Like every other Black Caucus in America, Chicago’s Black Caucus claims they represent the interests of blacks. That was certainly true when they formed to oppose Mayor Richard Daley’s white political machine. When they refused to admit Thomas Murphy because of his skin coor, though, they exposed themselves as just another cog in America’s race industry.

Chicago’s 18th Ward has long been heavily black. Prior to 1998, when the City Council redrew the boundaries, it was fifty percent black. with the new ward boundaries, the 18th Ward was eighty-five percent black. In 1991, voters in the 18th Ward elected Thomas Murphy, a white local businessman, as their alderman on the city council. They re-elected him in 1995, and again in 1999, when he won 57 percent of the vote, and 59 of 63 districts, despite facing eight black opponents.

Because he represents 47,000 black constituents, Alderman Murphy recently decided to ask the City Council’s Black Caucus to admit him into their caucus. “I’m trying to represent the people who put me in office,” he reasoned. “If you have a Black Caucus discussing issues that are important to the black community, I should be a part of it.” Representing 7,000 more blacks than Dorothy Tillman, who is already a member of the Black Caucus, he has a point.

In response, Caucus spokeswoman Delmarie Cobb told the Chicago Sun-Times, “If Murphy is allowed in, he would change the definition of a black caucus. The membership was not based on: ‘I represent a black ward.’ It was based on: ‘I am ablack elected official.” Her claim is nothing more than posturing, though. They certainly wouldn’t admit Ward Connerly, Clarence Thomas or Shelby Steele.

Despite support for his membership from Mayor Richard Daley, other prominent figures in Chicago’s Democratic party, black clergymen and Chicago’s notoriously liberal newspapers, “Mr. Murphy’s beliefs were trumped by his skin color. Since when was this morally acceptable?”

M. Royce Van Tassell is Director of Research for the American Civil Rights Institute.

Also by M. Royce Van Tassell