9-11 Put More Blacks Than Ever in Bush Camp
Pacific News Service, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Posted: Sep 06, 2002
The 9-11 terror attacks made more Blacks than ever willing to swap some personal freedoms for increased security, put civil rights and civil liberties on the back burner and cheer President Bush. On the first anniversary of Sept. 11, writes PNS contributor Earl Ofari Hutchinson, those surprising attitudes appear firmly in place.
Just days before the Sept. 11 terror attack, Congressional Black Caucus members were hammering President Bush for not attending the World Racism Conference in Durban, South Africa, the Florida vote debacle, and his tax rebate scheme that potentially drained billions from health and education programs. The attacks instantly changed all that.
With the lone exception of California congresswoman Barbara Lee, the entire Congressional Black Caucus backed the resolution that gave Bush a free hand to wage war against any person or country suspected of terrorist activity. And that backing included Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Alabama congressman Earl Hilliard, who did not join Lee in dissent and issued public statements that sounded every bit as bellicose as Bush in demanding decisive military action against terrorism. Some Black Caucus members went even further and supported Bush's controversial anti-terrorism bill.
McKinney and Hilliard were recently defeated in their bids for reelection in part because of their mild backing of a Palestinian state and their criticism of Bush's war on terrorism. And in part because many Blacks stayed home on Election Day, or voted against them. Judging from post-election comments made by many Black voters in their districts, they were seen as out of touch and out of step with the changed, increasingly conservative mood of many Blacks in post-9-11 America.
If McKinney and Hilliard had paid any attention to that change they would have found that Blacks are scared stiff of possible new terror attacks, have become passionate rooters for swift military and legislative action against terrorism, worry less about issues of race and poverty and more about their personal security and are more enamored of Bush and more distrustful of the Democrats than ever.
Polls taken immediately after the 9-11 attacks gave the first big hint of the stunning about-face of Blacks on politics and issues. By big margins they backed profiling and the carrying of identity cards, tighter security measures and shakedowns at airports, and were more willing than in the past to enlist and serve in the armed forces.
A recent poll conducted by First Amendment Center found that a near majority of Americans were willing to restrict First Amendment liberties, to monitor Muslim groups and brook no criticism of the military. Based on prior polls that found that a majority of Blacks backed racial profiling as a weapon in the fight against terrorism, one can assume that many Blacks are just as willing as whites to scrap some personal freedoms to fight terrorism.
In the year since Sept. 11, other than McKinney's stray potshots at Bush that got her in hot water, Congressional Black Caucus members have been loath to say or do anything that could be construed as dissenting from the war on terrorism. Civil rights groups have also watched what they say and do about Bush's policies. At the NAACP and Urban League's recent national conventions, there was virtually no public mention of Bush's war on terrorism and the relentless assault by Attorney General John Ashcroft on civil liberties protections.
Their tepid criticism or mute silence on Bush's foreign and domestic policy is a bellwether of post-9-11 Black sentiment. For the first time in nearly a half-century, as many Blacks as not have said that they like a Republican president -- Bush. A recent poll by Black America's Political Action Committee, a Washington, D.C.-based political think tank, found that 41 percent of Blacks say that Bush is doing a good job -- a 22 percent jump from last year. Even more ominous for Black Democratic politicians, nearly 40 percent of Blacks polled said that Democrats had taken them for granted, up from 27 percent in 2001.
The flag-waving, the downplay of civil rights and civil liberties concerns, support of war action, and the love-fest for Bush by Blacks can't be chalked up solely to fear, media brainwashing and soaring political conservatism. Rally round the flag patriotism has always been intense among Blacks in times of war and crisis in America. In the Gulf War in 1991, Blacks composed more than one-third of the fighting force. Back in America, few anti-war protesters were Black.
When Congress voted unanimously to authorize then-President Clinton to wage war against Serbia in 1998, other than Lee, who cast the sole vote against the war resolution, and a small number of Black militants, there was scarcely a murmur of opposition among Blacks, and none from the Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights groups.
The 9-11 terror attacks made more Blacks than ever willing to wave the flag, swap some personal freedoms for increased security, put civil rights and civil liberties on their back burner and cheer President Bush. On the first anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, that new face of Black America has not changed.
Hutchinson EHutchi344@aol.com is the author of "The Crisis in Black and Black" (Middle Passage Press).
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