Bush Places Flunkey at head of Civil Rights Commission

• Described Affirmative Action as a "big lie"
  

It is not that the new chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights doubts racial discrimination still exists, as his detractors have charged, it is that he is not quick to see it. He is not sure he has personally experienced it. "I just assume somewhere in my life some knucklehead has looked at me and my brown self and said that they have given me less or denied me an opportunity," said the chairman, Gerald A. Reynolds, 41, an African-American lawyer. "But the bottom line is, and my wife will attest to this, I am so insensitive that I probably didn't notice." It is an outlook that could not be more different from that of his predecessor, Mary Frances Berry, whom President Bush declined to reappoint. Instead the president chose Mr. Reynolds, a fellow conservative who once described affirmative action as a "big lie," as chairman of the 47-year-old advisory panel with a storied history of pushing the government to combat discrimination. Ms. Berry, 66, made a reputation in her 25 years on the commission for haranguing presidents for not doing enough to recognize what she considered the persistent vestiges of discrimination. She fired off a 166-page report last week as a parting shot that criticized the Bush administration for fomenting a divided nation.  [more]

• Unqualified. Before being named to the civil rights post, Reynolds worked as senior regulatory counsel for Kansas City Power & Light Co. Earlier, he was president of the Center for New Black Leadership, a conservative think tank based in Washington. Reynolds also worked as a legal analyst for the Center for Equal Opportunity, a public interest law firm that has initiated a series of lawsuits across the country challenging race-based affirmative action programs. The Washington Post September 16, 2002
  
• Moronic. "Many of the problems devastating low income black communities are the result of a spiritual decay. We need to redefine the phrase "affirmative action" so that its focus becomes community-based programs whose primary aims are to replace self-defeating values with essential success values and to promote economic development of urban communities." Knight Ridder/Tribune June 19, 1997 
  
• The Center for New Black Leadership beleives that "Minimum wage increases, while not designed to be racist, simply are." [more]
• "Affirmative action is the big lie. It is a corrupt system of preferences, set-asides and quotas, a concept invented by regulators and reinvented by political interest groups seeking money and power."[more]
  
• Frankly it sounds as if Reynolds is speaking of lobbyists or perhaps the employees of the Enron Corp. In any case, if he is required to enforce laws he calls "the big lie" how vigorously is he likely to be in his duties? Julianne Malveaux. Black Issues in Higher Education April 25, 2002

• New civil rights head's insensitivity on race is breathtaking [more]
• Civil Rights Coalition Laments Departure of Berry, Reynoso from U.S. Commission on Civil Rights [more]