Believe it or not, Republican State Senator Dan Hall's most stinging criticism of Minnesota public education in the video above is not when he claims
“I watched Minneapolis get destroyed, so I not only didn’t want my kids in the school system. I took them out of Minneapolis because they ruined our neighborhoods with integration and [de]segregation.”
Mr. Hall made his argument for segregation last Thursday (and right in time for April 4!) in support of H.F. No. 934, also known as the K-12 omnibus bill. Later that day, it passed in a party-line vote in the Minnesota State Senate. As reported by the Minnesota Independent, that bill "would take funding from integration and desegregation programs in the Twin Cities and Duluth and shift them to statewide programs for literacy. [It] also repeals the unfunded portions of Minnesota law dealing with desegregation." In short, it aims to address the racial achievement gap in the state's schools by rewarding schools for improving literacy and taking away money for desegregation.
Perhaps Mr. Hall's personal experience led him to believe that literacy is more urgent than desegregation -- that the two are somehow in competition. Perhaps his constituents are asking him to vote this way. However, that's not the argument he makes, nor the people whose support he cites. He cites his "best friends," who Mr. Hall claims are "minority."
“They think integration is foolish. It’s a ploy, it’s to get more money....It’s disrespectful to tell my friends, my minority friends, they can’t make it without extra special help.”
These "minority" best friends are merely the fulcrum of Mr. Hall’s rhetorical argument, one that uses the vocabulary of opposing affirmative action to oppose integration. What's next? Lunch counters? Water fountains?
Still, even that wasn't the strongest shot taken by Mr. Hall at public education in Minnesota. That comes right at the beginning:
“I am a product of the Minneapolis school system, completely, all of my years, many of the different schools. I graduated with a sixth-grade reading ability. I struggled my whole life.”
Even if there are problems with reading levels in Minnesota's public schools stretching back to Mr. Hall's era, even if the funds for the Republican initiative must be taken from integration programs (and they don't have to be), was it necessary to scapegoat integration in this way? Must one be the antagonist of the other?
When this bill reaches Governor Mark Dayton's desk, it will curious to see if he signs it into law, or asks for a new bill that truly strengthens public education without doing so at the expense of racial progress.
2 Comments:
WIE ARE SURE THAT YOUR STUPID BLACK ASS HAD A LOT TO SAY ABOUT TRAYVON MARTIN AND HOW ZIMMERMAN RACIALLY PROFILED TRAYVON. BUT DO YOU REMEMBER HOW YOUR SILLY BLACK ASS PROFILED A ELDERLY BLACK WOMAN NAMED MS. EELE. IF WE TOOK YOUR BLACK ASS TO COURT YOU CAN NOT PROVE THAT MS. EELE MADE THESE COMMENTS TO WWD AS OF THIS DAY. WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND ZIMMERMAN, BLACK CRAZY BITCH? HERE'S YOUR LAME ASS COMMENTS ABOUT A BLACK WOMAN YOU DIDN'T KNOW:
Poison Eele.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Just when you thought that becoming the first African-American First Lady would have been enough:
...the Black Artists Association is taking her to task for not wearing anything by an African American designer. Cofounder Amnau Eele said Wednesday she will make a formal appeal to the First Lady’s office on behalf of the BAA. “It’s fine and good if you want to be all ‘Kumbaya’ and ‘We Are the World’ by representing all different countries. But if you are going to have Isabel Toledo do the inauguration dress, and Jason Wu do the evening gown, why not have Kevan Hall, B Michael, Stephen Burrows or any of the other black designers do something too?” Eele said.
This is the kind of self-destructive stuff that we Black folks engage in way too often. What makes it even sadder is that Ms. Eele thinks she's helping. By speaking out on behalf of the designers - which the Black Artists Association doesn't even represent formally - she really seemed to believe that this rather sarcastic protest would actually reflect well on her and the people she name-dropped.
One of them didn't seem to appreciate it:
B. Michael said the statement made on behalf of the Black Artists Association (and first published in WWD Jan. 22) does not represent his point of view. “I understand their sensitivity and respect their right to express it,” he said. “I personally believe it is an unfair expectation to place on the First Lady. Fashion is subjective and a matter of personal choice.
It's obvious that Michelle Obama can wear whatever she pleases and should be able to do so without having it inferred by people like Ms. Eele that she's somehow not down with the cause.
That said, she doesn't deserve this:
According to WWD, Black Artists Association co-founder Amnau Eele has received death threats in response to her public criticism of Michelle Obama for not wearing an African-American designer to the inauguration.
Everybody chill. It's a dress.
NOW PROVE THAT MS. EELE SAID ANY OF THESE COMMENTS TO WWD, BITCH.
SHE DID NOT,JUST LIKE TRAYVON DID NOT ATTACK ZIMMERMANN. PEOPLE LIKE ZIMMERMAN LEARN HOW TO PROFILE BLACK PEOPLE FROM SCUM ASS MOTHER FUCKERS LIKE YOU. NEXT TIME, KEEP YOUR BIG FUCKING MOUTH CLOSED UNTIL YOU KNOW ALL THE FACTS, STUPID ASS HO.
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