I’m not sure how many—if any—black people work for the Show-Me Institute. But if there is at least one black employee, Rex Sinquefield should have asked him or her about his speech that mentioned public education and the Ku Klux Klan in the same sentence. If this person was honest, he or she would have said, “That won’t go over very well.”
During his remarks at Lindenwood University last week, Sinquefield essentially said the Klan might think that public schools are the best way to "hurt the African-American children permanently." He claimed that he was quoting a column from retired Judge Ralph Voss. Ironically, the judge in question later said Sinquefield had misquoted him. Instead, Voss' column had told a fictional account of a think tank suggesting liberals would be in charge of public schools if the KKK wanted to ruin black people.
Moments like this make me ashamed of my state. But this nonsense reminded me of a missing job description that I think would work in America.
While I’m sure that some will call what I am about to suggest “tokenism,” I vehemently disagree: Major conservative organizations should have a resident liberal; liberal organizations should have a resident conservative; and all organizations should have a resident black person. None of these people should be considered "tokens." Rather, they should be asked to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. They should be listened to—not to regurgitate the obvious, but to discuss why people of other political persuasions feel that some arguments are more insulting than others.
A resident conservative could have explained to the Obama administration that demanding Catholic organizations to provide free contraceptives would be too much for many fair-minded people. There are many Catholics who use birth control and would never picket outside of Planned Parenthood, but they would have liked to have been heard by Obama.
A resident liberal could have told conservatives behind Komen's initial decision to drop funding for Planned Parenthood that the move would lead to vocal protest. They would have explained that the majority of women involved probably would disagree with the decision, be they liberal or conservative.
I realize that many people and organizations of differing political philosophies feel as though they already know what the other is thinking and don’t care—that’s how we got in the political mess we are in. And that’s how people find themselves in the muck after using horrible entities like the Ku Klux Klan to make a political point.
In some ways, Sinquefield is a politician, even if he's not running for office. That’s why his foible surprised me. It also convinced me that Sinquefield might sincerely want to help black people—but he knows very little about us.
Commentary by Alvin Reid
