A. C. Cordoza, a black Republican in the Virginia House of Delegates, is excluded from the legislature’s Black Caucus.
If you’re not a liberal, you need not apply.
V irginia Democrats are certainly taking their defeat last November hard. Last week, they spitefully refused the application of the lone black Republican in the House of Delegates to join the Black Caucus — which in theory is open to non-Democrats.
A. C. Cordoza, who won a surprise election last November in a significantly minority district in Hampton, took to the House floor to say he had been excluded because he dared to have “diverse” ideas. “The questions for entry had little to do with being black and had more to do with being leftist,” said Cordoza. He said the questionnaire asked about his three top environmental-justice priorities, whether he favored charter schools, whether he would limit recalls of election officials to “end harassment,” and whether he would repeal laws limiting suits against police officers. He was also asked if he backed pro-union legislation, abortion rights, mask mandates, and gun control.
“These questions . . . spit in the face of our ancestors who fought to have all of our rights guaranteed,” Cordoza said. “I asked myself what any of those things mentioned have to do with being black. The answer is it has nothing to do with being black. . . . The caucus is not about being black, it’s about being leftist.”
"It's important to have different Black voices at the table to address challenges in our community. In this nation's history, Civil Rights leaders always understood this.
I'm disappointed that the @VaBlackCaucus does not embrace true diversity."
— Delegate AC Cordoza (@AcCordoza) February 4, 2022
Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears, a Republican, a Jamaican immigrant, and the first woman of color elected statewide in Virginia, ridiculed the rejection, saying that maybe a new “You’re Not Black Enough Caucus” was needed. Sears was a member of the Black Caucus from 2002 to 2004, when she was a House delegate. She recalls that she was made to feel quite unwelcome. “Twenty years later, nothing has changed,” she told the Washington Post. “It is better for them to call themselves the Democratic Caucus. . . . . It’s healthy for us to have these discussions. White people don’t all think alike. Neither do Asians. Neither do Hispanics. Same here.”
L. Louise Lucas, a black woman from Portsmouth, the Virginia Senate’s president pro tempore, proved Sears’s point by questioning why Cordoza even bothered applying. “We seem to have nothing in common,” she said. “Why would you want to be a part of a group where you know there’s going to be controversy?”
Controversies about black Republicans being rejected or ridiculed for trying to associate with black caucuses are nothing new.
Gary Franks became the first black elected to the U.S. House from New England in 1990. A Republican, he was allowed to join the Congressional Black Caucus but was asked to leave some meetings and was excluded from others. Then Representative Bill Clay Sr., a veteran of the caucus, in 1996 issued a six-page letter that referred to “Franks’ foot-shuffling, head-scratching ‘Amos and Andy’ brand of ‘Uncle Tom-ism.’” Franks responded in measured terms: “Obviously Bill Clay is not a supporter of mine, but I wish him Godspeed.” Franks served in Congress until he was defeated in the 1996 Democratic landslide that reelected Bill Clinton.
J. C. Watts took a different course when he as elected as a black Republican from Oklahoma in 1994. He declined to join the Congressional Black Caucus — perhaps because of Franks’s experience — but found ways to work with its members. Although he debated the fairness of affirmative-action programs with the likes of Jesse Jackson, he felt that Republicans couldn’t dismantle some preference programs until they first took steps to revitalize inner cities and reach out to minorities.
Watts eventually left Congress in 2002 to go into private business. In 2020, he founded the Black News Network to provide a platform for news that isn’t adequately covered by other cable channels.
In an interview at the time, Watts told me that he sees hope that black thinkers who dissent from liberal orthodoxy are getting their message out and that he sees a more pro-entrepreneurial spirit among young African Americans. As in everything, some government institutions are lagging indicators. Asked about his experience with the Congressional Black Caucus, Watts laughed and said, “That was a long time ago, but I’m not surprised that change in Washington often happens more slowly than almost anywhere else.”
Last week, A. C. Cordoza discovered that goes for the level of tolerance that old-style liberal blacks in government have for those with different views.