The Price of Polarization

AIENUOUSLAYER of etiquette usually hides the uglier side of political struggles. It is considered somewhat uncouth, for example, for politicians overtly to polarize an electorate around issues of ethnicity and race. But in both Chicago and New York, where power struggles of tremendous importance are currently raging, the veneer of civility has been lifted, leaving only the ugliness of racism.

Before last month, Chicago's Bernie Epton was a nobody. The sparse press coverage given the Republican contender for mayor was often limited to observations about how little respect Epton got, even from members of his own party, who not long ago convened in Chicago without inviting him to join party officials on the dais (he sat in the back of the hall). But that was before Harold Washington's upset win in the Democratic primary.

Now, with next week's election condensed to a one-on-one battle. Epton's campaign has been marked by the use of ads that overtly seek to stir up fear and hatred at the likelihood of a Black man serving as mayor. One particularly offensive television ad has an ominously becoming voice warning Chicagoans to "Vote for Epton--before it's too rate."

Epton and his supporters have tried to explain this and other virulent attacks on Washington as responses to his less than angelic past, which features a 30-day jail sentence for failing to pay about $500 of taxes and a temporary disbarment. Oddly enough, many of the people who stress Washington's tax evasion are the same ones who stood silently for decades, blithely watching the infamous Chicago political machine commit every conceivable brand of corruption and electoral fraud. Washington's 30 days should definitely be remembered by voters--they are an ugly blotch on his record--but the sudden "civic concern" of his otherwise quiet attackers should be seen as nothing more than fakery.

IN NEW YORK, Blacks and whites have lately split over a similar issue. The recently vacated position of school chancellor is an appointed one, and the two leading candidates for the top spot in the city's educational hierarchy happen to be of different races.

Thomas K. Minter, who is Black, grew up and taught in New York Schools, has a Ph.D. from the Harvard School of Education, headed school systems in Philadelphia and Wilmington. Delaware, served in Washington as assistant secretary of education, and is currently the deputy chancellor of New York schools. The other contender. Deputy Mayor Robert Wagner Jr. '65, has served New York in several political positions, most of them budgetary and none of them in education. Hence the controversy that erupted when Mayor Ed Koch, who effectively controls the seven-member Board of Education which will make the appointment, announced his support for Wagner. The New York situation bears a striking resemblance to Washington's battle in Chicago.

Like Washington, Minter outclasses his opponent. At a local debate recently sponsored by The New York Post, Minter answered questions in an elegant and straightforward manner; referring to his 32 years of achievement in education, he simply said. "I've stood on professionalism and will continue to do so." Wagner drew the only laughter of the debate by suggesting that Mayor Koch's endorsement was based on merit (Wagner's father used to be Mayor of New York.) Without a record to speak of, Wagner emphasized that "I am a candidate based on my belief that this is a job I really want."

Naturally, Black New Yorkers see the propping up of a white bureaucrat over a qualified Black educator as a slap in the face, particularly because two-thirds of the school population is Black and Hispanic. Yet in a show of hypocrisy best described as Orwellian, Koch and his ever-faithful handmaidens on the editorial board of The New York Times continue to argue that the appointment should be based on "merit and not ethnicity." To some, it represents yet another example of the cheerful politics of polarization which continue to be Koch's trademark.

But it goes deeper than that. In the torrent of doublespeak surrounding Harold Washington and Thomas Minter, it has been forgotten that these men are, quite simply, the best candidates for the offices they seek. Prejudiced whites in Chicago and New York, in their fearful haste to bar Blacks from positions of political authority, condemn residents of those cities to suffer under the uninspired, under-prepared men of mediocrity they throw in as buffers. The sooner demagogic purveyors of racial fears like Epton and Koch are made unwelcome, the sooner "merit" can truly improve the quality of leadership in America.