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Republican US Senate Candidate Dan Cruz is looking to unseat incumbent Democrat US Senator Robert Menendez with a grassroots campaign. Cruz, who is half-Dominican and half-Puerto Rican, grew up in Paterson, but now calls Warren County his home with his wife and children. With the Supreme Court decision to scrap race-based affirmative action programs in the 6-3 ruling on “Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College,” Cruz blasted the court’s action. “For me it is more than just admissions, for me it’s ‘where does the buck stop’? This is just the beginning of something else.”
Cruz said that “there have been so many prominent black and Hispanic folks out there” who have benefited from affirmative action policies, and he turned his attention to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in particular. “If it wasn’t for him being given that opportunity, because he was black, he wouldn’t be in the situation he is now. I think that we still are at a disadvantage, and I know this is not going to sound conservative or Republican, but at the end of the day, I still experience the biases and discrimination. When people say that we should be okay with this ruling, well, we should not be okay with this. There should be people out there protesting this. I believe in equality, I believe in fairness, but discrimination was happening prior to the ruling, and this is going to end up giving us less of an opportunity.”
Cruz, who worked at the Shabazz School in Newark, recalled a student who had gone on to attend Harvard. He credited the school’s affirmative action policies as allowing that to happen and giving her the opportunity she may not have been able to have otherwise. “She was one of the brightest students I’ve ever seen, but she was given the opportunity because of where she came from. She came from Newark, New Jersey, and she was a black female, so she was afforded the opportunity to go to Harvard because of those two things. You still must meet the criteria of admissions, you still must meet the test scores, you still have to meet the GPA and other criteria, but race played an issue. Diversity is good in any situation.”
Legacy admissions, where the family of alumni get preferential consideration, is not affected by the Supreme Court ruling. Cruz called it “nepotism” and cited former President George W. Bush’s poor academic record was no hindrance to his admission to Yale. “It wasn’t because he was smart,” he said, pointedly. “I have a problem with nepotism, and most nepotism is from well-to-do families who are white. Right? I can’t shy away from that. Why? Because I have three children and they’re half-black. My wife is black. I can’t shy away and say that doesn’t exist. If we don’t fight now, who’s going to fight for them?”
Looking at the trends on racial relations and policies, Cruz is worried that the advances made over the last two and three generations are being undone, and that battles fought and won before are being revisited. “It absolutely seems like we’re going backwards. Again, it may not sound like something from a conservative Republican, and I believe that more black and Hispanic Republicans should come out and speak up against this. And if they don’t, then their agenda is different.”
He warned that Republicans of color should not just “go with the flow” for fear of losing support within the GOP if it means compromising their values and their people. “Quite frankly, I don’t care if I lose the support of certain Republican groups. It doesn’t bother me because you can’t sell out. You can’t always be a sellout towards your people. I love all people–white, black, Hispanic, Asian—it doesn’t matter, but you have to fight for your people. White people fight for white people all the time. Is something wrong when you see black people fighting for black people? You know what they call them? ‘Radical.’ I’m disappointed in this whole situation and we don’t know where this is going to lead us to.”
Urban and inner-city students, Cruz said, are already at a disadvantage and the Supreme Court ruling is yet another inhibitor on their potential for success. “Environmentally, health-wise, I’m not saying all students but in general, they’re already at a disadvantage there. A lot are two, three grades behind,” Cruz said.
Interacting with people who are different from your own breaks down prejudices and preconceptions, Cruz said, citing that he had received push-back from some quarters when he said he wanted to run for office after moving into the predominantly white rural north-west corner of the state. “People were telling me you can’t go up to Sussex County because people are racist. If people up there are not used to being around black and Hispanics, all they see is what is on TV. When I came up here, when I go anywhere, I want to make sure that when you see me, when you see Dan Cruz, Hispanic, see what his children are, half-black, half-Hispanic, that you give the next person that looks like me the same chance you gave me. That’s all I want to do in this society, change the perception of folks. If you have a certain perception of people of color, and you’ve given me a chance, give the people who look like me a chance as well. You have to be able to be in an environment with diversity, that way you can learn from each other. If you don’t learn from each other, then you’re going be stuck in your old ways, and think that whatever you see on TV is what reality is.”
His own family, he told Insider NJ, is proof that exposure to others can change mindsets. His Puerto Rican family was informed about African-Americans only through what they saw in the media. “The moment we moved to the Grand Street projects in Paterson, New Jersey, where it was 90%-95% of black families up there, we were one of only three Hispanic families. Their perception of black folks changed because of being with them, living with them, and seeing them up close. Yes, we have beautiful black people up there and we took care of each other, we were respectful. It’s not everything you see on TV.”
Cruz turned his attention to the State Republican Party. “The NJ GOP needs to decide whether they’re going support me or not at this point. I’m going to stay true to myself, my principles, my morals, and my values. I’m going to keep fighting for all people, no matter if you’re white, black, Hispanic, but I know that we black and Hispanic folks are at a disadvantage in this world. Yes, we have equal opportunity, but guess what, when your resume hits that desk, and it says ‘Dan Cruz’, you know whether you want to hire a Hispanic or not. It’s the same thing when it goes through the admission process at Harvard and UNC, but [the Supreme Court ruling] will have a trickle-down effect.”
The candidate said that while he is upset with the Supreme Court’s decision, he felt that that court was also diverting energy and time away from more important matters affecting the country. “We’re talking about inflation, crime in our cities, all this wildfire smoke coming from Canada, why do they have to interfere in college admissions? Let’s fix kindergarten and the first and second grades. Let’s look at where discrimination starts.”
Cruz said that students from certain backgrounds must put in inordinate amounts of effort just to be on the same level as some of their white counterparts. He said that in his own life he has had to outperform just to get where he is. “A lot of GOP members, but especially the black politicians and those who are or have been candidates should speak up, because if you want to speak on certain topics, about parental rights, inflation, or whatever else comes to mind, then you should also be speaking about this situation.”
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