David and the Latinos

David Tokofsky is a fair-skinned, blue-eyed person who is running for the school board in a Latino district, and that has caused him nothing but grief.

He is being told by what he calls the Latino “back-room boys” that he is of the wrong ethnicity to be in the race and would be doing everyone a favor if he would take his white butt elsewhere.

If he were a dark-skinned, brown-eyed person who was told by Anglos to take his brown butt elsewhere, every Latino activist and white liberal in town would be marching in the streets.

But don’t call it reverse racism, amigos. Just say that while David is a nice boy with a future, it isn’t on this particular school board from this particular district.

Forget that Tokofsky, 34, is a respected teacher, speaks Spanish better than most of the Latino candidates, was graduated magna cum laude from UC Berkeley and brought the school district its first-ever national academic decathlon championship.

He is more qualified to sit on the school board than most of the fools and bumblers who run for public office, but because he’s Tokofsky and not Gomez, that somehow doesn’t count.

Latino leaders who are opposing him say it doesn’t count because symbolism is important here, and Tokofsky, whose heritage is Russian, just happens to project the wrong symbol.

And then they slam the door in his face.

*

I have been told on occasion by those who resent my point of view that I am easily confused, and I admit to that today.

What perplexes me is what better symbol can one possibly project than to be an educated, caring teacher who is as close to the needs of education as anyone can possibly be?

I’m confused by those who say that only a Mexican can know what a Mexican needs in terms of learning. Does a preference for refried beans somehow create a cultural inability to learn when taught by someone who prefers, say, chicken chow mein?

One Latino hinted darkly that Tokofsky knew he was going to be causing trouble by running in the 5th District and might be following some kind of evil hidden agenda to divide and conquer.

I asked Tokofsky about all this one day in the living room of his modest stucco house in Eagle Rock. The house also serves as campaign headquarters, and was alive with teachers making telephone calls on his behalf, and with students stuffing envelopes with campaign literature.

Tokofsky says he is feeling very much alone these days because of the political abuse being heaped on him by those who resent his entry into the school board race in a district that is 70% Latino.

“It hurts when I’m accused of intruding,” he said. “The ‘white’ label disappoints me. It’s a needless polemic. I have the same values as anyone who believes in quality education, and that’s what ought to count.”

Before he brought honor to Marshall High as its academic decathlon coach in 1987, Tokofsky coached soccer. It was there, he said, in a sport noted for its ethnic diversity, that he learned the importance of combining that diversity with trust, and building on it. It’s what he wants for the 5th District.

*

I know that at one time being a fair-skinned, blue-eyed male was the only way to get elected to anything, so you won’t find me shaking the ladder of any minority person in this town who’s trying to climb higher.

And I know how important good role models are for young people, since we have so damned few of them who aren’t on drugs, on trial or in jail. I’ve written two books full of people meant to be the kinds of symbols Latinos can emulate with pride and impunity.

But I weary of the mind-set that creates political ghettos, especially when the rationale locks out candidates of quality who are willing to represent all the people, whoever or whatever they are.

Councilman Richard Alatorre, who wants a Latino elected to a Latino district, says if it were a perfect democracy and everyone was fairly represented in government, ethnic isolation wouldn’t be necessary.

I say it’s never going to be a perfect world, much less a perfect democracy, until we stop slamming doors in the faces of people who can do us some good, whether they’re from East L.A., Watts or Pacific Palisades.

I don’t know that David Tokofsky is the best person running for the school board from his district. Vote for whoever you want next Tuesday. I’m just hoping that your ballot won’t be cast on the basis of race.

Even blue-eyed guys whose great-great-grandmother used to pluck geese for a living on the banks of the Black Sea deserve an even chance.