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In Civil Rights Division, Employees Claim Discrimination
On her last day in the Civil Rights Division's voting rights section, an African-American 33-year veteran of the Justice Department wanted to send her colleagues a message: "I leave with fond memories of the Voting Section I once knew," she wrote, "and I am gladly escaping the 'Plantation' it has become. For my colleagues still under the 'whip', hold on - 'The Times They are A Changing.'"
The woman, who retired in late December of last year, was not alone in seeing racial discrimination in the Civil Rights Division and the voting rights section in particular. The section, which is charged with protecting the voting rights of minorities, has seen a dramatic drain in African-American staff over the past few years. And a number of those who have remained have alleged discrimination -- according to a knowledgable source, at least two African-American employees have filed Equal Employment Opportunity complaints against their supervisors, claiming they've routinely been passed over for promotions given to white staff.
Carl Goldman, executive director of AFSCME's Council 26, the union that represents non-attorney staff in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, told me that he frequently hears similar complaints:
“When I ask our members in the Civil Rights Division what’s their biggest problem, their answer is discrimination.... They tell me stories about minority employees being continually passed over for jobs that are given to white employees. They talk about disrespect from managers. They talk about explicitly racist comments that are made by attorneys, the same attorneys that have been brought in by the Republican political appointees that run [the Justice Department].
"While there are serious problems throughout the Civil Rights Division," Goldman said, "the worst offender is the voting section.”
Over the past two years, there's been a continual drain of African-American attorneys from the section. Six African-American attorneys have left; there are currently only two out of a total of approximately thirty-five, estimates Joe Rich, the former chief of the voting section.
An analysis by ABC's Washington, D.C. affiliate last week showed that the criminal section of the Civil Rights Division had a similarly bleak record: Out of fifty attorneys in the criminal section, they found, only two are African-American. Not a single African-American attorney had been hired since 2003.
In response to this story, Justice Department spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson said that she could not respond to specific personnel allegations or Equal Employment Opportunity complaints, but pointed to the administration's record of promoting minorities to management positions, saying that "during its first six years, this Administration has promoted as many minorities to section management positions in the Civil Rights Division as the previous administration did in 8 years."
"It is ironic and, frankly, sad, that in the very division of the Justice Department dedicated to protecting the Civil Rights of all Americans, there are deeply troubling allegations of racial discrimination," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).
Nadler chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties and has already held one hearing on the politicization of the Civil Rights Division. He added, "it is clear that we must continue to hold the division accountable through proper oversight hearings and investigations to prevent the further politicization of this department. As Chairman..., that is what I intend to do."
Comments (36)
Arkansan wrote on May 14, 2007 12:47 PM:Why isn’t the meme, “IMPEACH GONZALES NOW”?
These hearings are meaningless without action; the only action available to congress is impeachment. It is true that the Republicans will oppose it, who cares? The Democrats should do it because it is right and necessary. If they aren’t willing to take that step then they should stop torturing those paying attention with more hearings to nowhere, there is a limit to what we can know they got away with.
Northern Observer wrote on May 14, 2007 12:51 PM:It only makes sense that the nastiest true republican believers would be posted to the voting section. You need people who are able to rationalize wrongdoing and personal cruelty for the 'greater good'. After all, republicans are in touch with absolute truth as revealed by Pat Robertson, er ... I mean Jesus Chirst our saviour.
You can't have a republic with people like this.
tbhull wrote on May 14, 2007 1:11 PM:Regent U is nothing more than a four year organized KKK meeting and the degrees they hand out are nothing more than a white hood. Hopefully these good sickening as fuck cracker spawn christian soldiers will continue on with their march right off a cliff.
JT wrote on May 14, 2007 1:14 PM:"[D]uring its first six years, this Administration has promoted as many minorities to section management positions in the Civil Rights Division as the previous administration did in 8 years."
Given this administration's tendentious way of parsing words, what exactly is meant here by "minorities"? Monica Goodling, for example, is a white woman: would they counting her as a "minority"?
Also, why the narrowly-tailored reference to "promoted... to section management positions in the Civil Rights Division"? Are all the other personnel statistics except that precise one damning? And how many promotions to section management positions in the Civil Rights Division occurred in each of the two administrations? Is this a case of two for Clinton and three for Bush or something like that?
Mark Passell wrote on May 14, 2007 1:26 PM:Ahhh.. the "cracker spawn" reference leads to the Church of Bill Hicks ! KKKarl Rove is the mastermind, Gonzo is merely the figurehead trained to shut up and stay out of the way...
Leta wrote on May 14, 2007 1:27 PM:this is Bradley J. Scholzman's department - he structured it this way...and left in March of '06 to Missouri (a targeted state) to do his magic and Monica continued to do her "targeted hiring".
Some smart legal beagle firm needs to round up the offended in the Voting Rights division and file a class action suit...collusion, conspirousy(sic)...etc - if our pathetic Congresscritters won't take action...(impeachment - firings) - let the civil courts ruin the bastards. I guess I missed the mass casteration (say a few) of the democratic Congress.
P J Evans wrote on May 14, 2007 1:32 PM:JT @ 1:14
I think you're right and they're playing word-and-number games with this. (They said they promoted as many minorities: 'tell us how y'all are defining minority, and then tell us how many others left for whatever reason during the same period.')
Charlie wrote on May 14, 2007 1:47 PM:Here's what chaps my ass...I'm a CEO, and I assure you if I went to the board and told them I don't recall 72 times...mistakes were made...the door would hit my ass so hard I'd be thrown accross the hall.
Gonzales is the CEO of the DOJ - Congress it the board - how much more do they have to hear that Gonzles is incompentent that he couldn't manage the men's room at the bus station...before they fire the son of bitch. Bush isn't gonna do it...incompetence is good...it's Congress job to throw Gonzales out...Jesus H. Christ does anybody but me not find the idea of a total imcompentent lap dog is sitting on the most powerful department in our government...the justice system? Everyday that Gonzales stays...is a good day for any current case in the Justice system and any new cases in the Justice system. The DOJ has the same stale taste in your mouth as when you hear "FEMA" is on the job.
bobh wrote on May 14, 2007 1:48 PM:By definition a white woman is a minority. Because she is white you want her counted as a white man? So is an asian woman. i recall seeing a lot of republican asians and white females of late, all throughout the administration.
crispus wrote on May 14, 2007 1:59 PM:Hey Charlie, he's doing what he was appointed to do. Not something so benign as nothing at all, but to use the DOJ to perpetuate administration power. He hasn't forgotten anything. He's plainly lying. He knows exactly how those AUSAs got on that list. He knows what's in the RNC emails that were "lost" and he is getting administration support in spite of his ridiculous performance because he knows too much. I'm an attorney, I have seen lots of witnesses and with this many contemporaneous documents he would have to be developmentally disabled to remember so little.
mbbsdphil wrote on May 14, 2007 2:06 PM:Have no doubt. This is a surreptitious revolution. No need to "kill all the lawyers", in Shakespeare's words, if you hire only the Right ones.
Mr. Bush demonstrated that his first month in office via his judicial nominations. But DOJ hiring wasn't in the public's eye until Josh pointed out that the reason the public couldn't see the problem is because of that big splinter George Bush had jammed into its eye.
"Reliable" judges are only needed when cases get to them. Prosecutors determine what cases get investigated, which ones get leaked, and which ones prosecuted. Putting in place the Right prosecutors is even more important than nominating the Right judges.
But before Karl, it was considered acceptable to hire lawyers based on their politics only at the top. The notion of a blind and impartial Justice, always an imperfectly achieved aspiration, was very strong.
But as we know, the only unacceptable dirty trick to Karl Rove is the one he hasn't thought of yet. So Karl went about it indirectly, via Monica and her clones - and her clones - throughout the federal govt. He maintained a tight leash, but through screens: the memo delegating "actual" authority from 'Fredo to Monica, using subordinates, hiring a Regent staffer to oversee all federal hiring, ad nauseum. Who knew.
Karl thinks he has hoisted Democrats on their own petards, because many of the hires made by the Monicas were career civil servants with civil service protection. The same protections Bush has stripped from over a hundred thousand federal employees, his minders are using to perpetuate their politicization of Justice and other departments.
Congress and the new Democratic administration should use that as an opportunity to remake the federal civil service. Not by using Karl's tactics; that would be easier, but it would legitimize and perpetuate them. It should remake the civil service in the public's image.
Institute public reforms, reinstate civil service protections (where lost to Cheney's purge), adopt peer reviews and other techniques that have worked elsewhere. Make the process more transparent. Little succeeds better than peer pressure spiced with a large dollop of real information and accountable standards.
jeffgee wrote on May 14, 2007 2:21 PM:Pappy Bush campaigned against the Voting Rights Act in Texas in 1964. Suppression of minority voting: A Bush family tradition. Now Junior gets Karl to do it for him by any means possible while he brags about how many minorities are in his cabinet.
Anonymous wrote on May 14, 2007 2:27 PM:"Minorities" in Magnuson's story are NOT the same thing as African-Americans. Remember Bush's failed push to attempt to get Latino voters to vote Republican?
bjobotts wrote on May 14, 2007 2:35 PM:I know these committees and this congress is trying to be deliberative in considering all the evidence but I would really like to know that since they've already convinced there has been wrongdoing in the hiring and firing practices at DoJ are these committees planning on doing anything about it and if so how and when. Besides being hit in the head with overwhelming number of complaints, perjury and corrupt practices when , at what point do they make those involved accountable? Does anyone have an estimate. How do you practically and legally go about undoing everything that has been done over the past 6yrs?
tbhull wrote on May 14, 2007 2:53 PM:Posted by: Mark Passell
Date: May 14, 2007 01:26 PM
An unquestionable homage to the late great Mr. Hicks, a well-respected man where I live down in Austin.
H8Generation wrote on May 14, 2007 2:55 PM:Unless it can be proven the "most qualified" was passed over for political favor whats the problem? If it can be proven whats the holdup?
Steve5117 wrote on May 14, 2007 3:02 PM:Other than that the question is, "Would you like some cheese with that whine?"
*polish* up your act there fellows.
H8Generation, go away troll
If objective measures are used instead of the subjuctive; not a republican, worked for a Dem in college, Jewish....
regular lurker wrote on May 14, 2007 3:05 PM:ePluribus Media had a couple pieces related to this recently: "Dismantling Voting Rights Enforcement" and "Resurrecting Jim Crow: The Erratic Resume of the Voting Section Chief"
click linkie.
phil james wrote on May 14, 2007 3:09 PM:The elements of the new and improved Southern strategy are being revealed now that the Democrats have gotten their nose under the Administration's tent. Seems the Confederates are now out of the attic and working full time for Karl Rove. His mission? Cancel out the black vote in any way he can because blacks vote for Democrats. Don't even try to get them to vote Republican because that would not sit well with the white supremacist bastards that currently own the Republican Party. Next Karl is planning to get the U.S. capital moved to where he believes it should have been all along...Richmond.
TheraP wrote on May 14, 2007 3:09 PM:Beautiful analysis, mbbsdphil @ 2:06! Beautiful!
JT wrote on May 14, 2007 4:32 PM:bobh: "By definition a white woman is a minority. Because she is white you want her counted as a white man?"
No, nor do I want to discount the importance of gender diversity as well as racial/ethnic diversity.
But when the complaint is that African-Americans are being squeezed from the division and the Bushie response is that they have promoted "minorities," I think it would make a difference as to the relevance of that response if it turned out that the "minorities" who got promoted were all white women.
Herb wrote on May 14, 2007 5:09 PM:The negroes have been votin' -- that's a problem... Right?
Austin Cooper wrote on May 14, 2007 5:24 PM:I'm kidding, of course. I hope they didn't accidentally scrub Armstrong from the rolls.
You can fool some..., Herb.
I have a real, uneasy feeling that the Federal bureaucracy -- like some local school board -- has been packed with these dedicated little Republican evangelical robots.
I still believe in laws around discrimination and fair practice in hiring, and firing -- but what do we do with these 'sleeper' cells?
Anthony wrote on May 14, 2007 5:35 PM:And the South will Rise Again ...
H8Generation wrote on May 14, 2007 5:46 PM:Gosh Steve5117 the truth really stings you eh? Wait, you'd rather complain. Ok, I get it. Well then, the *wind* is always at your back.
Anonymous wrote on May 14, 2007 6:11 PM:"we must continue to hold the division accountable through proper oversight hearings" = Beatings will cotinue until morale improves.
SC: "butter," as in, "Have some butter, you'll like it, comarade."
psyberdawg wrote on May 14, 2007 8:08 PM:Great troll name, H8Generation. One the most honest I've seen.
GaPeach103 wrote on May 14, 2007 8:09 PM:For an indepth analysis by Wade Henderson, check out
http://www.civilrights.org/library/advocacy-letters/testimony/oral-testimony-of-wade.html.
What Bush and Rove have done with the Civil Rights Division is sickening, especially in light of the fact that the act was passed with blood and suffering of patriotic Americans.
UnEasyOne wrote on May 14, 2007 9:18 PM:As cynical as I am about our political process (particularly as practiced by Republicans) I must confess that I never dreamed that "permanent Republican majority" would involve not only a systematic scrubbing of progressive persons from every branch of government (including Defense - I'm really worried about what we're gonna find there) but also a systematic effort to criminalize the act of being an elected Democrat and permantently immunize corruption in the Republican party. Combine this with non-enforcement of voting rights, outright voter suppression and "magic box" voting and our Republic has never been in more danger.
Many of us remain unconvinced that attempts to suspend the 08 elections on some pretext aren't already underway - we should all prepare for that possibility.
"These are the times that try men's souls."
Goldspinner wrote on May 14, 2007 9:22 PM:Herb,
The word "negro" spelled with a small "n" has been considered extremely perjorative by most African-Americans since Reconstuction.
tbhull wrote on May 14, 2007 9:36 PM:Posted by: Goldspinner
Date: May 14, 2007 09:22 PM
While many find it offensive, many will always use it, with and/or without malice.
Anonymous wrote on May 14, 2007 10:22 PM:Rumor has it that the author of the email quoted in the first paragraph will be featured on All Things Considered tomorrow.
This story is going big time.
Goldspinner wrote on May 15, 2007 12:50 AM:Say WHAT? With all due respect, tbhull, most black folks that I know (myself included) haven't been "large N" Negroes since 1966. We NEVER considered ourselves "negroes" either. The use of the term without capitalization has been considered a racist insult for over 150 years. Ignorance is no excuse.
Dr. Wu wrote on May 15, 2007 11:08 AM:"Unless it can be proven the "most qualified" was passed over for political favor whats the problem?"
Dude, it's being proven over and over. Brownie as FEMA directory. Harriet Myers for Supreme Court (which fortunately didn't happen). The Iraq CPA made up of twentysomething neocon wannabes whose primary concern was whether Iraqis were having abortions. The DOJ packed with bottom-tier law schoolers like Monica "Jesus Camp" Goodling.
The Bush Administration, as Tom Lehrer would say, clearly does not discriminate on the basis of ability. It's bad that religious and political affiliation appear to be a factor in hiring what should be nonpartisan positions; it's treasonable that they appear to be the _only_ factors when it comes to working in this administration.
Anonymous wrote on May 16, 2007 7:27 AM:"Why isn’t the meme, “IMPEACH GONZALES NOW”?
"These hearings are meaningless without action; the only action available to congress is impeachment. It is true that the Republicans will oppose it, who cares? The Democrats should do it because it is right and necessary. If they aren’t willing to take that step then they should stop torturing those paying attention with more hearings to nowhere, there is a limit to what we can know they got away with.
"Posted by: Arkansan
Date: May 14, 2007 12:47 PM"
It is essential that impeachment be conducted in conformance with due process. That means one first investigates, and gathers evidence. We leave lynching-without-evidence-or-trial to the Bush gang.
The latest testimony from Comey raises the stakes evn further against Bush, et al. More and more we are seeing what Gonazles is.
Denise wrote on May 20, 2007 9:44 AM:Make no mistake; privilege and opportunism did not evolve in the Civil Rights Division during the Bush administration.
It has ALWAYS been an integral part of the organization's culture.