Cruz in for a Brusin’?
In his eagerness to make the MEChA issue go away, Daniel Weintraub defines renunciation down and writes:
Let us hope that Cruz Bustamante’s belated renunciation of ethnic nationalism ends the furor over his long-ago membership in the MEChA organization for Mexican-American college students.
[Link in original.]
Weintraub can hope all he wants, of course. My hope is that Cruz does not get a pass until he does a much more thorough job of actually renouncing ethnic nationalism than that. Here’s Cruz’s “renunication,” as quoted in the SF Chronicle story to which Weintraub links:
On Fox News on Saturday, Bustamante was asked whether he renounced a slogan of the group: “For the race everything. For those outside the race, nothing.”
He responded that he loved his culture and would represent the entire state if he became governor.
“My politics … have grown to a point where I’m a very inclusive individual, and all you have to do is look at the politics I’ve shared and the kind of politics that I’ve had,” Bustamante said.
When pressed a fourth time for a more direct answer, Bustamante said, “Racial separatism is wrong… You have to look at what people do, not just what they say, and I think I’ve demonstrated my ability.”
In other words, it took four attempts to get Bustamante to utter such a radical statement as “racial separatism is wrong,” and even then he couldn’t bring himself to criticize the racist organization MEChA, or even its infamous slogan, “por la raza todo, fuera de la raza, nada.” Some “renuniciation!”
Apparently, I’m not the only one who finds Cruz’s “renuniciation” of racial separatism about as convincing as Yassir Arafat’s reunciation of “terrorism in all of its forms.” Mickey Kaus was equally underwhelmed, as was Tacitus, who now believes the issue over, with Bustamante having failed a simple test. Meanwhile, the Shark explores the eerie parallels between Mechismo and Nazism.
September 7th, 2003 at 11:17 pm
The Cul-de-Sac for Monday, September 8
Good morning, and welcome to the Cul-de-Sac, my weekly quest to see who is saying what in my neck of the blogosphere. I’m not sure - I’ve not counted yet - but I think that this could be the largest…
September 7th, 2003 at 11:22 pm
The Cul-de-Sac for Monday, September 8
Good morning, and welcome to the Cul-de-Sac, my weekly quest to see who is saying what in my neck of the blogosphere. I’m not sure - I’ve not counted yet - but I think that this could be the largest…