Stupidity Ignores State Boundaries

Wow! Racism in Arkansas? Racism in Wisconsin? Wisconsin Republicans using Arkansas racist humor? Robert M. LaFollette (R-WI) must be weeping. My WI chum — Tom Terrific — sent this item from the Madison fishwrap and I am relieved to see that stupidity is not confined to Texas Republicans. There is enough stupidity to go around. All the way to Washington, DC. This, at time when the NYTimes finds that Bush is still popular among Latinos? Stupidity ignores ethnic boundaries, too. If this be treason, make the most of it.

[x Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, WI]

Racist Poem Appears On Web site for GOP

By David Callender

August 2, 2003

A racist, anti-immigrant poem that led to the resignation of a top state official in Arkansas surfaced recently on the official Web site of the Republican Party of Winnebago County (Wisconsin).

The poem, titled "Illegal Poem," uses broken English to suggest that white Americans are "crazy" to pay for public assistance to illegal Mexican immigrants.

Winnebago County Republican Party officials said Friday that the poem had been placed on the site by a volunteer Webmaster, and they promised to remove it immediately.

"The sentiments and characterizations it makes are certainly not those of the Winnebago County Republican Party," said Ron Montgomery, a member of the county party's board of directors.

County party Chairwoman Michelle Litgens said she didn't know of the poem's existence on the Web site until she was contacted by a reporter.

"Unfortunately, I'm not an Internet-savvy individual," she said.

The poem could not be directly accessed through any of the Winnebago County party's main Web pages. But it could be found through a routine Internet search.

The poem "didn't look to me like it was written in good taste, and I'm the daughter of many, many immigrants," Litgens said.

She said the Web site's content was determined by a volunteer administrator, Troy Schulz of Neenah.

Schulz declined to be interviewed, but in an e-mail to The Capital Times, he wrote that he routinely places all kinds of information on the party's Web site but does not always have time to check its content.

"This is the first instance I have run across where someone had an 'issue' with any of our content," he wrote.

After reading the poem, Schulz wrote, "I can somewhat understand how certain parties could read into this and take offense at it in one way or another. However, ... whoever the original author is, they are clearly not making any sort of specific inference racially."

"I feel that the author's point was most likely to make the reader aware that there are many people who do take advantage of our country's welfare systems in an unfair way. Unfortunately, a great many of those people come here illegally from other countries. This isn't a racial jab. It's a fact."

He added that he removed the poem Friday after receiving two complaints about it.

State Republican Party Director Darrin Schmitz blamed Schulz for the posting.

"The Winnebago County party should hold their Webmaster accountable," he said. "The Winnebago County party did not give permission for the poem to be posted, so it should be removed for its content as well as the fact that it should not have been there in the first place."

The poem can be found on a number of Internet sites, including those of racist hate groups, and appears to date back about three years.

One version of the poem substitutes Kosovar refugees in Britain for Mexican immigrants in the United States.

The poem includes the following lines:

Kids need dentist? Wife needs pills

We get free! We got no bills!

American crazy! He pay all year,

To keep welfare running here.

We think America darn good place!

Too darn good for the white man race.

If they no like us, they can go,

Got lots of room in Mexico.

On Wednesday, the head of Arkansas' emergency government resigned after e-mailing the same poem to employees of his agency.

Although he condemned the content of the poem, Montgomery sought to distinguish between the two cases.

"It's one thing for a government employee on government property to other government employees, and it's another thing for a volunteer to make a mistake by posting something on a Web site," he said.

But the state Democratic Party said the poem was another example of Republicans' insensitivity to minorities. Party spokesman Seth Boffeli noted that the state party recently had to remove a cartoon on Indian gambling that American Indian leaders had denounced as racist.

"Once again, we see Wisconsin Republicans showing very poor taste," he said. "In this poem, they are feeding into the worst racist stereotypes just to make a point on welfare."

Montgomery, who is African-American, fired back: "Everyone who is not being biased knows that the Republican Party is not a racist party. And they should know that racism is not limited to any one party."

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