Another Latino Hypocrite on “race”

Until we all go colorblind, we need racial data
By Joe Rodriguez

Never count Ward Connerly out. One of these days, his vision of a multiracial America free of bigotry and discrimination just might come true. It’s just that we’re centuries away from that utopia, and the Colorblind One can’t wait.

First, he led the movement and ballot initiative that banned affirmative action in California state and local government and education eight years ago. Then he took the anti-affirmative-action crusade to other states, with enough success to keep him going.

But he began to overreach. Last year, California voters decidedly rejected another Connerly initiative that would have prevented state and local governments from collecting racial information on individuals. Voters either saw the wisdom of tracking discrimination or diseases by race, or they didn’t buy the argument that government promotes racism simply by collecting racial information, or both.

If “race” is as important as Rodriguez claims, why are Hispanics allowed to bypass the “race” question entirely? Isn’t a “white” Cuban treated differently from a “black” Puerto Rican or a Mexican “Indio” or a “mulatto” Dominican?

“Hispanic” is a “mixed race” category. Rodriguez just wants to keep the gringo mestizos out.