Reagan And Race: Equal Opportunity Insensitivity

"The Man," indeed...He shot to the top of his party by pitching to white racists.

In his two White House terms, there were the anti-civil rights words, actions, and inaction.

It wasn't just African-Americans: Reagan found chances to dismiss other Americans, too.

Quotes below from Paul Slansky.

5/31 [1988] In a speech to students at Moscow State University [during trip to the USSR], President Reagan explains the American Indian situation: the US has "provided millions of acres" for "preservations—or reservations, I should say," so the Indians could "maintain their way of life," though now he wonders, "Maybe we should not have humored them in that, wanting to stay in that kind of primitive lifestyle. Maybe we should have said, 'No, come join us. Be citizens along with the rest of us.'"

For the record, Indians have been citizens since 1924, and few would say they've been "humored" by being allowed to maintain the culture they created before their land was taken from them.

On a matter of concern to a rather large segment of the population—

7/28 [1982] Caught off-guard at his 12th press conference by Sarah McClendon's question about "sex harassment of women" working in government, President Reagan waggles his head and says, "Now, Sarah, just a minute here with the discussion or we'll be getting an R rating." Although many reporters find this inane quip amusing, Sarah definitely does not.

In a similar vein, in 1983—

3/24 President Reagan meets with a group of GOP congresswomen who urge him to stay out of the debate if the Equal Rights Amendment is revived.

"How would you like to trade?" he says. "I've got some amendments I'm very interested in too. What about trading for making abortion illegal?"

Says a witness, "You could hear people gasping all over the room."

Ah, yes, the quaint 1988 GOP: a party with members capable of gasping at the mentality of what was then considered its fringe...

Other 1983 variations on the theme—

7/26 At his 19th press conference, President Reagan is asked why there are no women on his 12-man commission on Central America. "Maybe," he suggests, "it's because we're doing so much and appointing so many that we're no longer seeking a token or something."

8/3 President Reagan tells a convention of women's clubs, "If it wasn't for women, us men would still be walking around in skin suits carrying clubs." The gals are not amused.

An an equal opportunity offender of non-Americans, as in 1982—

8/17 "Ladies and gentlemen, Chairman Moe of Liberia is our visitor here today, and we're very proud to have him."
—President Reagan, introducing Liberian head of state Samuel K. Doe

10/19 During a White House meeting with Arab leaders, President Reagan turns to the Lebanese foreign minister. "You know," he says,"your nose looks just like Danny Thomas'."

Well, he did get the correct country of family origin...

Also 1982, the slighting of that other "America"—

12/1 At a dinner welcoming him to Brazil, President Reagan calls for a toast to his host, President João Figeiredo, and "the people of Bolivia." In an effort to recover, he explains that Bolivia is "where we're going next," though Columbia is next on the itinerary, and no stops in Bolivia are planned.

12/4 President Reagan returns home from his five-day trip to Latin America. "Well, I learned a lot," he tells reporters. "You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries."

An aide is sent out to explain that the President certainly didn't mean to imply that he was surprised by this.

Some members of his administration were confident about their public statements.

5/12 [1984] The number two man of the Housing Department, Philip Abrams, expresses doubt that Hispanics live in crowded homes because of poverty. "I don't think so," he says. "I'm told that they don't mind and they prefer, some prefer doubling up... It's a cultural preference, I'm told."

And even more confident in private.

10/20 [1987] Galleys of former Education Secretary T. H. Bell's forthcoming White House memoirs reveal that, to President Reagan's "mid-level right-wing staffers," Martin Luther King, Jr., was "Martin Lucifer Coon," Arabs were "sand niggers," and a law prohibiting discrimination against women was "the lesbians' bill of rights."