Thursday, April 28, 2011

Race Relations and The Republican Party

I just wanted to mention a couple articles that I found very telling regarding the Republican party and how many within that political group view minorities.

In an article by Randy Krehbiel for Tulsa World, Krehbiel pointed to comments recently made by state Rep. Sally Kern, in which Kern claimed the reason why black people don't succeed is because they don't work as hard as others.

"We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school?" said Kern. "I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them."

The Oklahoma House of Representatives has approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would eliminate Affirmative Action in state government. To be clear, I oppose Affirmative Action, but not for the reasons stated by Kern.

Then there is this article from The Huffington Post, in which a Missouri politician discussed flooding an impoverished predominantly black community to save 130,000 acres of farmland.
Due to high rains, waters at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers are running dangerously high, and the mayor of Cairo, Illinois, located at the confluence, has asked residents to evacuate the town.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering a plan to destroy a levee, which would lower the floodwaters by a few feet and help protect Cairo. But the state of Missouri has vigorously objected to the plan, because it would badly damage around 130,000 acres of farmland, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Missouri's Republican House Speaker Steve Tilley was asked by reporters about the dilemma. "Would you rather have Missouri farmland flooded or Cairo underwater?" Tilley is asked.

Without hesitation, he replies, "Cairo. I’ve been there. Trust me. Cairo.”

As another reporter prepares to ask another question, Tilley goes on. “Have you been to Cairo? OK, then you know what I’m saying then.”

Cairo, Illinois (pronounced KAY-roh) was at the turn of the 20th century a bustling trade center. The 2,800-person town is now largely abandoned, two-thirds African-American, and deeply impoverished: nearly 50 percent of children under the age of 18 in Cairo live below the poverty level.
And finally, I wanted to point to a recent study by Public Policy Polling, in which it was revealed that nearly half of Mississippi's Republicans believe interracial marriage should be illegal.

Jon Terbush wrote the following for Talking Points Memo:
Americans nationwide are evenly divided over the issue of same sex marriage. But Republicans in Mississippi are divided over a wholly different wedlock issue: interracial marriage.

In a PPP poll released Thursday, a 46% plurality of registered Republican voters said they thought interracial marriage was not just wrong, but that it should be illegal. 40% said interracial marriage should be legal...

In February, a Gallup poll found that Mississippi was the most conservative state in the nation. In that survey, 50.0% of adults identified themselves as conservatives.

The PPP poll was conducted March 24-27 among 400 registered Republican voters. It has a margin of error of 4.9%.
This is just more evidence to prove the GOP is at least favored by racist-minded people (and definitely more evidence to prove systemic intolerance within the party then the "evidence" conservatives collected on popular targets like ACORN, NPR, and Planned Parenthood).

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