Call for an End to Race-Based Caucuses

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., is calling for an end to race-based groups in Congress like the Congressional Black Caucus.

In a letter to the chairwoman of the House Administration Committee, Tancredo says race should not be a prerequisite for any organization’s membership, The Hill reports.

The Tancredo request comes less than a month after Steve Cohen, a white Democrat who represents a Tennessee district with a black majority, abandoned efforts to join the Congressional Black Caucus.

It is utterly hypocritical for Congress to extol the virtues of a color-blind society while officially sanctioning caucuses that are based solely on race-and restrict their membership based on race, Tancredo said in his letter.

I believe — as I think most Americans do — that the best way to remedy the ills of discrimination is to abolish, not sanction, organizations that maintain racially exclusive membership policies, he continued.

Tancredo’s office says he launched a similar effort to abolish race-based caucuses in 2003.