Black Leaders Draw Charge of ‘New Racism’

Clarence M. Pendleton Jr., the black chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, said today that black leaders and civil rights supporters are practicing a “new racism” by promoting preferential treatment for minority group members.

“Our so-called black leaders are spending every moment peddling pain, complaining about budget cuts,” instead of helping President Reagan “create a society that is truly color-blind,” Pendleton said.

As Pendleton spoke to a National Press Club audience, he was flanked by Reagan Administration appointees who have warred with organized civil rights groups in the past.

‘Corrective Surgery’

Among them were Linda Chavez, staff director of the Civil Rights Commission; Clarence Thomas, chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and William Bradford Reynolds, assistant attorney general in charge of civil rights.

Pendleton said the Reagan supporters “are performing corrective surgery on the disfigured civil rights laws.” Specifically, he attacked use of goals, timetables, quotas and other forms of preferential treatment as forms of discrimination.

The chairman said “the most important civil rights decision of this decade” was a Supreme Court decision last June in a case involving the Memphis, Tenn., Fire Department.

Saving Seniority Plans

The high court ruled 6 to 3 that employers may not be forced to scrap seniority plans that favor white males to protect affirmative action gains by minorities and women during times of economic difficulty.

“I hope that it (the decision) will end what I call the new racism that confronts black people today,” Pendleton said.

“Who are these new racists? They are typically supporters of civil rights. Many of them are the media-designated black leaders. These new racists, many of them black, exhibit the classical behavior system of racism. They treat blacks differently than whites because of their race.