[Mpls] African Americans on the Council-it's important

[wmmarks]

gemgram wrote:

> I am sorry, but what color is people of color?  People throw around 
> the term as if it only means Black.  Robert Lillegren does have Indian 
> heritage.  Who knows what other Council Member might be something 
> other than WHITE?  Where is the drive to get a Hispanic person on the 
> Council?  An Asian?  Hey, or even a poor white person?  (I consider 
> poor white people to have color also). Hey, and what about us generic 
> mutts that are several colors rolled into one.

 It's important to have people of various colors, creeds, genders, 
sub-cultures, and classes--particularly classes--across the spectrum of 
political offices, boardrooms, unions, and etc. We say we are a melting 
pot, but so far only some get to melt into the pot, as yet. Ergo, those 
of us from the dominant culture (lately I'm hearing "European 
Americans," a mystifying term) never hear what people who are not of the 
dominant culture know, or what they have to say, why they object to a 
plan in the works, what they have to contribute. Bluntly, unstinting 
dominance makes one deaf, dumb, blind, and stupid in the long run 
because it's inbreeding.

And you are right, poor, probably mostly white people are also left out 
of the mix. Our city council has not changed much for a lot of years. 
Those who serve are virtually always either middle class or middle class 
plus. I came here in the 70s and middle class women were getting into 
political chairs, SSB among them. One African American man, Van White, 
actually had a chair and one lower class woman, Sandra ?(senior moment 
here) had gotten a chair. Same in the legislature, county board. When 
she wins, Carol Becker will be the first woman on the Board of Estimates 
and Taxation, I think, and it's already 2005.

> We need qualified caring people, what ever the color of their skin, 
> lets drop this numbers game and concentrate on quality, not color.

I agree to caring, what qualified is I don't really know, but I 
disagree. We need much greater numbers of our various subcultures, many 
of which were not here 30 years ago to sit on the council. It will make 
it much more difficult to continually put all our subcultures at an 
institutional disadvantage--to the detriment of community making--if 
they also hold chairs, run companies, hold management positions, teach 
in the schools.

Personally, I'm way bored with the great majority of our city council, 
and that boredom stems, I think, from their blandness, their mostly 
dominant culture attitude. It would be unfair to put it on the backs of 
Ms. Johnson Lee, Mr. Samuels, and Mr. Lilligren to represent all the 
people who should be around that table making the decisions. Then, to 
see the extent of the hole we keep digging, look at the management staff 
who report to them and put forth plans for their approval. White, white, 
white, white, white, mostly. Experts in various fields, also white. BIG 
yawn.

The only worse thing I could think of would be to be stuck in hell for 
eternity with only Irish Catholics like myself. Now there's a nasty 
thought. Don't get me wrong. They're mine own and I claim them, but cake 
will make you miserable if it's all you eat.

> WizardMarks, Central
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