Crackers
By Mitch Berg
As expected, Andy Birkey of the Minnesoros “Independent” was at last week’s “Appeal to Heaven” fundraiser for You Can Run But You Can Not Hide, a Christian group that evangelizes in the most hostile environment in America today – public schools. (Pointless and unneeded disclosure that serves more as inter-station out-shouting: YCRBYCNH’s Bradlee Dean and Jake MacMillan co-host Sons of Liberty, on AM1280, which follows Ed and I on Saturday afternoons).
Everyone expected Birkey to show up, because the special guest speaker was Rep. Michele Bachmann. If Rep. Bachmann stops for a hamburger, the “Independent” is there.
Now, I didn’t attend the event – I had a school thing for one of my kids to go to.
But I was drawn to this bit here in Birkey’s coverage (with emphasis added by me):
The almost exclusively white crowd had assembled at the Sheraton ballroom in Bloomington to raise funds for the ministry
“Almost exclusively white?”
Part of me wonders if Birkey can qualify or quantify the phrase “almost exclusively white”. How many non-white people were there? One? Ten? Five percent? How does one contextualize “almost exclusively white” in a state that is, let’s remember, almost exclusively (over 90%) white (about four percent black, three percent Asian and about a fifth of a percent Hispanic).
The other part of me wants to stand on a soapbox and remind the world…
…that however “almost exclusively” white the crowd at YCRBYCNH’s rally may have been, it is and shall always be less so than the white, college-educated, middle-class staff of the Minnesoros “Independent” will ever be. The Mindy’s staff, with the brief exception of Abdi Aynte, has always been vastly whiter than Minnesota as a whole.
For those of you who keep count of such things.
November 16th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Classic deflection, Mitch. While you’ve made your point about whiteness, what do you think about a far-right Christian group evangelizing at public schools using taxpayer dollars? I can’t imagine you’d be behind it if the Muslim America Society was running a faux punk band that used tax dollars to promote Islam in public schools. Sounds like you would’ve attended the fundraiser if your kid didn’t have a school thing. Really?
November 16th, 2009 at 9:52 am
The fun thing is that the “Almost Exclusively White” line has an endless number of uses:
– The Almost Exclusively White crowd I saw at the Co-op
– The Almost Exclusively White playlist I heard on The Current
– The Almost Exclusively White call center on the PBS fundraiser
– The Almost Exclusively White students I saw when touring MCAD
– The Almost Exclusively White crowd I saw at the Diablo Cody movie.
– The Almost Exclusively White crowd I saw at the anti-Bush plays at the Fringe.
– The Almost Exclusively White people roaming around Calhoun Square.
The most diverse place to be? Maple Grove Wal-Mart. In 5 minutes I saw Latinos, African-Americans, African Immigrants, Arabs, Hmong, Chinese, and Whites. I heard at least 4 different languages and numerous accents. But I seriously doubt we’ll see the HuffPos and Sorosphere championing them any time soon.
November 16th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Classic deflection, Mitch. While you’ve made your point about whiteness, what do you think about a far-right Christian group evangelizing at public schools using taxpayer dollars?
Classic redeflection, “lix”; the notion that a St. Olaf-educated, Prius-driving, MPR-pledging bunch of guys like the Mindy would take a drive-by swipe through Racialland is, in and of itself, gloriously absurd and worthy of covering on its own.
As to your other question – what do I think about “far-right Christians” evangelizing at schools? Let’s continue:
I can’t imagine you’d be behind it if the Muslim America Society was running a faux punk band that used tax dollars to promote Islam in public schools.
Given the groups that “evanglized” my kids in the public schools – radical anti-war groups, wahabbi global warming zealots, anti-military-recruiting whackoes, proponents of native-American spirituality, DFL candidates (with equal time explicitly denied!), condom distributors – I don’t know what harm a little balance could do ’em.
But to answer your question more directly – yes. I favor allowing ’em all in front of our school kids. My only fear – and it is a huge one – is not that kids will get “evangelized”; it’s that our school system utterly fails at inculcating critical thinking in students; the one skill that allows students to actually discern what it is they believe – whether “conservative Christian” or radical Condomist – is actively squelched in our education system.
Sounds like you would’ve attended the fundraiser if your kid didn’t have a school thing. Really?
What do you mean “really?” It’s not that complicated. There was a thing at one of my kids’ schools. It’d been scheduled long before I got the invitation for the event. Even if it HAD been a station event (it wasn’t) I would have had to have begged off. Since the date was set, any decision about attending was irrelevant.
November 16th, 2009 at 11:25 am
These evangelists should take a page from the Brokeback Cowboy Community and start a “safe schools” program.
November 16th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Andy Birkey: “A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in forestry, urban studies and sociology.
[comment edited by blog owner]
[Sorry, Tom. While I don’t observe a “line” for someone to “cross”, that one was borderline lawyer-worthy. Let’s not go there]
November 16th, 2009 at 11:53 am
A shorter Andy Birkey:
Christian Evangelism in schools — BAD
Homosexual Evangelism in schools — GOOD
November 16th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Damnit Mitch, now we’re going to have to try to imagine what Swiftee’s punchline might have been.
November 16th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Brokeback Cowboy gets degree in “Forestry”…..fill in the blanks.
November 16th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Mitch – You have a link to the site “Stuff White People Like” and one can’t spend more than ten minutes there without being convinced the C. Lander, the proprietor of said blog, has spent significant time studying Urban White Progressives (UWP). The fact that they only notice “whiteness” when it is a TEA party gathering or a Conservative lecture without bothering to notice the same for anti-Bush rallies, food co-op openings or a save Darfur concert speaks volumes of where their heart is on the subject of race. Apparently, people of color are nothing more than UWP accessorizing, running cover for the soft bigotry of low expectations the UWP have for people who are not white (like them).
November 16th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
“A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in forestry, urban studies and sociology.”
So he spent lot of money on an education & can’t actually help a living soul with anything. If he’d gone to trade school he could’ve learned how to fix a leaky pipe.
November 16th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
“how to fix a leaky pipe.”
Watch it Terry. Mitch has his finger on the delete key