GOP and the Black Vote

In reference to Ben Wattenberg’s article (Editorial Pages, Aug. 18) about the “black” vote, I have the following opinion:

What difference does it matter to any white person how black people vote, unless of course he is a member in good standing of the Republican Party? The one party that has at times felt the loss of said vote.

This is another divisive tool to rob blacks of what little political clout they do have, with the hope of stunting the growth of black political power. No one knows this better than the Republican Party.

Why should black people vote for a party whose President tried to kill affirmative action? Who tried to fill every judicial post available with known anti-civil rights appointees? Whose “Negro” civil rights commissioner admitted he was more concerned about the “rights of the white male” than affirmative action.

To listen to people like Wattenberg is to be robbed of the tool that will eventually bring blacks the civil equality that heretofore has been denied.

The Republican Party will never do it for black people as a whole. Only a select few who will subscribe to the conservative Republican litany, and in most cases bite off their noses to spite their faces.

Thank God most black people can see through President Reagan and his ardent supporters. Rev. Jesse Jackson is no crybaby, but the voice of one crying in the black political wilderness.

JAMES KAUFMAN

Los Angeles