SACRAMENTO, CA -- In his insightful book Pick a Better Country, Ken Hamblin, the nationally-syndicated conservative African American radio talk show host (known to millions of this listeners as the "Black Avenger"), notes that the African American Left's favorite method of silencing independent voices in the black community is to "challenge their blackness by calling them names that date back to the days of slavery -- demeaning names such as . . . 'Uncle Tom,' Aunt Jemima,' and 'Oreo.'"

Recently, several incidents in California have validated Mr. Hamblin's observation. For example, several weeks ago, Ward Connerly, the African American UC regent who chaired the Proposition 209 campaign, helped launch the American Civil Rights Institute which will take Proposition 209's anti-race-and-gender-preference message nationwide. As one could predict, the reaction of the African American Left was apoplectic. Instead of focusing on the merits of Mr. Connerly's ideas, the African American Left has resorted to demeaning name-calling. Jack White, the African American columnist for Time magazine, wrote an insulting article which portrayed Mr. Connerly as a useful Uncle Tom recruited by "right-wing ideologues" to "put a black face on the issue." Martin Luther King III, the late civil-rights leader's eldest son who lost his re-election bid for local office in Georgia because of his failure to pay years worth of federal taxes, called Mr. Connerly a "demagogue" who appealed to "the emotion and prejudices of the unsuspecting and the uninformed." And Kevin Murray, chairman of the state Legislature's Black Caucus, called Mr. Connerly "despicable." So much for rational debate.

Another sorry spectacle is taking place in Los Angeles where conservative African American radio talk show host Larry Elder is the target, according to Daily Variety, "of fellow blacks who populate the special-interest group with a singular agenda: to get Larry Elder fired from the radio station." This special interest group, the Talking Drum Community Forum, has circulated inflammatory flyers making outrageous claims (e.g., that Mr. Elder supports white people calling blacks "n**gers"). Through an intense letter-writing campaign, Talking Drum has succeeded in getting several advertisers to withdraw their sponsorship of Mr. Elder's show (which is one of the most highly rated in Los Angeles). Mr. Elder says that Talking Drum has singled him out "because I have the audacity to think that -- be still my heart -- O.J. Simpson murdered two people, because I'm opposed to race-based affirmative action, and because I don't think that racism is the most intractable, serious problem facing American today. The truth hurts, I'm afraid."

Indeed, the truth does hurt African American leftists, which is why their tactic is not to argue over substance and truth, but to assassinate the character of their enemies, especially African American conservatives who threaten their status as self-appointed community leaders. Yet, as Ward Connerly has said, his adversaries "need to be challenged. . . in every church and every synagogue and every village and hamlet in this nation because we think our cause is right." With courageous individuals like Mr. Connerly in the lead, the truth will win out.

-By Lance T. Izumi