E-mail a friendJanet Murguia
airdate January 17, 2008
Janet Murguía is the first female president of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights organization. Prior to joining the organization, she was Executive Vice Chancellor for university relations at the University of Kansas. Murguía previously served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of legislative affairs for President Bill Clinton. In '05, Hispanic Business magazine named Murguía as a finalist for its "Women of the Year Award."
Janet Murguia
Tavis: Janet Murguia is the president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Latino civil rights organization. On Monday, the day we pause to honor the legacy of Dr. King, she will be in Birmingham for the annual King Day Unity Breakfast. She is in fact the first Hispanic keynote speaker at that event. She joins us tonight from Washington. Janet Murguia, nice to have you back on the program.
Janet Murguia: Thanks, Tavis; it's a pleasure to be here with you.
Tavis: So what does a Latina make of being asked to give the keynote at a major King event?
Murguia: Well it's quite an honor for me, I can't tell you. But I really appreciate the leaders and the folks in Birmingham who organized this breakfast for thinking about how Dr. King's vision was an inclusive one and understanding that Hispanics have been part of that vision as well. So I'm very honored to be part of that breakfast and I look forward to sharing some messages that I hope will show what the African American and Latino communities have in common and how important it is for us to work together in order to achieve Dr. King's dream still today.
Tavis: To your latter point, though, Janet, there are a lot of people who think that what used to be the Black-White divide, the Black-White conflict, is now the Black-Brown divide, the Black-Brown conflict. You know as well as I do that in many inner cities, certainly here in L.A. where I reside where this show emanates from, we've had issues over the last couple of years with Black and Brown students getting into it violently in our school system, LAUSD.
And we're not the only city that's had to navigate that kind of a problem. So what say you to those persons who think that the great divide today, again, is not Black and White but, in fact, Black-Brown?
Murguia: Well, Tavis, I don't see it that way. I know, and I'm going to talk about this at the breakfast, that there are some tensions in our communities and unfortunately, some stereotypes still exist. But the reality is that we need to not look at this on a race or ethnicity basis. We need to concentrate on an economic divide. And if we look at that, we need to understand that our communities have a lot in common.
And we need to come together if we're going to address that divide, and that's actually a divide that really does create that barrier from us achieving Dr. King's dream.
Tavis: I don't buy this; I regard it, quite frankly, as nonsense, but I've heard this a million and one times, as have you, this notion that there are some African Americans who think that "those immigrants are taking my job." You've heard that a thousand times, as I have. What do you say to those persons in the African American community on the issue, to your point now, of economics who think that "they're taking my jobs?"
Murguia: Well I think that the solution has to come at a federal level. This issue has to be addressed. The immigration system is broken, and we have to fix it. But what we're seeing right now is a lot of local governments, the state governments are trying to do it, and that's creating even more problems because this issue is a complicated one as it is and if you're passing laws and enacting laws in this area, you have to think about how they're going to be implemented.
That creates a whole set of challenges and it's easy to see why there would be anxiety out there. But the reality is that we can come up with a solution but it has to be at the federal level, the president and Congress must make this a priority, so that we can address all the anxieties. It's not just anxieties in the African American communities.
You know we're hearing from every segment of the population about the level of anxiety on this issue. So we just need to address it as a nation so that we can then look at all the complexities and address all of these different perspectives as we reform the laws in a comprehensive way.
Tavis: When you mentioned the federal level, of course it's not lost on us or anybody, for that matter, watching that the highest person on the organizational chart on the federal level is the president of these United States. We're in the midst of a debate, a campaign right now, rather, a debate earlier this week in Nevada.
I wonder, and I know La Raza is a nonpartisan organization, let me say that up front. But that said, are you hearing anything in this race for the White House that is encouraging to you about immigration reform, because it didn't happen obviously last year?
Murguia: Yes, well, I'll tell you what, I've been disappointed with the way the debates in the Republican Party have been taking shape. I do commend Senator McCain for sticking to his principals and understanding that we do have to address fixing this broken immigration system, but understand that we have to do it in a very humane and just and fair and orderly way.
Many of the other candidates, particularly in that party, have been seizing this as an opportunity to dehumanize and demonize, not just, unfortunately, immigrants, but Hispanics as a whole. And I'll have to tell you, I would like to see more leadership among the Democrats in exactly how they're going to address this issue because it's not just an issue that affects immigrants or Hispanics.
It's an issue that affects the entire country, and I want to hear more about what they have to say on this issue.
Tavis: What's your sense, then, of the role that the Hispanic vote will play in Nevada, specifically?
Murguia: Well, Hispanics make up 25 percent of the population in Nevada and a growing part of that electorate. Any state that is going to have a close election, it's clear that Hispanics can make the difference in that election. So I do believe that Hispanics are a growing political force and I think we have a responsibility to hold our elected officials accountable for positions that they take, again, that not just affect our community but that are important to the entire country.
We want to start hearing our leaders talk about how they're going to address these issues, and it's more than just immigration. It's education, it's health, it's housing and the foreclosure crisis. So we've got a lot of issues. Immigration is an important one. But the Hispanic community is growing as a political force and we're going to be asking elected officials to be accountable in terms of their platforms and agendas.
Tavis: You're right about the fact that it is more than just immigration. There are any number of issues on the table important to your community. That said, and again, I recognize the nonpartisan status of La Raza, but there are a lot of people think it really is, John McCain notwithstanding, an exercise in futility where the Republicans are concerned reaching out to your community because they think that vote has already been lost given how they behaved or misbehaved, as it were, last year on the issue of immigration so that they don't want to - there are folk in your community who don't want to even hear what they have to say, given how badly they behaved last year on immigration reform. Yes, no? True, false?
Murguia: Well, there's been a lot of bad behavior and there's no question that I think the Republicans are at risk of losing some of the gains that they made with the Hispanic community and with the Hispanic electorate. It's going to be difficult to see how they pivot off of the negative rhetoric and go into an opportunity to reach out to the Hispanic voters in the general election.
I'm not sure how they do it. The opportunity is still there, but I think it's growing increasingly challenging the more they take the bait to pile on and to exploit not just an issue but to exploit many who are involved in this issue of immigration.
Tavis: There's no question but that the Hispanic community is growing by leaps and bounds in this country. What do you point to specifically, though, to suggest that they are growing in terms of political force? That they're growing as a political power, differentiated from being a more populated number?
Murguia: Well, I think it is a journey. I think we are going to see it grow on an incremental basis. But clearly, we saw from 2000 to 2004 and 2004 now to 2008 a growing part of that electorate. We've increased at least by two million since '04, or we saw a difference, an increase from 2000 to 2004 of at least two million, and we're seeing that based on also a number of the naturalizations that are occurring a month, the new immigrants who've come here - and not just new, but immigrants who have been here a long time who are finally naturalizing that we've also seen a number of increased applications for naturalization.
That indicates that we could yet grow by another million voters in this upcoming election. So in close elections, state-by-state and in a national election, as you know, where it is going to be close, any one of those margins could be made - the difference could be made by the Hispanic voting community, voting bloc.
Tavis: If I were to ask you regions of the country, specific issues or races that you think might be telltale, things we ought to keep our eye on this year, anything on your list?
Murguia: Well, I think there's a number of exciting races. I think it will be interesting to see how both the presidential primaries come forward, both on the Republican and on the Democratic side. It is historic, Tavis, and it is encouraging that we do have a woman, an African American, in the lead right now for a major party presidential candidacy.
And to me, that gives me great encouragement that we're seeing great progress. Obviously we want to see ultimately where all of these candidates, Republican and Democrat, stand on the issues, and that's going to be the most important. But there's no question there's going to be a lot of excitement in different congressional districts and in the different states. But the big one is what we want to keep our eye on, and that's certainly the presidential election.
Tavis: Everybody courting the Hispanic vote this time around, as they should be. We'll keep watching to see what actually happens. Janet Murguia, the president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza. Janet, nice to have you on the program and all the best on your King speech next Monday.
Murguia: Thanks, Tavis, I appreciate it. Look forward to seeing you again. Thank you.
Tavis: Likewise.
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