Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Kane Watch: Apples and Oranges

Note: It was nice to take a few days off from Eugene Kane. I don't want to nitpick him on every little thing he says. And even though I could have, I figured it was time for a little break. But as they say, all good things...

From Eugene Kane's January 24th column:
The furor over choice has sparked a patently unfair radio commercial
equating Doyle's stance on school choice with Southern governors such as Orval
Faubus and George Wallace, who stood in the schoolhouse door to prevent black
children from receiving an education.

The ad also wrongly suggests that school choice is the paramount issue for
most blacks in the 2006 gubernatorial election. It's not.

Maybe it should be.

In a 2001 article, Kane wrote:
About the only time white readers truly want to discuss race
is when it concerns crime.

School choice predominantly benefits Milwaukee's inner-city blacks. It has nothing to do with crime. It has everything to do with giving black students the same level of education enjoyed by white children in private and suburban schools. It would seem like something Kane would embrace.

To be fair, though, his issue seems to be with comparing Doyle to someone like George Wallace. In truth it's a far more apt analogy than comparing the House of Representatives to a plantation. In the case of school choice a governor's actions may adversely impact the ability of black students to get the education they both want and deserve, which is exactly what George Wallace did. The plantation reference actually tried to equate Democrats with slaves. Even Kane acknowledged how condescending that was.

But he still called it "provoking."

Why, then, is an ad (and yes, it's now an ad) produced, in part, by a prominent black man and voiced by black students any less provoking, but equally as condescending, than a white woman like Hillary Clinton comparing the House of Representatives to a plantation?

Because Eugene Kane says so. By now we should all realize that doesn't make it true.

1 Comments:

At 12:50 AM, January 25, 2006, Blogger Jessica McBride said...

actually, in his choice ad, mccann specifically mentions crime. he says that school choice prevents crime!!! Chew on that one Eugene

 

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