Mayor Cindy Bartman of East Grand Rapids Township, Michigan, doesn’t have much support for her outspoken opposition to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), but she has come up with a novel argument as to why race and sex preferences are still needed.
She is going it alone in East Grand Rapids. Mayor Cindy Bartman came out swinging against the affirmative action ballot issue on Nov. 7. But she doesn’t have anyone falling in line behind her at work. Asked by resident Armand Robinson, who is black, to condemn the ballot issue, the City Commission referred it to a subcommittee last month. “It is their recommendation from the subcommittee that — while this is an important issue — we have decided not to take a public position on this,” Bartman said. “I’m going to speak as a local leader to ask voters to take a really hard look at this. All of us want to live in a world without racism. But the fact that we have to vote on this tells me we’re not there yet.”
So, the fact that 500,000 citizens of Michigan signed petitions that have forced a vote on a proposal that would bar state agencies from rewarding or punishing people because of their race means we have not yet arrived “in a world without racism” and thus we must continue discriminating on the basis of race?
I wonder if Her Honor Mayor Bartman thought that the fact that it was necessary for Congress actually to vote to outlaw discrimination based on race meant that we were “not there yet” and so we didn’t need the Civil Rights Act?
And people wonder why I find so many arguments against MCRI to be absolutely batty.
