ‘The trouble THUMBS DOWN FOR THE tion Hispanic to the first Supreme Court PRESIDENT . . . AND ALL THE with Senator Joe vacancy because he is Hispanic. President Bush PRESIDENT’S MEN . . . AND is so careful to be photographed with ‘minori- McCarthy is that he WOMEN . . . AND DAD! ties’ that one begins to suspect they are models didn’t go far enough.’ If you thought that George Bush’s ratings sky- hired to travel as part of his entourage. rocketed after 911, William Lind, the direc- This ‘conservative’ President has done noth- He was exaggerating, of tor of the Center for Cultural Conservatism ing about the problem of far too many women at the Free Congress Foundation, certainly in our armed forces (the easiest way to make sure course. But I wonder. didn’t. Lind doesn’t really like the president, an army can’t fight is to fill it up with women.) –William F. Buckley, Jr., in an inter- especially his being a “conscientious objec- ” He won’t abolish DACOWITS, though the view, “Live” with TAE. tor” in “the war that really matters.” And no, troops would cheer him from the housetops if Source: The American Enterprise, January-February it’s not the war on terrorism. And it’s not just he did. The White House maintains a studious 2002, pp. 16-19, 17.

THE PUBLIC EYE 33 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye the word ‘conservative’ were retired. It will have 700 Club broadcast viewer. Days after his media . . . has somehow forced changes in the become as empty and meaningless as the Bush party’s government, in the state of Gujarat, public school curriculum [and as a result White House. As for me, I’m glad I voted for aided, abetted, and presided over the worst teachers are] so worried now about how Pat Buchanan. If you want to see what a real anti-Muslim pogrom in a decade with close many mommies Heather has that [they] run conservative believes, read his brilliant new to 2,000 Muslim men, women, and children out of time.” NRA national board member book, The Death of the West. Can anyone raped, hacked to death, or burnt alive, Vaj- Grover Norquist, who is also a columnist for imagine George Bush writing such a book? Or payee addressed his Bharatiya Janata Party’s American Spectator, felt that the reason why even reading it, for that matter? (Indian People’s Party) national convention, the media was uninformed on the American Source: The Free Congress Commentary, “Sorry, But “Wherever there are Muslims, they do not people’s support for gun rights was that gun George W. Bush is No Conservative,” By William S. want to live with others. Instead they want owners didn’t have annual pride parades to Lind, February 7, 2002. to preach and propagate their religion by cre- show off gun ownership as an alternative life ating fear and terror in the minds of others.” style. Norquist was also adamant that liber- THE RIGHT VIEW OF ISLAM Soon after the anti-Muslim bloodletting, als didn’t want men to date girls! Attorney-General John Ashcroft recently the Gujarat school-leaving examination for Source: Steve Friess, “At NRA gathering, speakers ridicule joined the ranks of overnight scholars of English asked students to form a single sen- gays,” Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network, Monday, April Islam and observers of Muslims, putting him tence from a four-sentence paragraph. The 29, 2002. in the august company of such notables as the paragraph in question read: “There are two Right Reverends Pat Robertson and Franklin solutions, one of them is the Nazi solution. REVISITING COLONIALISM: Graham, and Indian Prime Minister Atal If you don’t like people, kill them, segregate GOING BACK TO THE GOOD TIMES Bihari Vajpayee. Although Vajpayee, the them. Then strut up and down. Proclaim that prime minister of the world’s second largest you are the salt of the earth.” Another ques- Paul Johnson waxes nostalgically of colo- Muslim country, has probably been Muslim- tion asked students to modify a sentence by nialism’s history and outcomes in “Under watching far longer than his new cronies. removing the word “if” from the sentence “If Foreign Flags: the glories and agonies of In an interview given to his fellow you don’t like people, kill them.” Gujarat’s colonialism.” He points out that “white, scholar/observer, syndicated columnist Cal Minister for Education, Anandi Patel, English-speaking colonies” like the United Thomas, Ashcroft said, “Islam is a religion reported that the questions were selected at States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia in which God requires you to send your son random. Unlike the pogrom victims! are now among the richest countries of the to die for him. Christianity is a faith in Source: The Progressive Media Project. world. South Africa missed being part of this which God sends his son to die for you.” http://www.progressive.org/Media%20Project%202/mpaf list because it “attracted more immigrants Robertson, another authority on the Qur’an, 2702.html; “Unmasked Truth,” Editorial, Times of from black Africa than from white Europe.” India, Monday, April 15, 2002. remarked on his 700 Club broadcast that, Nevertheless Johnson contends that http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id Africa in general benefited greatly from Islam “is not a peaceful religion that wants =6906609; “If you don’t like people, kill them”: Exam to coexist. They [Muslims that is] want to question stuns Gujarat. colonial rule “[b]ut under independence, all coexist until they can control, dominate http://headlines.sify.com/809news2.html came crashing down in hopeless ruin…. and then, if need be, destroy.” Robertson was Black majority rule has failed virtually every- affronted by President Bush’s lack of knowl- GUNNING FOR GAYS where … and it is now clear that independ- edge about Islam, and said, “I have taken This time, it’s in Reno, NV, at the National ence came a generation, or perhaps two, too issue with our esteemed president in regard Rifle Association’s 2002 annual convention, soon…. Very little can be done to help these to his stand in saying Islam is a peaceful reli- where the men bear arms and the women bear African states until they first provide them- gion. It's just not. And the Koran makes it children. “During a two-hour panel discus- selves with responsible, representative, hon- very clear, if you see an infidel, you are to kill sion attacking the media for distorting the est, and efficient governments.” The one him.” Franklin Graham, Billy’s son and views of gun-rights proponents, all but one possible solution Johnson does see, in cer- heir, declared that, “The God of Islam is not speaker took an opportunity to slam gays and tain situations, is a return to colonialism. He the same God. It’s a different God, and I lesbians . . . in some manner.” Debbie Schlus- argues that, especially in places like Soma- believe it is a very evil and wicked religion.” sel, a conservative commentator who appears lia and Sudan, a return to a colonial order Graham echoed Robertson’s opinion saying, on Fox News and the Howard Stern Show, will be necessary in order to annihilate the “I don't believe [Islam] is this wonderful, called Rosie O’Donnell (who recently came “threat of terrorism.” peaceful religion.” out as a lesbian and in support of LGBT Source: National Review, February 11, 2002, pp. 14-16. While the Christian-Muslim dialogue adoption rights) a “freak.” Schlussel went on seems to have turned into a monologue to label “straight actor Jude Law, who she said FRIENDSHIP: THE SIMPLE (actually a tirade), the Christian-Hindu dia- admitted to hesitating before handling a SOLUTION TO SOCIAL logue on Islam seems to have reached com- gun for one of his films, as a ‘girly man.’” INJUSTICE mon ground. What’s more, Indian Prime Kellyanne Conway, a conservative pollster A man coming out of a pharmacy sees a Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is evidently a made the amazing discovery that, “The homeless man on the sidewalk, walks up to

THE PUBLIC EYE 34 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye him, notices they’re wearing the same belt “Come winter, the shivering grasshopper than a rationalization for black failure.” buckles and compliments the homeless man, calls a press conference and demands to What’s more, it proved that “Western nations “nice belt.” Then he walks away feeling, know why the ants should be allowed to be are rich because whites have high IQs.” “[t]he seed of friendship and connection warm and well-fed while others are cold and Francis concluded that, “We in this room are was planted. Someone else may come along starving. . . . America is stunned at the sharp the Paul Reveres of our time. We are riding later and water the seed . . .” In “Befriend- contrast. How can this be, that in a country through the night, not just in a few New ing the Friendless,” posted on the Christian of such wealth this poor grasshopper is England hamlets but all through the world Broadcasting Network’s website, Karen allowed to suffer so unjustly? crying, ‘White man, wake up.” At long O’Connor speaks of the Christian duty to Al Gore exclaims in an interview with last, someone who boldly charges to defend befriend the “needy, hurt, persecuted, unlik- Peter Jennings that the ants have gotten rich the western White man. It just doesn’t hap- able, difficult—even mean-spirited.” The off the back of the grasshopper and calls for pen enough. article runs with a picture of a thick-bearded an immediate tax hike on the ants to make Source: American Renaissance, vol. 13, no. 4, April 2002. brown-skinned man. He holds a sign that them pay their ‘fair share.’ reads, “I need a friend.” Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration at the Could friendship be the answer? It’s so entrance to the ant city, where the news sta- THE LIBERAL DEATH GRIP simple and beautiful! In fact it should become tions film the group singing, ‘We Shall For all those that might have had the strange national policy! Let’s all compliment the Overcome.’ Jesse then marches his demon- notion that right-wing conservatives con- homeless man’s shoes, organize a birthday strators into the anthill, where they kneel to trolled our entertainment and news media, party for the cantankerous shoe shiner, and pray for the grasshopper and demand fran- Donald Wildmon, the American Family accompany the woman who is visiting her son chises and reparations for Jesse and his Association president, sets us straight! Wild- in prison. grasshopper friends. mon wrote recently, “We certainly aren't Certainly friendship and even pleas- Finally, the Equal Employment Oppor- surprised that Disney was once again front antries have an important role in our lives, tunity Commission drafts the ‘Economic and center in the push to normalize homo- helping us to create deeper human connec- Equity and Ant-Grasshopper Act,’ retroactive sexuality in our culture… but it was sad to tions. But a compliment on your belt buckle to the beginning of the summer. The ants are see Rosie O’Donnell using her star power to unfortunately does not fill your stomach, fined for failing to have an affirmative-action stump for the homosexual agenda. It further find you a roof for the night, or begin to program for green bugs and, having nothing demonstrates the death grip that liberal elites address the reasons why people become left with which to pay retroactive taxes, the ant have on the entertainment and news media homeless. O’Connor writes about the man city is confiscated by the government.” institutions.” who talks about his struggles to maintain a Yes, indeed, the parallels are obvious. Source: http://www.afa.net/activism/aa031502.asp relationship with the bitter shoe shiner out- African-Americans frolicked in the planta- side his store: “I overlooked a lot in Lou. . . tion sun, and enjoyed the beauty of an Compiled by Nikhil Aziz, Mitra Rastegar, . He’d get on a topic that bugged him and extended Jim Crow summer. They have irre- and Taryn Levitt. suddenly all the hate and disappointment sponsibly not looked to the future, not toiled bottled up inside would spill onto whoever as Whites have in creating their homes and was standing there.” Too bad the store- their nest eggs. Ah, the American Dream! owner ignored Lou’s complaints. Perhaps he More like the American Delusion! would have learned a little about the work- Source: Insight on the News (A Publication of the HAIKU ings of oppression and the forces that create Washington Times), April 29, 2002, p. 4. the “friendless.” Caesars of privilege Source: http://www.cbn.com/living/family/relationships/ mobilizing resentment oconnor-friendless.asp IN DEFENSE OF democracy stabbed WESTERN MAN Nearly 250 people gathered in Virginia for bullies with lawsuits GIVING AN OLD FABLE THE the fifth biennial American Renaissance RIGHT TWIST conference, “In Defense of Western Man,” whittle away at justice The old fable about the ant and the grasshop- in February 2002. Syndicated columnist Dr. equality blocked per describes how during the summer, the ant Samuel Francis warned that non-Western toils at building its house and storing food immigration is creating a counter culture that demonized scapegoats while the grasshopper frolics in the sun and will soon “outnumber and destroy us.” His feeding angry bitter crowds thinks the ant a fool. In the winter, the ant brilliant, profound solution was to “round is fed and sheltered, the grasshopper dead. ‘em up and ship ‘em out.” Dr. Francis pro- society starves Stephen Goode updates this fable for 2002, vided a critical analysis of reparations for slav- in which: ery by explaining it as “nothing more Chip Berlet

THE PUBLIC EYE 35 SUMMER 2002 The Public Eye

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