Mary Frances Berry: A Cry for Leadership on Civil Rights

During President Bush's first term, we witnessed a retreat on environmental justice, accelerated racial profiling of the traditional targets and expanded targeting of other people of color who "look Arab." And in the post-Sept. 11 world, civil liberties and freedoms were compressed in a chilling quest for national security. A new surge in unemployment among black youth and high Latino dropout rates have gotten only passing attention. At the same time, opposition to affirmative action, and nominations of judges with a stunted vision of equal opportunity, have fostered loud and heated controversies as the administration draws its battle lines. Today's half-full glass has led to new conversations never considered two decades ago: New Americans bring before us the realities of life for Latinos, Asian Americans, Arab Americans and the attending issues of immigration rights and English as a second language in our public schools. Diversity is evident in appointments to positions never before held by women, blacks or other people of color. So too is the certainty that there is no policy victory in merely putting diverse faces in high places. [more]