MARINA DEL REY, CA -- The call by a Latino coalition for Hispanics to boycott network television is racist, said a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute.
     "The protest is not based on whether the television networks are portraying Hispanics or other ethnic minorities in a racist way," said Andrew Bernstein. "The multiculturalist agenda is to promote the belief that one's identity and character are tied to his ethnic or cultural heritage. This is racism, where a person's character and individual achievement are irrelevant in judging a person, but the color of his skin is not."
     Bernstein said that the actions of the Latino coalition, the latest of several groups including the NAACP and NOW to demand that network programming reflect U.S. racial and gender demographics, are undermining individual justice in favor of racism because:

• The coalition favors hiring actors based not on ability, but on unchosen qualities such as race, gender and ethnic heritage.
• The coalition places a greater emphasis on race than on the program's content and the values that are being promoted.
• The coalition favors government action to set racial hiring quotas instead of allowing individual employers to decide who is best to star in their programs.

     "The minority racists have no interest in promoting values, only in filling quotas," said Bernstein. "The only aim of the protest is to get a certain, pre-determined number of minorities on the air, not to promote value-driven, high quality programs that feature Hispanic or black performers, such as Law & Order or Cosby."