State Senator Dan Hall: "‘I watched Minneapolis get destroyed’ by integratio"n

[dflprincess]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/01/minnesota-republican-i-watched-minneapolis-get-destroyed-by-integration/

As Minnesota's state senate debates a public school funding bill that would remove funding from integration programs in the major cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Duluth and shift it to a statewide literacy drive, one freshman Republican has been particularly blunt in his opinions.

“I watched Minneapolis get destroyed,” Sen. Dan Hall stated on Thursday, "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 segregation."

"My best friends are minority, they think integration in foolish," Hall insisted. "It’s a ploy to get more money. ... It’s disrespectful to tell my friends, my minority friends that they can’t make it without extra special help.”....

...Sen. Hall, however, attempted to cast his position as arising out of his deep concern for literacy, "I am a product of the Minneapolis school system," he explained, "completing all of my years, all the different schools. I graduated with a 6th grade reading ability(*). I struggled my whole life. We need to teach kids how to read.”

(*) That explains a lot.


Pity me. I live in this clown's district (SD40 Bloomington/Burnsville). At least Bloomington narrowly voted for the DFL incumbant, it was the idiots in Burnsville that elected this guy.

From Hubert Humphrey telling us to "walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights" to this.

[mascarax]

1. He's getting a lot of publicity, even Markos tweeted about him

something like: racist MN GOPer who literally said "my best friends are minority".

I didn't realize until reading your post that THIS is the guy who beat John Doll...right?

I saw the video yesterday and was floored that someone like this (and I know there are more) got elected and is allegedly "representing" people. He started off saying (paraphrasing) "I don't speak up much", which is of course what we all want in a rep. Someone who doesn't talk. Of course, when he does and says what he thinks...watch out! dfl princess, I do pity you and everyone who didn't vote for him.

He's gotta go. I hope Doll runs again.

[dflprincess]

4. You are correct, he did beat John Doll

and I believe John is at least thinking of another run.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. The first few years of school integration in Minneapolis were carried out

in such a ham-fisted way that I wonder if there wasn't some passive-aggressive INTENT to provoke white flight.

For a couple of years they were changing school boundaries annually to achieve precise racial balance so that families didn't know from one year to the next which school their kids would be in. Viable neighborhood schools were closed and consolidated into new megaschools.

Sure, there was racism (a lot of racism) involved in the white flight that occurred beginning in the 1970s, but to be told that your second grader has to change schools next year because the number of kids of your ethnic group is now too small or too large might have pushed parents (those who were fine with staying in a multiracial city) to look at private school options.

I'm glad they got rid of that nonsense of requiring precise percentages of each ethnic group after a few years, but by then the damage had been done.

What we have now is a group of 30-somethings and 40-somethings who have spent almost their whole lives in Apple Valley or Maple Plain, think it's "too dangerous" to go downtown because you see a lot of African-Americans and African-Africans there, and write online comments to the Strib about not wanting to ride the bus with "the diversity."

[dflprincess]

5. "Preacher Hall" needs to take a walk through his district

He'll find that neither Bloomington or Burnsville are quite as pale as they used to be.

With any luck he'll decide he needs to move to Wyoming.

[azurnoir]

7. Ditto Richfield, Eagan, Brooklyn Center and Park across the river

Inver Grove Heights, South and West St Paul, Maplewood, Roseville...... in fact the first and second tier 'burbs are getting less pale all the time

[mascarax]

3. Nick Coleman expresses his "admiration" on his blog

with the title "Dumbasses with Microphones"

http://www.nickcolemanmn.com/?p=1654&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[ISUGRADIA]

6. Two MN GOP State Senators On Wonkette in the Last Week

This guy and the moron who defended the crappy high deductable insurance plan the Repubs want to force state workers on:

http://wonkette.com/441809/fat-wheezing-mn-senator-says-avoid-doctors-save-on-heart-attack

[geardaddy]

8. As someone who grew up in Minneapolis

in the 70s and 80s, and benefitted from the public school system, I say, "Fuck you, Hall."

I got an excellent education and I didn't graduate with a sixth-grade reading ability.