RACISM CLAIMS ARE A STRETCH.

Byline: JOE R. HICKS Local view

A cottage industry of racial activists has predictably emerged in response to recent news headlines -- a former ``Seinfeld'' star goes nuts on a stage, a black L.A. firefighter has a prank played on him, and O.J. Simpson briefly resurfaces -- claiming that the events are part of a pattern indicating a revival of racism. These stories, they say, show us that America's racial progress is a chimera.

Here's the problem: It just ain't so.

Perhaps the oddest moment in the blizzard of activists' news conferences was the one where Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, stood with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, backed by a small contingent of community figures and the stray black comedian or two, urging that the word ``nigger'' be banned from the nation's vocabulary.

OK, fine, let's all stop using this ugly, distasteful word -- one, by the way, that's not a part of my lexicon.

But really, people, of all the highly troubling issues facing black urban neighborhoods -- high levels of homicide, broken family structures, babies making babies, high incidences of HIV and AIDS, lagging educational performances -- the use of the ``n-word'' doesn't appear on the radar screen. It does reveal a deep layer of self-contempt and cultural dysfunction that needs addressing, but let's deal with the obvious issues first.

Yet another news conference was called to lambaste the decision to cancel the O.J. Simpson book deal that would have netted the golf ball-chipping ex-football star $3.5million.

Eddie Jones of the L.A. Civil Rights Association argues that Simpson should be allowed to ``tell his side of the story,'' and he later called the rejection of the deal ``a modern-day lynching.'' Erin Aubry Kaplan, the L.A. Times Afro-centric columnist, claimed that the Simpson acquittal was the ``rare instance of equal treatment, if not justice.'' The families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson were not amused.

In case you are not yet convinced that Tennie Pierce's not getting his $2.7million equals a rise in racism, author and commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson comes to the rescue, saying these incidents are ``dots that can be connected.'' He added, ``Racial divisions and racial rancor seem to always lurk just below the surface.''

What are the things used to demonstrate that racial divides run wide and deep in contemporary society?

Well, it seems that what inspires these views are the words of a hack actor/comedian whose antics have alienated us all, or the tissue-paper thin claims of racism from a black firefighter -- the self-described ``Big Dog'' who apparently thinks that a dog-food prank deserves a $2.7million payday at our expense. As for the O.J. line of reasoning, I'll just join you in scratching my head.

Actually, these arguments and claims by today's black leaders illustrate just how far this nation has come in the past four decades.

Forty short years ago, the nation was only two years away from the passage of the last major piece of civil-rights legislation, the Voting Rights Act. Three years earlier, the nation's lawmakers passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which effectively cut the legs out from under white supremacy. Schools were segregated by law, as were public accommodations and transportation. There was a rigid code of social relations that ruled interracial romance out of bounds.

Racism then was something black men, women and children could see, touch and feel -- there was no ambiguity to it whatsoever.

These days, civil-rights leaders tell us that racism is something that is covert or subtle. Yet somehow they assert that this ``new racism'' is still as effective as the old-fashioned racism our ancestors endured.

Why is it that the claims justifying the ``rise in racism'' sound so baseless?

The weakness of the causes and claims illustrate the dilemma that today's civil-rights activists find themselves mired in. As race continuously declines as a significant force in the lives of black Americans, racial activists have become increasingly strident in arguing for the continued existence of racism and for their own relevancy.

Michael Richards is a washed-up jerk. Tennie Pierce is looking for a big payday. And O.J. Simpson is addicted to publicity and public adulation. Are these people to be viewed as barometers of racial progress? I think not.