Whatever its virtues, the Republican Party has not been particularly successful in reaching nonwhite voters over the years. An attempt to change that image has brought some new faces to this year's convention -- though the road ahead seems rocky indeed. Emil Guillermo is host of New California Media TV, a weekly talk show featuring the voices of California's ethnic media, and a reporter for Grassroots.com.

A lot of people find it hard to stomach the GOP's new move toward diversity. Especially after that forced-fed Gingrich diet of the nineties.

But would you believe in the GOP's new hunger for diversity if General Colin Powell told you it was real?

All day, I had wandered the convention --- the Associated Press estimates it is about 83% white -- wondering how it could have any credibility embracing diversity.

Shannon Reeves, a Bush delegate from California and president of the Oakland chapter of the NAACP -- there are not many NAACP chapter presidents at this assembly -- told me it was real.

"There's the New Majority Council doing outreach now in the community," he said. But, he added, he knows it's going to be a fight.

"Many black leaders' political value depends on how many black folks they deliver to the Democratic Party," he said. "Now when you see Republicans trying to address black community issues, first they say 'Where you been? It's not sincere.'

"Well hell, you can't have it both ways," he said. "Either you want Republicans to pay attention to the issues, and to come in and make a difference, or you don't. So when Republicans begin to come, then present the issues and try to work together."

But how does he reconcile all the anxiety created by the past? The phrase "Welfare queen" didn't come out of Democrats' mouths. And anti-immigration was a real cornerstone of GOP-thinking from 1992 on.

"It's going to take time," he admitted. "But this is the most diverse the Republicans have ever been."

The strategy is to have the community bring the issues to the party.

"I'm working on inner city reinvestment, inner city small business growth, health care in the neighborhoods, quality public education," Reeves said. "The minorities that are here have to develop and craft an agenda, and bring it to the table.

"That's exactly what happened to the Democrat Party. White Democrats from the south didn't come up with the civil rights agenda. Black folks developed it, and came in fighting for it. That's exactly what has to happen in the Republican Party."

But the party's attitude seems to depend on how desperate it is to win in November, and beyond.

The last vehicle the party tried to ride to political success was a '96 Gingrich. But that car fell apart. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi is trying hard not to look like a used part.

"Times have changed," he told me with a smile from the floor of the convention in an interview for Grassroots.com. "We are reaching out to everyone in America. We want everyone to be a part of the American dream."

Maybe they think that they'll get back the White House if they say "embracing diversity" enough times.

And that's why Powell's speech was so important. The past is so full of transgressions, the GOP has all the credibility of a bootlegger at an AA meeting.

So Powell did his thing. "The party must follow Governor Bush's lead and reach out to minority communities and particularly the African-American community -- and not just during an election-year campaign," General Powell told the convention.

"It must be a sustained effort. It must be every day. It must be for real."

And just to show he was for real, he blasted the party. He knows it has little credibility. It was a bit of "friendly fire" when he talked of cynicism in the black community because "some in our party miss no opportunity to roundly and loudly condemn affirmative action that helped a few thousands black kids get an education."

Then for good measure he added, how "hardly a whimper is heard from them over affirmative action for lobbyists who load our federal tax codes with preferences for special interests."

But one of the real occupational hazards of being an ethnic Republican is how to avoid looking like the proverbial "Uncle Tom."

"I was born black and that's the way I'm going to die. I know exactly who I am," Oakland's Shannon Reeves said. "I've been black 32 years and haven't missed a year. I've had 19 years in the NAACP and no one thought I was an Uncle Tom until they heard I was a Republican."