Shot in the Dark

Bad Taste and Tastes Bad

I like satire. And normally, when the satirist runs up against the dim wailing of the not-too-bright audience, I take the side of the satirist.

But not this time:

A growing chorus of people who see no humor in Chris Stewart’s role in a satiric campaign website want the new Minneapolis school board member to resign even before he is sworn in.

But Stewart indicated that he is staying the course.

On Friday, former school board member Ann Berget joined those calling for Stewart’s resignation after he took responsibility for a racially themed website that mimicked the official website of Fifth Congressional District candidate Tammy Lee.

Racially themed? You be the judge. Here’s a bit:

Congressman Martin Sabo’s longtime District Director, Kathleen Anderson, who is a lifelong, loyal Democrat is crossing party lines for the first time in support of Tammy Lee’s campaign for Congress. Anderson says, “Independence Party candidate, Tammy Lee, is the only candidate that I feel is white enough to carry on Congressman Martin Sabo’s legacy. I’m voting for Tammy Lee because I’m a drunken hag who can’t possibly vote for Mandingo.”

Four suburban Mayors also agree and are publicly supporting and endorsing Lee’s candidacy: ReNae Bowman (DFL Mayor of Crystal), Mike Holtz (DFL Mayor of Robbinsdale), Martin Opem (Ind. Mayor of New Hope) and Gary Peterson (DFL Mayor of Columbia Heights). These are all elected politicians who no one has heard of, but still, they’re white like Tammy Lee.

Stewart’s side, via the Strib:

“The buck stops with me and I take responsibility for the caustic and gross commentary that has resulted.”I look forward to focusing my energy on the incredibly tough work of creating safe, orderly and academically rigorous schools for every child in Minneapolis.”

Naturally, the buck-stopping and responsibility-taking stops short of an concrete penitence.

Of course, if Stewart resigned, he’d be replaced (this is Minneapolis, after all) with someone who do doubt believed the same, whatever his/her race, whether they said it or not. This is the city that elects Greens to responsible positions in government, after all. But it’d be nice to draw the line somewhere.

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Mitch Berg

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3 responses to “Bad Taste and Tastes Bad”

  1. Colleen Avatar
    Colleen

    Oh, “the left”…where they talk of “gay” as if it were a bad thing (any gay conservative is kind of icky)….or where racial sensitivity doesn’t apply to whites or black conservatives. As a white person, though, they can throw whatever they want at me…I could care less. I often wonder why blacks, et al don’t feel the same way. Well, I really do know. It’s the love of victimhood and the spoils that may accrue.

  2. RBMN Avatar
    RBMN

    If there’s no kernel of truth in satire … it’s just not funny. The problem with Keith Ellison is not his color, any more than the problem with Michael Moore is his pants size. I don’t care about Ellison’s color, or how much Moore eats. Ellison (and Moore) are disliked because they lie to the public, and get away with it.

  3. phaedrus Avatar
    phaedrus

    While I’m not a Green, they get my votes more than the Democrats do and I’ve got to object to the insinuation that they tend to have racist beliefs.

    They may be a bit naive at times and their attempts at corruption would be pathetically frustrating if it weren’t so annoying, but I truly believe that there is a lot less innate racism among the Greens than there is among the Democrats.

    I’ll admit, they do inherit some of the “liberal” racist mistakes though – like “bad cop, the minority a gun wasn’t a threat”-ism but I don’t think its as deeply ingrained and I don’t think they have that sort of subtle nasty “well those people are inferior so they need a bit more leeway and a hand up” that you find among old school Democrats. However, I don’t think they inherit their liberal baggage any more than the average conservative inherits the “he’s poor and talks like a gangster so he really doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt in my book”. Not all of the folks on either side of the divide have those flaws – in fact, I’d like to think a minority of us do these days but its still in there.

    I really think there is a future where race doesn’t figure into our thinking any more than blonde versus brunette and I generally agree with you that any thoughts along the lines of “those people are beholden to our philosophies because they are that race” is antithetical to that purpose. For the record, every time I hear the term “house nigger” used to describe a conservative black it reduces my opinion of the speaker to something akin to pond scum. Actually, pond scum produces oxygen, so its useful.

    Btw, Gotta like the Democratic CM Don Samuel’s take on the racism of white liberalism. Hard to argue with.

    In any case, if it makes a difference, there’s a lot of pissed off folks on the Minneapolis City Issues forum over this nasty little piece of work. Its probable that some of it is a reaction to not liking the dirty laundry get shown but I think a lot of it is genuine. I know mine is.

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