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Interview With Roland Martin
Aired October 03, 2003 - 14:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIF. GOV. CANDIDATE: I reach out to Californians -- to Californians, to everyone. To me every vote counts. And I want to make sure that everyone understands here in California, I want to be the governor that represents the people for change. And that means Latinos and everybody. Minorities, everyone I want to represent. If they're low income or high income, if they're millionaires or billionaires or if they're working in the fields. A governor's supposed to be there for everybody, not just for one category.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's talk about all those voters. An odd aside in the already turbulent California recall. And why Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante is having trouble drumming up African-American support. A major cultural divide between blacks and Hispanics is described in today's "Wall Street Journal."
According to pollster Sergio Bendixen, quote, "One of the dirty little secrets of American grassroots politics is African-American and Hispanic voters won't support each others candidates." Bendixen says that blacks see Hispanics as rivals for jobs and neighborhoods and Hispanics fear blacks.
Joining us from Dallas, Texas, Roland Martin, a syndicated columnist and author of "Speak Brother: A Black Man's View of America." His Web site is BlackAmericaToday.com.
And, Roland, I just want to make the point that of course we wanted to have Santiago Nieves, a journalist and former talk show host with us from Pacifica Net work, but unfortunately, he's stuck in traffic so the show must go on.
ROLAND MARTIN, AUTHOR: I understand.
PHILLIPS: OK, we'll try to get you two together next time.
First of all, I just want to hear, overall, your reaction to this pollster, Sergio Bendixen, what he had to say. And is there really this competition of blacks see Hispanics as rivals for jobs and neighborhood, Hispanics fear blacks. What's your take on that?
MARTIN: Well, absolutely. I've been covering -- this is one of the things I've covered for the last 12 to 13 years. And what you see is a fight as it relates to who is going to be the dominant minority group.
Right now, Hispanics as a whole outnumber African-Americans. This happened for the first time this year. But as it relates to politic, that's not necessarily the same. So this has been going on really on the grassroots level all across the country.
On the national level, you have leaders who are working side by side on issues they agree with. But it's a lot more personal on the local level. You have African-Americans, namely activist, who feel as if Hispanics did not put in the sweat, blood and tears for a lot of the rights that folks are taking advantage of today.
So then you have Hispanics who are saying that wait a minute, we fought the same fights, we have some of the same grievances. And because our numbers are now increasing, we have a right for a fair share in elected offices, in contracts and other forms of assistance across the country.
PHILLIPS: So you're saying there's sort of a historical, I guess, influence going on here. Blacks saying, Hey, look, we've gone through years of oppression. And Hispanics on the other side seeing the U.S. as land of opportunity...
MARTIN: Precisely.
PHILLIPS: ... but very hard work ethic?
MARTIN: There are two different points of view. For African- Americans, America has represented a land of opportunity and a land of oppression with slavery, Jim Crow and now what we see today with is simply a descendant of Jim Crow. Whereas Latinos/Hispanics see it as a land of opportunity.
But, Kyra, the other difference is this here: when you say fighting for the interest of African-Americans, you're largely talking about American-related issues for people of color, namely African- American.
When you're talking about Hispanics, what I call "slash Latino," the interest of that group, in Texas, is different from those in California. They are different from those in Chicago, they are different from those in New York, and they are different from those in Florida.
So you -- so one can't say, Why is there no Black-Latino coalition? There are coalitions, but they're in separate pockets around the country, it is not a national coalition.
PHILLIPS: Got you, very segregated. Well we pulled a number from Sergio's poll that he did. Take a look at this. The question was if the election were held today, for whom would you vote? Hispanic, 57 percent, said Cruz Bustamante, only 17 percent of the black said Cruz Bustamante.
Now, you know, talk -- you hear people say, OK, well of course, blacks and whites -- or blacks and Hispanics, they're going to unite, Asians will jump in because Cruz Bustamante, he's Hispanic, he's a minority. We got to have an alliance here because we've had the hard knocks and you know he'll understand.
But there doesn't seem to be an alliance here. It seems very segregated.
MARTIN: Well. first of all, what the poll does not reflect is are African-Americans focusing on keeping Gray Davis in office? Are they against the recall? Because you remember, the Cruz Bustamante question is the secondary question after do you support or are you against the recall? What I have seen is African-Americans are largely against the recall.
Secondly, I have talked to a number of journalists, a number of activists in California, and both Schwarzenegger and Bustamante have not made an effort to go after black voters. They have largely ignored them. Schwarzenegger talked about -- in the bite you played, I want represent all Californians. Yet members of the black press, radio talk show host, others have said he has not made an effort to talk to them and speak to those issues specifically.
PHILLIPS: Why is that, Roland? Why not go after the black vote?
MARTIN: Well because a lot of folks feel it's not important in this particular election. The emphasis has been placed on getting out your core base, getting out the Republican voters, getting out the Democratic voters.
In all the stories that we've seen since the recall has come about has been how important the Latino vote is going to be. So when you consider that to be the issue, that's what you see.
What you also see, Kyra, is here in Texas, last year, when you had Tony Sanchez running for governor of Texas, Ron Kirk running for United States Senate, you didn't see a groundswell of African- Americans campaigning on behalf of Sanchez because the Sanchez folks were depending upon Latino vote and didn't really aggressively go after the black vote.
So you had black and Hispanic candidates running together, yet you did not see a cohesive campaign effort on both of their behalf.
PHILLIPS: Interesting. All right, Roland Martin, it's always great to have your perspective. Thanks again for your time.
MARTIN: Thank you, Kyra.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 3, 2003 - 14:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIF. GOV. CANDIDATE: I reach out to Californians -- to Californians, to everyone. To me every vote counts. And I want to make sure that everyone understands here in California, I want to be the governor that represents the people for change. And that means Latinos and everybody. Minorities, everyone I want to represent. If they're low income or high income, if they're millionaires or billionaires or if they're working in the fields. A governor's supposed to be there for everybody, not just for one category.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's talk about all those voters. An odd aside in the already turbulent California recall. And why Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante is having trouble drumming up African-American support. A major cultural divide between blacks and Hispanics is described in today's "Wall Street Journal."
According to pollster Sergio Bendixen, quote, "One of the dirty little secrets of American grassroots politics is African-American and Hispanic voters won't support each others candidates." Bendixen says that blacks see Hispanics as rivals for jobs and neighborhoods and Hispanics fear blacks.
Joining us from Dallas, Texas, Roland Martin, a syndicated columnist and author of "Speak Brother: A Black Man's View of America." His Web site is BlackAmericaToday.com.
And, Roland, I just want to make the point that of course we wanted to have Santiago Nieves, a journalist and former talk show host with us from Pacifica Net work, but unfortunately, he's stuck in traffic so the show must go on.
ROLAND MARTIN, AUTHOR: I understand.
PHILLIPS: OK, we'll try to get you two together next time.
First of all, I just want to hear, overall, your reaction to this pollster, Sergio Bendixen, what he had to say. And is there really this competition of blacks see Hispanics as rivals for jobs and neighborhood, Hispanics fear blacks. What's your take on that?
MARTIN: Well, absolutely. I've been covering -- this is one of the things I've covered for the last 12 to 13 years. And what you see is a fight as it relates to who is going to be the dominant minority group.
Right now, Hispanics as a whole outnumber African-Americans. This happened for the first time this year. But as it relates to politic, that's not necessarily the same. So this has been going on really on the grassroots level all across the country.
On the national level, you have leaders who are working side by side on issues they agree with. But it's a lot more personal on the local level. You have African-Americans, namely activist, who feel as if Hispanics did not put in the sweat, blood and tears for a lot of the rights that folks are taking advantage of today.
So then you have Hispanics who are saying that wait a minute, we fought the same fights, we have some of the same grievances. And because our numbers are now increasing, we have a right for a fair share in elected offices, in contracts and other forms of assistance across the country.
PHILLIPS: So you're saying there's sort of a historical, I guess, influence going on here. Blacks saying, Hey, look, we've gone through years of oppression. And Hispanics on the other side seeing the U.S. as land of opportunity...
MARTIN: Precisely.
PHILLIPS: ... but very hard work ethic?
MARTIN: There are two different points of view. For African- Americans, America has represented a land of opportunity and a land of oppression with slavery, Jim Crow and now what we see today with is simply a descendant of Jim Crow. Whereas Latinos/Hispanics see it as a land of opportunity.
But, Kyra, the other difference is this here: when you say fighting for the interest of African-Americans, you're largely talking about American-related issues for people of color, namely African- American.
When you're talking about Hispanics, what I call "slash Latino," the interest of that group, in Texas, is different from those in California. They are different from those in Chicago, they are different from those in New York, and they are different from those in Florida.
So you -- so one can't say, Why is there no Black-Latino coalition? There are coalitions, but they're in separate pockets around the country, it is not a national coalition.
PHILLIPS: Got you, very segregated. Well we pulled a number from Sergio's poll that he did. Take a look at this. The question was if the election were held today, for whom would you vote? Hispanic, 57 percent, said Cruz Bustamante, only 17 percent of the black said Cruz Bustamante.
Now, you know, talk -- you hear people say, OK, well of course, blacks and whites -- or blacks and Hispanics, they're going to unite, Asians will jump in because Cruz Bustamante, he's Hispanic, he's a minority. We got to have an alliance here because we've had the hard knocks and you know he'll understand.
But there doesn't seem to be an alliance here. It seems very segregated.
MARTIN: Well. first of all, what the poll does not reflect is are African-Americans focusing on keeping Gray Davis in office? Are they against the recall? Because you remember, the Cruz Bustamante question is the secondary question after do you support or are you against the recall? What I have seen is African-Americans are largely against the recall.
Secondly, I have talked to a number of journalists, a number of activists in California, and both Schwarzenegger and Bustamante have not made an effort to go after black voters. They have largely ignored them. Schwarzenegger talked about -- in the bite you played, I want represent all Californians. Yet members of the black press, radio talk show host, others have said he has not made an effort to talk to them and speak to those issues specifically.
PHILLIPS: Why is that, Roland? Why not go after the black vote?
MARTIN: Well because a lot of folks feel it's not important in this particular election. The emphasis has been placed on getting out your core base, getting out the Republican voters, getting out the Democratic voters.
In all the stories that we've seen since the recall has come about has been how important the Latino vote is going to be. So when you consider that to be the issue, that's what you see.
What you also see, Kyra, is here in Texas, last year, when you had Tony Sanchez running for governor of Texas, Ron Kirk running for United States Senate, you didn't see a groundswell of African- Americans campaigning on behalf of Sanchez because the Sanchez folks were depending upon Latino vote and didn't really aggressively go after the black vote.
So you had black and Hispanic candidates running together, yet you did not see a cohesive campaign effort on both of their behalf.
PHILLIPS: Interesting. All right, Roland Martin, it's always great to have your perspective. Thanks again for your time.
MARTIN: Thank you, Kyra.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
