<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML> <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"> Nathan Newman wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 solid 2px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">I am appalled that the Nation gave Unz column space, since he is not a liberal in anything other than the European classical sense.  But he is also more interesting than Buchanan, since it is worth remembering that he vigorously opposed Propostition 187 and is quite close to many pro-immigrant activists.</BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 solid 2px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">The educational theory behind Prop 227, the anti-bilingual education initiative that passed last year, is a bunch of crap, but I will tell you that there were a number of hard-core latino activists who supported Unz in that campaign, mostly because in many suburban schools, bilingual education had just become a shitty dumping ground for latino kids, much as special education has become a dumping ground for a wide range of minority students.</BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 solid 2px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">There are (or were) a wide range of wonderful bilingual education programs in cities like San Francisco, but Unz was able to gain a certain degree of latino support for his initiatives precisely because he was not seen as a Buchanan-like racist.  That may make him more dangerous and an especially bad reason for the NATION to give him additional credentials.</BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 solid 2px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">He is much more in the Jack Kemp wing of the GOP in seeking to build alliances with conservative elements of the nonwhite community.</BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 solid 2px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">--Nathan Newman</BLOCKQUOTE> </BLOCKQUOTE> You're right, of course. Dissatisfaction with noxious bilingual ed programs here in California was widespread and fully justified, provoked by decades of oppression, squandered children, and vicious stereotyping.  Indeed, there was a core of activists who used 227 as a handy club with which to beat those smug we-know-better-than-you-do-what's-good-for-your-kids administrators who're responsible for the travesties masquerading as bilingual ed.  But there were many more activists who opposed 227 with vigorous eloquence, decrying it (accurately, I think) as the natural race-baiting successor to 187 (regardless of Unz's personal opposition) and 209. Unz went to great (and expensive) PR lengths to cleanse himself of racist taint--and succeeded in this rather more effectively than his mean-assed spiritual cousin, Pete Wilson.  Wilson, of course, failed spectacularly to make his leadership in the campaign to bomb affirmative action the primary issue in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination.  (Didn't Unz once run against Wilson in a gubernatorial primary?  Wasn't this the reason for Wilson's efforts to neutralize Unz and 227 just before the November election by killing bilingual ed by administrative fiat?  I don't remember.) Anyway, I agree: Unz is an insidious menace, deserving serial excoriation, not column space, from the Nation.     </BODY> </HTML>