August 24, 2013 5:39 AM

Ignorant, offensive, racist...and evidently built to stay that way

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD

(apologies to Keith Olbermann)

CO state Sen. Vicki Marble (R-Ft. Collins)

“When you look at life expectancy, there are problems in the black race,” Marble said during a meeting of the legislature’s Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force. “Sickle-cell anemia is something that comes up. Diabetes is something that’s prevalent in the genetic makeup, and you just can’t help it. Although I’ve got to say, I’ve never had better barbecue and better chicken and ate better in my life than when you go down South and you, I mean, I love it. Everybody loves it.”…. Marble continued, “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.”

It takes a very special kind of stupid to hold forth in the manner Marble saw fit to. In the space of a few short sentences, she managed to offend two ethnics groups AND display an epic lack of self-awareness and common sense. It was a classic descent into some not-so-classic racism of the “Some of my best friends are [insert name of race or ethnic group here]” variety. The sad thing is that she’s not the first, nor will she be the last, Republican to rush in to where angels fear to tread.

It’s difficult to see how anyone possessing even the barest shred of human decency wouldn’t be offended by Marble’s descent into cheap, gratuitous racism. To their credit, her colleagues were quick to condemn her ignorance and insensitivity. You could be excused for thinking that would be enough for Marble to recognize her error and ask for mercy from the court of public opinion in a very public mea culpa. Like so many Republicans, though, Marble lacks the self-awareness and wherewithal to recognize the offensive nature of her faux pas. In the fashion of those who simply can’t seem to grasp that they might have caused offense, Marble has issued an all-too-typical non-apology apology.

On Wednesday evening, Marbles released a statement in response to the backlash.

“My comments were not meant to be disparaging to any community,” she said. “I am saddened they were taken in that regard. I take my responsibility seriously and I hope our work on this committee will offer real solutions to the health and financial challenges of our vulnerable populations.”

Nice. Marble had a golden opportunity to admit her mistake and perhaps be granted a second chance to prove she’s not an unreconstructed racist…and she booted. It might just be that she really is a racist…and a not terribly adept one at that.

Just when I might have begun to think we’ve actually made progress in the way we view race and ethnicity, Right-wingers like Marble prove all over again that some folks are still ruled by fear, ignorance, and an inability to accept the idea of diversity. Being White doesn’t mean you are ipso facto a member of the ruling class. It just means you won the genetic lottery, not the right to look down on non-Whites and traffic in cheap, worn-out stereotypes.

Then again, when you’re an ignorant, unreconstructed racist, you probably think you get to pretend you have something important to say.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on August 24, 2013 5:39 AM.

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