Victimhood Without a Victim--a Lesson Is Registered

Nativo Lopez, the no-longer-beleaguered executive director of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, was giving a TV interview in his Santa Ana office. It was shortly after the story broke that the Orange County Grand Jury wouldn’t indict anyone for alleged fraud in Hermandad’s voter-registration operation, and no one could have faulted Lopez for gloating.

The moment represented a major vindication for him, but what struck me was that he sounded like he’d almost expected indictments. Not that Lopez thought Hermandad knowingly broke any laws, as he had made clear in previous interviews. Rather, Lopez feared that the politicized nature of the yearlong investigation made indictments likely. After all, this is Orange County, the grand jury pool is largely white and everyone knows there are strains of anti-immigration in the air.

When no indictments came, Lopez told the interviewer, it forced him to reassess his thoughts about a minority-based organization like Hermandad getting a fair shake from the white-dominated system.

Watching the interview, I silently applauded Lopez for his forthrightness. Yet, I also knew there was something in what he said that bothered me.

That “something” was that I just know Lopez had prepared himself to say the system was biased against him. I can’t say he would have relished playing the martyr had he been indicted, but I sense he was prepared to.

As Lopez discovered, nothing is more surprising than not getting jobbed when you expect it. Whoops, the excuses you had diligently crafted must be tossed into the wastebasket.

What distinguished Lopez at that moment, at least for me, was that he addressed his mistrust and conceded he had learned something.

Much has been written about “victimhood” in America. No one can suffer any misfortune, it seems, without finding someone to blame it on.

Consider the reaction from the entire state of Tennessee, where University of Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning is only slightly less popular than Elvis. Wire service reports indicated that the state was in shock when Manning didn’t win the Heisman Trophy last week.

Naturally, people had to find some sinister reason why.

OK, they couldn’t claim racial bias, because Manning is white. Among the theories I read was that the “media” came to dislike Manning’s wholesome image and, therefore, voted against him.

Sure, why not? The thought that Charles Woodson, as the best player on the No. 1 University of Michigan team, might have been more deserving apparently wasn’t considered.

However, to show you I’m an equal-opportunity basher, I can only wonder about the reaction from some quarters (the Rev. Jesse Jackson comes to mind), if Manning were black and Woodson white. One can easily picture Jackson asking why, for the first time ever, a defensive player--and an underclassman to boot--defied precedent and snared the award from a senior who was a record-setting quarterback.

Remember the reaction last month in England after a Boston jury found Britisher Louise Woodward guilty of murder in the death of the 8-month-old boy in her care? One of the theories was that anti-British bias in Irish-Catholic Boston influenced the jury. That convenient assessment had to be tossed out a few days later when the judge reduced the charges.

I wish we would always be smart enough to recognize true discrimination and work to eliminate it. Just as strong a wish would be to recognize when it doesn’t exist and not try to invoke bias or prejudice into every possibility. As I’ve tried to argue a million times in this column, that only hurts the cause.

Sometimes, stuff happens.

I contacted Lopez on Tuesday and asked him to elaborate on his remarks on TV. He was even more expansive and candid than before.

“Minorities many times also harbor certain prejudices or views or stereotypes of what justice is or how it can be obtained from the system,” he said. “Our worst fear was that a jury comprised of all whites with the exception of one Asian woman would not do justice to our case and perhaps would be swayed by the political winds and pressures of the most conservative elements in the county pushing for indictments. . . . “

With that not the case, Lopez applauded the grand jury “for having based its decision on the evidence and not being motivated either by personal agendas or the political agenda of a conservative force here in the county.”

Lopez sounds to me like a somewhat wiser man than he may have been a year ago.

And, happily for him, considerably less burdened than when he feared the worst from his fellow man.

Now if other people would just take his lesson to heart.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com