Sent the above from some alt weekly to Tim Wise, who was skeptical, as was I, on reflection. Still, interesting, fwiw.Tell me I'm nuts, plz! Michael Pugliese
KEEPING MINORITIES ON THE SIDELINES
THE PROTOCOLS OF ELDERS OF CONNECTICUT
By Brandi Cohen
J. Holland Bates: godfather of affirmative action?
Recently uncovered documents indicate that at least two most far-reaching liberal policies on the government agenda -- bilingual education and affirmative action -- were in fact hatched and promoted by a secret group entrenched deeply inside the Republican Party. There are also reasons to believe that President Nixon was consulted about them.
H.R. "Bob" Haldeman: Did he tell the President?
The draft memo quoted below was found among the papers of the estate of the recently deceased Mr. J. Holland Bates of Stamford, Conn., a one-time adviser to the Nixon Administration, who, some believe, was the original Deep Throat. "Bob", to whom the letter is addressed, seems to be President's Chief of Staff. H.R. Haldeman. Mr. Bates' appointment book indicates that he saw Mr. Haldeman on at least three occasions in the fall of 1970.
The memo was written by hand on plain legal yellow pad. It has been authenticated by forensic experts who concluded that a) the pages in question had indeed been written as late as 1970; and b) the handwriting indeed belongs to Mr. Bates.
Bob:
These are just a few scattered thoughts following our meeting over the weekend. I figured I should run them by you first. Feel free to share this with John, though for the time being I would not take them any further. The Big Guy seemed out of sorts -- Nam? Henry K? -- so you be the judge at what point in time we should seek his approval -- if we need it.
BILINGUAL EDUCATION
The combination of sheer numbers of growing Hispanic emigration to the US and higher-than-white birthrates are jeopardizing the supremacy of Anglo-Saxon culture in America. A firm, well-defined covert policy is needed to keep the Hispanics out of the mainstream. To be effective,
policy has to be couched in liberal terms and implemented by liberal hands.
The growth of nationalism in Southern California provides a convenient cover for the plan. The idea is simple: since Hispanic children cannot speak English, they should be provided with instruction in their own language. Ostensibly, it will be a temporary measure, designed to carry them till they achieve sufficient proficiency to catch up with English speakers. In practice, the program will sprout a bureaucracy whose sheer numbers and power will insure that Hispanic children will never reach that level. Upon graduation from high school, deprived of English, the young people will be effectively cut off from mainstream America, confined to barrios, and doomed to menial jobs. Selected few will be allowed to proceed with their "education" in ethnic-studies programs designated in accordance with the affirmative action policy. Like their less fortunate brethren, by their education they will be inextricably linked to their community (ethnic cultural issues, community organizing, etc.) and denied a chance to effect the American agenda at large. As a result of the barriozation, the Hispanics will elect their own leaders (jefes, caudillos) who will install their own system of patronage and, in the absence of educated electorate, will be totally dependent on our handouts to hold on to their privileges.
IMPLEMENTATION
The financing of the program will have to be conducted in strict secrecy. Foundations will be set up, staffed by out-and-out liberals (IISS, Brookings), with moneys donated through a number of cutout shell companies liquidated immediately upon disbursement so as to erase the money trail. The financing will have to be sparse, so as to create the illusion of hard-scrabble political activism, untainted by the association with the Establishment. Current community activists will be approached via these foundations and communicated the importance of bilingual education in the context of racial and ethnic heritage (we have our people in La Raza). Once they realize they will have a free hand in hiring staff to that end and creating programs of empowerment, we are off and running. Concurrently, separate financing will be provided to set up bilingual programs in existing teachers' colleges and university departments. With academic unemployment always around the corner, staffing will not be a problem. As a margin benefit, it might take their minds off Vietnam demonstrations. And once we offer them a draft exemption (sort of Peace Corps for the barrio), they'll lap it up. By the time the first bilingual program produces its first batch of illiterates, they will have to be supplied with meaningless minimum-wage patronage jobs (see the activists above). By no means should these graduates run around unemployed, creating possible resistance to bilingualism.
... minorities will be forever locked in bitter competition with one another.
LONG-TERM PROSPECTS
For business reasons, immigration cannot be stopped completely. Agri lobby will have our ass in a sling: who will pick lettuce? But at least these people can be confined to their own little enclaves, allowing more competent fellow citizens to run the place. Language is a powerful weapon in the class struggle. By the Year 2000, these communities, deprived of English, will be not only locked into themselves, but will lack the means to work together with other minorities (the coming Asian influx, whether Nam goes bellyup or not) against the White America. In fact, the opposite will hold true: unable to develop their own resources (such as selling their product to the rest of the country) and thus doomed to depend on federal aid, minorities will be forever locked in bitter competition with one another. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
As civil-rights agenda increasingly dominates the public discourse, policies need to be designed aimed at keeping minorities out of decision-making process while massaging their egos and creating an illusion of social progress. To this end, "affirmative-action" programs will be set up whereby minorities will be allowed to enroll in universities and colleges under special quotas. Once enrolled, they will be steered towards areas like ethnic studies, communications, arts, humanities, and political science -- areas that do not require extensive academic background or applying oneself.
...integration must not be accompanied by real progress.
At the same time, they will be carefully steered away from such scholarly intensive areas like sciences and medicine. Some of them (the so-called Talented Tenth) may even end up entering law schools, where, once again, they will be carefully steered towards social advocacy -- an area that, though high-profile, will present no real effect on the power-sharing situation in society. Since the last thing we need is all-black law firms that will inevitably gravitate towards activism and gum up the courts with silly constitutional issues, white-shoe law firms must be encouraged to set up hiring programs with the understanding that AA (not to be confused with our AA, haha) graduates will not have to be assigned any important cases. Another possibility is wedding AA to bilingualism and having ESL programs in law schools. Now, that will be a real coup. We can certainly try out a pilot at Harvard. To make sure the plan works, the higher-education "progress" will by no means be matched by similar measures on pre-college level. Since school integration appears to be inevitable, let the white people shell out for private school -- we'll get them vouchers later. Meanwhile, integration must not be accompanied by real progress. Since all they want is self-esteem, give them as much self-esteem as they can handle: Afrocentric curriculum, African history months (years is even better) -- whatever keeps them away from sciences. This is the most important aspect of AA implementation on the college level: if we really educate them, they won't need AA! It is inevitable that, in order to compensate for previous discrimination, quotas will have to be created in areas like social work and especially government employment. The latter is especially important, as it creates in minorities a feeling of identification with authority and effectively snuffs out rabble-rousing tendencies. Once a sinecure is created, it is hard to give it up. Within the government, a two-track minority-hiring policy will be developed: a) areas where minorities constitute majority of clientele -- social services, housing, and the like; b) made-up areas of government that have no real effect on state affairs. Since it is unrealistic to keep minority businesses out of the private sector altogether, programs will be set up whereby a fixed percentage of subcontractors on government projects will be set aside for minorities. Once again, the trick is in implementation. Denying the above contractors an opportunity to have white partners would be a violation of their constitutional rights. Once we get this ball rolling, something will need to be done about sexual minorities. Some of the above logic should apply, as in quotas. Gender study programs in academe should be also encouraged. With queers, it is my understanding that all they want is the freedom to screw in front of St.Patrick's day and night, and I don't see why we should deny them this innocent pleasure. "Make Love Not Money" sounds good enough to me.
Now, with money. I have put together a list of donors<...>
(end of manuscript; the remaining pages missing)
>From the Editor:
We will not make a claim that this draft memo indeed became a basis for the surreptitious political initiatives undertaken by the GOP. We do not have Mr. Haldeman's or President Nixon's reaction. However, two things should be borne in mind: a) the events that subsequently became the basis for what is known as Watergate prove that Nixon's White House was the kind of place where anything could happen; b) twenty-seven years later, many of the measures proposed in the memo have become reality.