Now for one of our regular features, the Clown Award, given for meritorious stupidity.This week to give away the big red nose we must go to the great state of Colorado where, on August 21, Colorado state Sen. Vicki Marble suggested that high poverty rates among blacks and Hispanics are connected to diets that include fried chicken and barbecue.
After declaring how she "loves" the barbecue chicken she had down South, she went on to say that, quoting,
The Mexican diet in Mexico with all of the fresh vegetables, and you go down there and they are much thinner than they are up here. They’ve changed their diet. I’ve read studies on that. Those things aren't good for you.
Oh, yeah, them Mexicans and them blacks, they loves them some fried chicken and barbecue, doncha know.
What really made this stand out for its bigoted stupidity is that she said this during a meeting of the state legislature's Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force, aimed at, at least in theory, finding ways to reduce poverty by expanding economic opportunities for the poor. Committee members were being presented with statistics about racial and ethnic disparities in poverty - and she proceeded to make it about eating chicken.
On the upside, another member of the committee later said “there was an audible gasp in the room” and Marble got immediate pushback from other members, one of who called the comments "racist" and "insensitive."
But apparently wanting to nail down her claim to the clown award, Marble later released a statement saying "My comments were not meant to be disparaging to any community. I am saddened they were taken in that regard." In other words, "I didn't do anything wrong. I'm just sad that you just can't understand - which makes me the sadly misunderstood victim here."
The Denver Post wasn't taken in. They called her original remarks "finger-lickin' stupid" and of her later statement about how "sad" she was, it said "We are saddened a state lawmaker can be this ignorant in 2013."
Ignorant - and a clown.
Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/22/vicki-marble-poverty-chicken_n_3794679.html
http://kdvr.com/2013/08/21/sparks-fly-after-sen-marbles-fried-chicken-comment-in-poverty-hearing/
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_23917367/sen-vicki-marbles-ignorance
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