Call it some positive press – the Arizona Republic newspaper reported Monday that President Barack Obama has set a re
cord for the number of Latinos appointed to federal government positions in his first year.
The newspaper indicates that 43 Latinos have federal jobs that required Senate confirmation. Most prominent among those are Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, along with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
BY COMPARISON, THEY note that George W. Bush only had 34 Latinos among his appointees in his first year of office, and Bill Clinton only had 30.
So somebody is bound to use this type of material to try to spin the concept that Obama is a favorable president for Latino interests (although I don’t think anyone will be goofy enough to try to call him the first Latino president the same way some people try to claim such status for Clinton as the first African-American president).
Personally, I don’t get too worked up over this.
While I am very interested in the concept of increased political empowerment for the growing Latino population, I don’t think it appropriate for the idea of Latinos getting these positions to be considered some sort of favor.
IF ANYTHING, HAVING the best qualified workforce for the federal government is just naturally going to produce such appointees. It is when the government workforce starts to look too Anglo (which is the desire of some in our society) that we ought to start worrying about incompetents being put in place for political reasons.
The bottom line, as far as I’m concerned, is the statistic of 14 percent. That is the percentage of people appointed to federal positions by Obama who are Latino.
Considering that the overall Latino population of this country is 15 percent (and growing, despite the dreams of some that the economic struggles of late will cause many of us to “go home”), this seems somehow right.
If anything, the problem ought to be another statistic – 8 percent. That is the percentage of federal government employees overall who are Latino. Which means we now have a situation where the percentage of Latino supervisors, so to speak, will be higher than the working stiffs.
BUT THAT OUGHT to be seen as reason to figure out what is holding back the number of staff-level positions among Latinos, compared to their supervisory positions.
It could very well be a situation where once a significant number of Latinos get into positions of authority, they will start to turn to the places that help develop them to find other people to work under them.
Which means this will be a problem that goes away with time.
And as for those who have a problem with the idea of new sources being sought out in terms of finding talent and potential for federal positions, I’d argue they are the problem more than anything else.
IT WOULD SEEM they’re more interested in propagating a system that was designed to keep certain people out of the loop for these kinds of jobs. Obama’s actions could be the step to undoing that damage.
In short, my take on this situation is that I’m not going to go out of my way to praise Obama for hiring so many Latinos, because it really is the right thing to do. If anything, we ought to be wondering why other recent presidents did not do more in that area.
It also is part of my take on the whole concept of immigration reform, where many Democratic Party officials are afraid of ticking off the nativist element that can behave like a bee’s nest when provoked.
Ultimately, that element of our society will have to be challenged, and that is going to happen when Latinos show that they have enough political influence to affect the outcome of elections.
WHEN WE START showing political people that siding with the nativists (or refusing to challenge them) can be even more damaging to their electoral futures than appearing to be too sympathetic to Latinos, that is when we will get serious change for the better.
And as far as I’m concerned, the increase in the number of Latino appointees is merely evidence that our society is headed in that direction. In one sense, it’s the very least he could do.
These are people who could make Obama’s political life rather unpleasant if he really lets his advisers who would rather do nothing influence him too much. Because ultimately, political empowerment isn’t about having people give us political positions and jobs.
It’s about the people who hold those positions using them to influence public policy on behalf of the people.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTE: Some people are willing to lavish great praise on Barack Obama for (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/08/31/20090831hispanics0831.html) the number of Latinos who now hold fairly high-ranking positions within federal government.
cord for the number of Latinos appointed to federal government positions in his first year.The newspaper indicates that 43 Latinos have federal jobs that required Senate confirmation. Most prominent among those are Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, along with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
BY COMPARISON, THEY note that George W. Bush only had 34 Latinos among his appointees in his first year of office, and Bill Clinton only had 30.
So somebody is bound to use this type of material to try to spin the concept that Obama is a favorable president for Latino interests (although I don’t think anyone will be goofy enough to try to call him the first Latino president the same way some people try to claim such status for Clinton as the first African-American president).
Personally, I don’t get too worked up over this.
While I am very interested in the concept of increased political empowerment for the growing Latino population, I don’t think it appropriate for the idea of Latinos getting these positions to be considered some sort of favor.
IF ANYTHING, HAVING the best qualified workforce for the federal government is just naturally going to produce such appointees. It is when the government workforce starts to look too Anglo (which is the desire of some in our society) that we ought to start worrying about incompetents being put in place for political reasons.
The bottom line, as far as I’m concerned, is the statistic of 14 percent. That is the percentage of people appointed to federal positions by Obama who are Latino.
Considering that the overall Latino population of this country is 15 percent (and growing, despite the dreams of some that the economic struggles of late will cause many of us to “go home”), this seems somehow right.
If anything, the problem ought to be another statistic – 8 percent. That is the percentage of federal government employees overall who are Latino. Which means we now have a situation where the percentage of Latino supervisors, so to speak, will be higher than the working stiffs.
BUT THAT OUGHT to be seen as reason to figure out what is holding back the number of staff-level positions among Latinos, compared to their supervisory positions.
It could very well be a situation where once a significant number of Latinos get into positions of authority, they will start to turn to the places that help develop them to find other people to work under them.
Which means this will be a problem that goes away with time.
And as for those who have a problem with the idea of new sources being sought out in terms of finding talent and potential for federal positions, I’d argue they are the problem more than anything else.
IT WOULD SEEM they’re more interested in propagating a system that was designed to keep certain people out of the loop for these kinds of jobs. Obama’s actions could be the step to undoing that damage.
In short, my take on this situation is that I’m not going to go out of my way to praise Obama for hiring so many Latinos, because it really is the right thing to do. If anything, we ought to be wondering why other recent presidents did not do more in that area.
It also is part of my take on the whole concept of immigration reform, where many Democratic Party officials are afraid of ticking off the nativist element that can behave like a bee’s nest when provoked.
Ultimately, that element of our society will have to be challenged, and that is going to happen when Latinos show that they have enough political influence to affect the outcome of elections.
WHEN WE START showing political people that siding with the nativists (or refusing to challenge them) can be even more damaging to their electoral futures than appearing to be too sympathetic to Latinos, that is when we will get serious change for the better.
And as far as I’m concerned, the increase in the number of Latino appointees is merely evidence that our society is headed in that direction. In one sense, it’s the very least he could do.
These are people who could make Obama’s political life rather unpleasant if he really lets his advisers who would rather do nothing influence him too much. Because ultimately, political empowerment isn’t about having people give us political positions and jobs.
It’s about the people who hold those positions using them to influence public policy on behalf of the people.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTE: Some people are willing to lavish great praise on Barack Obama for (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/08/31/20090831hispanics0831.html) the number of Latinos who now hold fairly high-ranking positions within federal government.
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