COMMENTARY
Rod Watson: Forget race when talking of competence
Rod Watson
Updated: 05/01/08 8:02 AM
Too bad Barack Obama never campaigned in Buffalo. It wouldn’t have taken him nearly as long to disabuse himself of any notion we’re in a “post-racial” era.
We’re not even close, as evidenced by developer Carl Paladino’s assertion that Buffalo’s embattled school superintendent was selected “because he was black.”
The Common Council — in a 5-4 vote whose closeness also speaks volumes — has condemned Paladino’s comment. I, on the other hand, am glad he said it.
Better to have such influential community leaders reveal their feelings so we know how to judge their actions rather than be fooled by their silence.
Was James A. Williams’ race one factor for some search committee members and School Board members when he was hired in 2005?
I wouldn’t doubt it in a district that’s three-quarters minority. It’s “pretty logical” that this might be one consideration in who can best relate to students’ struggles and who might have special insights in trying to educate them, said former board and search committee member Jack Coyle. It becomes just one factor among many.
Was it the factor?
“Absolutely not,” Coyle said. Williams came with a host of qualifications, not the least of which was an outsider’s inclination to shake things up.
At the same time, there are plenty of grounds to criticize Williams, from the McKinley High School mess to the School 67 fiasco.
The point is: None of that has anything to do with color. Injecting race into the discussion says more about Paladino than about Williams.
This is a businessman who, after all, has a history of opposing black leaders. He helped bankroll Griffin gang ally Stan Buczkowski when he ran against Jim Pitts for Council president. He helped finance Andrew SanFilippo’s campaign for comptroller against Pitts.
He helped fund the campaign to downsize the Council, eliminating four at-large seats — three of them held by blacks — in a campaign that divided the city along racial lines.
And he was a main money man for Kevin Helfer, who ran the racist “wrong crowd” ad in his mayoral campaign against Byron Brown.
When it comes to politics, you won’t hear Paladino claiming, “Some of my best friends are black.”
The developer bristles at such characterizations.
“I’m not racist,” he says, adding that he has backed black candidates, that the downsizing had nothing to do with race, and that he castigated Williams at a recent public forum because he cares about inner-city kids.
“What I’m doing here is good for the inner city. Their leaders are not doing well by them,” Paladino said.
“The board wanted a black,” he insisted, while refusing to say which search committee members told him that. “Why didn’t they go get a qualified black man?”
Now that we know where Paladino is coming from, it’s tempting to tell him where to go. But my only disappointment is that he hasn’t brought up race before.
For instance, when he was taking on the Thruway Authority over local tolls, I don’t remember him saying the agency’s incompetence had anything to do with the fact that white men run it.
And considering our anemic economy, I’m waiting to hear Paladino say incompetent economic-development officials got their jobs only because they’re white.
Ditto for those who have been trying to build a new Peace Bridge.
If he’s going to single out leaders and cite race, my only request is that we open up the discussion. We’d have a lot to talk about.
