Capitol View: September 19, 2007 Archive

When is racism racism?

Posted at 9:19 AM on September 19, 2007 by Bob Collins

A Minnesota state senator made some comments in the Star Tribune over the weekend, in a controversy that has gotten almost no coverage from other media.

Sen. Patricia Ray Torres, DFL-Minneapolis, was in Worthington on Sunday at a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Apparently, there were noise complaints about the music and the police shut it down.

"Yesterday I found myself in a town so segregated it looks like apartheid in South Africa," said Torres Ray, the state's highest-ranking Hispanic official. "It's not what the officer did -- he did what he was charged to do. But it said you are not welcomed here. You're not welcome to celebrate your heritage."

According to the cops, quoted in the Star Tribune, only one caller mentioned ethnicity ("Mexican," according to the story) when calling to protest the noise.

"It's as if white people are saying it's OK for people to be in the plant, but nowhere else," Torres Ray said. "That's your place, not the school, not the park, not celebrating your heritage."

Torres Ray's failure to use "some" when referring to "white people" -- even assuming her allegations that because an ethnic group was involved, it must be racism are true -- appears to have made the issue clear. Hispanics on this side, white folks on that side.

Meanwhile, the issue has hit Worthington City Hall, according to the Worthington Daily Globe, where people protested the incident

“Our point in being here is to try to get support from the city,” said Roberto Ramirez, spokesperson and president of the Nobles County Hispanic Community (NCHC). “The city owes us an Independence Day celebration. We lost thousands of dollars, not to mention man-hours. Our entire Hispanic community is owed an apology.”

Ramirez admitted he didn’t know if the celebration was shut down for racial reasons or because of miscommunication, but said celebrations for white citizens are not subject to the same noise restrictions.