Following a reader tip five days ago, on Sunday, Bluestem Prairie posted Pioneer Public TV debate: Bill Ingebrigtsen doesn’t believe racial discrimination is a thing:
The Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio and KARE-11 Minnesota Poll Shows 56 Percent of Voters Recognize Racial Inequality, The Voice of Alexandria reported on September 30.
But former Douglas County sheriff and Alexandria-area Republican state senator Bill Ingebrigtsen told viewers during a Senate District 8 debate on Pioneer Public TV that he doesn't think racial discrimination should even be a topic of discussion.
He's having none of it. . . . .
The Minnesota DFL had also tweeted that day:
Back in June, Republican State Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen of District 8 went on the record stating that he thought racism was simply a “sidebar” issue.
— Minnesota DFL Party (@MinnesotaDFL) October 10, 2020
Now, he’s outright denying the existence of racial discrimination altogether. This is why we need to #flipmnsenate! pic.twitter.com/h9T0uPQaGK
Since then, the video clip has captured the nation's fancy. On Tuesday, City Pages' Hannah Jones reported in White MN senator: If there's racism, how come Obama won?:
Minnesota Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen (R-Alexandria) has been known for making sweeping statements.
Like the one recently implying the debate about defunding the Minneapolis police department was the reason why “little kids” were “being shot.”
Also for trying to make English the official language of Minnesota, which would have done little else other than make it really hard for residents who didn’t speak perfect English to understand written instructions on how to vote.
The former Douglas County sheriff is seeking a fifth term to represent his district in the west-central part of the state, containing parts of Otter Tail and Douglas Counties.
On Thursday, Ingebrigtsen appeared alongside his Democratic challenger, Michele Anderson of Fergus Falls, for a debate on the local public television station. Like most things that appear on PBS, it was a very understated and soft-spoken affair. Unless you were paying attention to the particularly understated and soft-spoken bullshit coming out of Senator Ingebrigtsen’s mouth.
The moderator asked the candidates what Minnesota legislators can do to end racial disparities and protect human rights in our state. . . .
Ingebrigtsen['s]esponse started out confusing, then veered pretty quickly into upsetting.
“Well, quite frankly, I think this country is going through some times now where I guess it’s the… I guess I don’t know how to put it, exactly. But I don’t think there’s an educational opportunity that’s been turned down for a teacher,” Ingebrigtsen began, seemingly vaguely addressing Anderson’s point about teachers of color in classrooms.
He continued: “We shouldn’t even be talking about this. We shouldn’t even be discussing this. And I don’t believe there is racial discrimination going on. I absolutely don’t.”
He said he was born in the ‘60s and remembered seeing Civil Rights protests on TV, with “fire trucks and hoses and dogs and horses.” He also said we’d come “leaps and bounds” since then, though without addressing how often recent police brutality protests resulted in protesters seriously injured by tear gas and less-lethal projectiles.
In an aside, Ingebrigtsen suggested that somehow civil rights got a little worse “under the Obama administration.” . . .
But the story didn't stop there. At Raw Story, Tom Boggioni picks up on City Pages' tale in Minnesota Republican denies racism still exists in bizarre Senate debate rant.
Most recently, Ingebrigtsen hit the mainstream, with Tuesday's Daniel Villareal piece in Newsweek, GOP Minnesota Senator Suggests Racism Doesn't Exist by Invoking Obama's Presidency.
Comic Sands picks up on the twittersphere's response to the DFL tweet in Minnesota GOP Lawmaker Absurdly Suggests That Racism Can't Exist Because Obama Was Elected. Head over and check them out.
We're used to Ingebrigtsen's grumpy-cat Marijuana-The-Weed-With-Roots-In-Hell Drug War schtick, but it took his anti-anti-racism to gain his nincompoopery a national audience.
Related posts:
- On Sensible Change MN Cannabis Policy Voter Guide, Ingebrigtsen clings to reefer madness
- Sheriff Bill and Bub Nornes go full blown grumpy cats on medical cannabis bills
- Raw marijuana menace: Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen speaks out against legalizing killer weed
- Ingebrigtsen & Rosen warn colleagues about "dangerously addictive" pot that rips apart families
- Have a hemp heart: Sheriff Bill gets a free bag
- Grumpy cat Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen still grumpy about industrial hemp's infernal roots in Hell
- Ingebrigtsen update: grumpy cat is still grumpy about medical cannabis & intractable pain
- Ingebrigtsen update, part 2: Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas, your kids think pot is a-okay
- MN Senator Gary Dahms shares scary vision of pot-loving DFL majority with Brown Co faithful
- Hagedorn: Senator Gary Dahms stands between you and socialist legal recreational marijuana:
Screengrab: Senator Ingebrigtsen at the moment he said "We shouldn't even be talking about this, people. We shouldn't even be discussing this. And I don’t believe that there is racial discrimination going on. I absolutely don’t" in the Senate District 8 debate on Pioneer Public TV.
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