As president, Obama vows to address rights

President Obama proposes an aggressive civil rights agenda on his Web site, whitehouse.gov.

Obama pledges to end sex- and race-based pay disparities, push through the fair pay and employment nondiscrimination acts, harshly penalize voter fraud, dump race-tinged drug-sentencing disparities, and outlaw racial profiling at the federal level while providing financial incentives to local and state police to ban the practice. The president also promises to markedly expand hate-crime prosecutions.

None of these things is really new. Obama pledged swift action on these issues on his campaign Web site. Yet they were virtually nonexistent as campaign talking points.

Candidate Obama's reluctance to talk much about his civil rights agenda was a calculated political move. Such talk has been taboo in all recent presidential races, seeping into debates only when a candidate snatches the issue to race-bait opponents or assure middle-class voters that he will not tilt toward or pander to minorities.

In 1988, George H.W. Bush slammed Michael Dukakis as being soft on crime for allegedly letting black convict Willie Horton roam free to commit rape and murder. Bill Clinton used Jesse Jackson as a foil to assure middle-class voters that he would fight just as hard as conservative Republicans to protect their interests. In one 2000 debate, George W. Bush and Al Gore clashed over affirmative action, but both distanced themselves from the issue.

Obama knew that talk of civil rights invariably translates to talk of race, a minefield that could blow up at any time and mortally wound his candidacy. A good example was the endless TV sound loop of inflammatory tirades by Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, during the primary battle with Hillary Rodham Clinton. Obama's campaign was initially shell-shocked but recovered. However, the flap guaranteed that race would not be uttered for the rest of the campaign.

Candidate Obama had to observe the rules of political expediency to win the White House, but President Obama's political capital account is bulging. His public approval is sky high, and he has the bully pulpit. Not only can he talk about civil rights without risk of backlash, but he can act as well.

And the need for action is greater than ever. In its recent annual State of Black America reports, the National Urban League repeatedly warned that blacks are less likely to own their own homes, earn as much income as whites, and receive quality health care. They are more likely to die earlier, to be jailed disproportionately and to receive longer sentences. They attend failing public schools and are more likely the victims of racially motivated hate crimes than any other group.

The reports also found gaping economic disparities between Latinos and whites. In the past decade, the income and education performance gaps among blacks and Latinos and whites have only marginally closed or actually widened. Discrimination remains the major cause of the disparities.

Shunting civil rights to the back burner of presidential campaigns almost always meant that presidents could shunt them to the back burner of their legislative agenda. Yet presidents found they could not tap-dance around racial problems.

Ronald Reagan's administration was embroiled in affirmative action battles. George H.W. Bush was tormented by the Los Angeles riot after the beating of black motorist Rodney King. Bill Clinton was saddled with conflicts over affirmative action, police violence and racial profiling. George W. Bush was confronted by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, voting rights, reparations and affirmative action battles, gang violence, and failing inner-city public schools.

By ignoring or downplaying these issues until they burst into flashpoints of national debate and conflict, presidents have been ill-prepared to craft meaningful legislation and programs to deal with them.

Obama is way ahead of the policy curve. He's already spelled out what needs to be done on civil rights and why it must be done. While he will be watched intently to see how he deals with crises from the Iraq war to the economy, racial disparities and poverty are no less compelling.

President Obama, it's now safe to talk about civil rights.