New Civil Rights Appointee Christian Adams Is For Racial Justice, Not Racial Spoils System
The Left will be apoplectic because Trump’s newest appointment to the USCCR is J. Christian Adams, a onetime whistleblower in the Voting Section of the Department of Justice. Adams exposed the radical practices of Obama appointees, who refused to use civil rights laws to protect white victims of race-based abuses, including the Obama administration’s infamous decision to drop an already-won voter-intimidation case against two armed members of the New Black Panther Party.
Adams has long been a thorn in the side of the Left, both with frequent commentary on Fox News and by taking legal action in favor of ballot security and against racialist applications of the law. Adams has insisted, correctly, that the law is colorblind — exactly the standard in the text of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the standard of law and justice advocated by the late Martin Luther King Jr. (Today’s leftists argue that King’s overall vision wasn’t “colorblind,” but regardless of whether they are right in some broader sense, King absolutely, unequivocally called for colorblindness before the law.)
Still, Adams is hardly a one-trick pony whose single goal is to undermine the Left’s racial spoils system. He has a distinguished record of successfully fighting to protect the civil rights of African Americans when they are threatened. At the Justice Department (as I noted elsewhere years ago), Adams consistently earned good reviews, cash awards for excellent work, and promotions — including one promotion signed off on by the Obama appointees just weeks before he resigned in protest. Adams won a special commendation for his work on behalf of black voters in Georgetown County, South Carolina. Today, there are black members on the town’s formerly all-white school board, specifically because of Adams’s efforts.
Throughout the last decade, I have had countless conversations with Adams. His concern for the civil rights of minorities has arisen often, and it clearly is heartfelt. What the Left quite willfully ignores is that Adams’s interest is less in protecting the influence of black power brokers than it is in protecting ordinary black voters — sometimes from being cheated by white officials and sometimes from mistreatment by those black power brokers themselves.
The USCCR these days receives little public attention, for it has little formal power to sanction bad actors. It can, though, produce major reports highlighting inequities and ongoing discrimination, and that’s what Adams told me he wants to do. Referring back to a case he brought successfully on behalf of black voters in Lake Park, Florida — against resistance from entrenched management in the Justice Department — Adams said, “Right now, it’s a practice for the Voting Section to not even look at voting discrimination in small towns. I want to shine the light on that. Minorities in small towns deserve the protections of the Voting Rights Act.”
No one will fight harder for the civil rights of black people than Christian Adams will. He will do so, however, from the standard not of racial grievance, but of strict equality before the law. To the Left, that might make Adams a dangerous man. To most people, that will make him a hero.
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Quin Hillyer is a Commentary Writer.
Tags: Quin Hillyer, New Civil Rights Appointee, Christian Adams, Is For Racial Justice, Not Racial Spoils System To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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