Thread: Georgia lawmaker offers conditional apology to LaRaza

Georgia lawmaker offers conditional apology to Latino group

By BEN EVANS
ASSOCIATED PRESS


WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 — A Georgia Republican says he'll apologize to a national Latino advocacy group he accused of supporting racism and illegal immigration if the organization agrees to a list of conditions.

In a press release this week, Rep. Charlie Norwood called the National Council of La Raza a ''radical,'' ''anti-American'' organization that ''supports racist groups calling for the secession of the western United States as a Hispanic-only homeland.''
The Washington-based group, which regularly testifies before Congress and is a leading Hispanic advocacy organization, emphatically denies those characterizations.
''His accusations in his press release were patently false,'' said Cecilia Munoz, vice president of NCLR. ''We've attempted to clarify the record multiple times and we've offered to meet with him, and he continues to insist on a bizarre interpretation of our work.''
In offering a conditional apology, Norwood asked NCLR to sever all ties with a leftist student group and its ''racist doctrines,'' to repudiate all claims that any American territory belongs to Mexico, and to seek outside supervision to ensure that NCLR-sponsored programs do not discriminate.
Norwood, a six-term congressman, acknowledges that the group itself does not promote racist or separatist policies. But he cites its association with a leftist student group called MEChA that has branches at colleges across the country, some of which advocate retaking U.S. land that once belonged to Mexico. He points to a $2,500 grant the council gave in 2003 to the Georgetown University MEChA branch, which calls for the political liberation of Latinos from repressive foreigners.
The donation represents a tiny portion of the millions of dollars in grants that NCLR gave to health clinics, housing organizations, community centers and local advocacy groups that year.
John Stone, a spokesman for Norwood, said it is significant and drew an analogy with a conservative think tank: ''If the Heritage Foundation gave one small donation to the Aryan Brotherhood, I think that would cause quite a stir.''


Associated Press writer Suzanne Gamboa contributed to this report.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/ap0 ... 2220061626

Everybody knows the score with The Race, Charlie, but they'll never admit it.

Great post US!! I have posted an article written by Rep Norwood that complements your article the post is at:
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=41920

Rep. Norwood and D.A. King are really on top of things this week.

Wish I had a congressman like Norwoodie so I could be proud, too.

How can they deny this when it has been recorded out of their own mouth, in their own words!

http://www.theamericanresistance.com/ra ... audio.html