The night before the U.S. Supreme Court was to hear oral arguments on whether to eliminate affirmative action as practiced by the University of Michigan, thousands of students, anchored by Howard University, spent a cold night outside the gates of the court petitioning justices not to damage their future. I was exceedingly proud of these students who had come from all over the nation because it seemed from their speeches the next morning that they got it. They seemed to represent a generation who had come of age in understanding that they had to take the baton and continue the struggle to achieve social justice that was begun by their ancestors.

And I learned from them that they also are the generation that is being sent to Afghanistan and Iraq to die for this country, while the commander in chief who is sending them into battle doesn’t believe in their war.

This moment was symbolic of others that we have been through before. In 1991 when Blacks also were sent to Iraq in the first encounter with Saddam Hussein, Rodney King was beaten into submission by members of the Los Angeles Police Department. Just as this posed a grand contradiction then, the present circumstance poses one now. If you are Black and in a foxhole in Iraq, how do you read the actions of the government that sent you there, when it takes the side of your enemy of progress at home?

The actions of George Bush in the Michigan Case is one powerful reason why the majority of Blacks do not support the war, why many Blacks do not engage as much as whites in flag-waving, decal-wearing and chest-thumping exercises of Americanism. They are not sure they are full Americans because they have been faced with the hard evidence that while we always have been willing to fight and die for this country—and to prove that we were worthy citizens—this country was not always willing to exhibit the full measure of devotion to us.

But this is an especially callous crowd in the White House. It looks as if they are using the war to accomplish many of the goals that the Republicans set under Ronald Reagan. So, while the war has taken over the newspaper headlines, television networks and the radio talk shows, the back pages of the newspapers and the 10-second news spots contain news of the damage being done. You have to listen and look carefully for it but you can see that the domestic war that should be waged here is real, and that it is contained in the budget being passed in the Congress.

For example, Bob Herbert of the New York Times wrote a courageous article recently entitled, “Causalities at Home,” which made the point. So, while we are fixated on the war, Bush:

-is trying to get a $1.2 trillion tax cut passed for the rich that will deplete the federal treasury of an estimated $1.46 trillion over 10 years;

-proposes to cut funds for depressed communities by 25 percent;

-proposes a $28 billion reduction over 10 years in veterans health benefits;

-under-funds the education program, No Child Left Behind, by $9 billion.

And on and on.

This merely adds to the cynicism that Blacks feel about the current administration. You get the feeling that the war is all a charade, a cover for wealthy interests who, as a result of Bush’s actions, will be set up in the Middle East on oil wealth for years to come. You get the feeling that they really don’t care about anybody but themselves and their own narrow interests, that there is no notion of democratic practice or equality as a value in their calculations. And you get the feeling that they are arrogant, crass and rapacious about what they want, taking no prisoners. This is heart of cynicism.

I have had no answer from journalists asking why Blacks don’t support the war as much as whites. Look at the attitude of the Bush administration on the Michigan case and hear the oral argument of the solicitor general charging before the Supreme Court that diversity in higher education has not been shown to be in the compelling state interest. Where are those journalists now?