Kane Blathers, Again!

GOP legislator represents the state of denial

Something about all this talk about “fixing” the state’s affirmative action policy really chafes my hide.

Something about Eugene Kane really ‘chafes’ MY hide!

Sen. Grothman is the chairman of a state affirmative action review committee and has apparently decided there’s no longer any need for the state government to consider race when it comes to doing business or university admissions. In fact, it seems Grothman, a West Bend Republican, doesn’t see any need for racial diversity at all.

No, actually, we ARE already a racially diverse society. Continuously pointing out our differences adds absolutely nothing to our society.

This is what he told a reporter:

“I think it’s racist to imply that I’m going to learn something from you because your great-great-grandparents came from someplace else. Unless you literally grow up in another country, you’re an American just like everyone else.

“You follow the Packers, eat McDonald’s, and share the same tastes as everyone else.”

This clown wasn’t even in the room. Senator Grothman didn’t say this to a reporter, he said it to Representative Grigsby. Get your ‘facts’ straight Kane!

Ms. Grigsby’s response was the same as what mine would have been. I don’t follow the Packers, I’m not crazy about McDonald’s, and my tastes aren’t the same as everyone else’s. However, unlike Kane, I understand what the Senator meant by his statement.

This is yet another attempt by Grothman to legislate racial and ethnic matters for which he clearly has no grasp. If he did, he would understand Wisconsin lags behind many other states in terms of equal conditions for all of its citizens.

The “lagging behind”, as Mr. Kane puts it, is caused more by the lack of leadership and education, than anything else. If you use the color of your skin as an excuse to fail, then no matter how much legislation is enacted for ‘affirmative action’, you will fail, period.

Grothman is the same guy who made disparaging remarks about America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee a few years back. He questioned whether the museum’s name was appropriate because, in his opinion, black Americans had never experienced a holocaust.

Numbers pulled out of the air by a few people turned a horrible part of our history into a ‘holocaust’. The systematic slaughter of 12 million people IS a holocaust. There was no concerted effort to eradicate the Africans brought to this country, originally as indentured servants.

Grothman’s original proposals included loony provisions like requiring applicants to demonstrate “knowledge or experience” of their racial and ethnic background and requiring minorities to prove they were at least 25% of that group to qualify for preferential treatment.

There is absolutely nothing ‘loony’ about having a limit on how far back your ‘minority status’ goes. Where does it end?

The debate about affirmative action requires thoughtful insight in order to “fix” policies that have worked in the past but may need tinkering. Leaving the tinkering to someone like Grothman would be like asking your most clueless relative to work on your car.

How well has it worked? Other than dividing Americans into ‘hyphens’?  Am I a Seminole-Irish-American?  Is my granddaughter an Irish-Seminole-African-American?  No,  I AM AN AMERICAN, and so is she.  Period!  Part of Senator Grothman’s intention was to remove the ‘hyphens’.