During The Holidays, WI State Sen. Grothman Celebrates Ignorance - - His Own
I took in several minutes of last week's public Kwanzaa celebration in Milwaukee's City Hall rotunda when I went downtown to pay my property tax bill.
A predominantly African-American crowd, some seated, listened to drumming, testimonials and other presentations; Common Council President Willie Hines was in attendance, and it was a pleasant and inspiring gathering enjoyed by people in the tax payment lines, too.
Good for Milwaukee, I thought.
WISN-12 TV has posted an event photo album.
So it's hard to chalk up the reported rant against Kwanzaa by State Sen. Glenn Grothman, (R-West Bend), to anything other than gross ignorance and intolerance:
Calling it a holiday that "almost no black people today care about," state Sen. Glenn Grothman is characterizing Kwanzaa as a false holiday conjured up by a racist college professor and perpetuated by hard-core liberals.Wednesday update: Grothman will not apologize.
"Why must we still hear about Kwanzaa?" the Republican lawmaker from West Bend asked in a press release. "Why are hard-core left wingers still trying to talk about Kwanzaa — the supposed African-American holiday celebration between Christmas and New Year’s?"
When did he become the arbiter of whose holidays are authentic and whose culture is worth respecting? And should taxpayers pick up the cost of his misuse of state, news-release resources?
This is not the first time Grothman demeaned a large swath of the citizenry:
About time he takes flak for equating single-parenthood with child abuse.Or blathered on about large numbers of other people:
The Huffington Post takes note.
Over at the Daily Beast, Michelle Goldberg writes a detailed account of the repeal [of Wisconsin equal pay litigation rights] and the effect it will have in the state. Goldberg also interviews Republican state senator Glenn Grothman, who was an enthusiastic fan of repealing the law.
According to Grothman, not only is there no actual pay gap between the sexes, if there was one it wouldn’t matter anyway. After all, men need money more than women do, since they have families to support. “You could argue that money is more important for men,” he told Goldberg. “I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a so-called bias in the workplace is just not true.”
9 comments:
"Took in" and participated in are 2 different actions.
Since you cannot participate in this ethnic event were you not segregated based on national origin or other reasons?
grothman is a very disturbing and ugly neanderthall sloth. Shame on voters in his district for sending such an ill-informed and despicable man to Madison to do the people's business.
He is a sick little monkey.
NPR did a story this week on the declining observance of Kwanzaa that bears out some of what Grothman says:
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/01/168388526/significances-of-kwanzaa-changes-over-the-years
I don't appreciate Grothman's desire to tell others what to do, often in offensive ways. But he's correct that Kwanzaa is more honored by calendar makers and politically-correct officials than it is by real individuals and families.
Anon 6:52 a.m. Hardly. Events in the Rotunda are approved by the Council for an organization. The public is welcome always to watch, and participate if invited.
That may have taken [lace; I could not stay too long. This was routine. Sorry...
npr is national propaganda radio -- no more truth there than in journal communications or lee enterprises.
Its just the same corporate line but with stealth ads from multinational corporations.
I would not take anything at npr at face value and am so tired of hearing people hold it up as some sort of unbiased sort of information because, you know, it is npr.
They demonstrate the lie of objective reporting, the lies you were taught in school about journalism, and the false dichotomies and choices more than anyone.
dollar to the donut grothman got his talking points from npr or from the same source they did.
James,
Thanks for your point on the event being approved in the Rotunda and I'm certain it was a peaceful event by those who celebrated Kwanza.
But more to my point and I think perhaps that of Senator Grothmann - As a white man of most likely European decent, what would you celebrate? That is precisely his argument which lies more to the King dream speech.
As long as US citizens continue to use color and national origin as the reason for a cause, the Dream speech will echo hallow. I'm afraid that will be until end time.
I've seen nothing in 50 years that would change my mind. We've made no progress to unite the human condition.
Gay marriage, ObamaCare, organized labor, tax hikes for the wealthiest citizens, greenhouse gas regulations, assault weapon legislation, religious freedom for Muslim Americans, and now Kwanzaa ... each has been labeled by conservative extremists as a "left wing plot designed to destroy America".
So many plots, so little time.
I suspect this guy is there to make other Republicans look moderate. Also, he is a distraction from real issues. He is incorrect about Kwanza and should only speak about his own traditions, not the traditions of a group that he doesn't know anything about. Surely there is a range of opinions within African-American communities about Kwanza, however, it is not up to a state senator to decide what people will celebrate and what they won't celebrate. It is good for everyone to know the basics about holidays celebrated in the state, but in a positive way.
For a tree hugging rabble rousing red baited commie like me Glenn Grothman is comic relief. But I dare say had I been born female rage would more likely be my comment here.
He does crave attention and I'm sure his run against Congressman Petri will get him plenty. The question is will he have enough savvy to recognize ridicule.
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