Sen. Hall: Minneapolis ‘destroyed’ by integration

It was all those non-white people who ruined the schools, not the chronic lack of funding!

Insert standard “some of my best friends are non-white” statement here.

Never mind that the urban high schools might have kids, and lots of them, who lived in tents for their entire lives before coming here. Or kids who support their families. Or kids who have parents who cannot help them, or access to internet research or help. Never mind all that.

I am sure Mr. Hall runs his family the same way he wants to run the schools. If one of his kids needs glasses, they all get glasses. It has to be equal and exactly the same to be fair. If one kid gets sick, they all go to the doctor. If one kid needs a tutor, they all get a tutor whether they need it or not. Very efficient because somehow do what’s right means do what’s the same.

Also, some of my best friends are minorities. That means I know more. Somehow.

I’m just left speechless by the ignorance on display here. The schools are being destroyed by endless meddling in teaching, and the up is down “no child left behind” legislation. Since his kids attend a suburban district, Mr. Hall has no idea what urban schools are really like. The challenges posed by the tremendous disparity in the population that needs to be educated and the services available to them doesn’t mean that we just give up.

Where is the drive to lift people up? When did we decide that some people (not his “minority” friends, of course, but those other faceless urban people), are not worth educating? Are we content to warehouse children and then complain when they exit with no skills at all, unable to support themselves, or contribute to our communities? All I see republicans selling is hopelessness and a severely diminished society where if you’re not born rich and white, you’re just a waste of resources. Sickening.

I believe it was Chuck D who declared “straight up RACIST that sucker was, simple and plain.” That applies here.

Mr. Hall’s statement is nothing but pure racism. But like all those on the right who make statements like this, nothing will happen. Just go on with business as usual. This calls for at the least a censure on the Senate floor.

I went to an inner-city school in St Paul in the 60s. My friends were of all ethnic backgrounds. We all got along fine until some kids were bussed in from Chicago. It was that day that I heard my best friend, with her new friend, say, “let’s kill all the whities.” I was 6. It broke my heart. That was the day racism came to school. It came from without, brought in by some bureaucrat trying to “do good”. We already had good, before that.

I agree with Shannon. I think he does not know it though.

Ramona, I don’t mean to discount your experience, but desegregation policies did not and do not bus kids across several states. The programs historically, and currently, strive for integration within communities not busing student six hours from Chicago to St. Paul.

> I went to an inner-city school in St Paul in the 60s…We all got along fine until some kids were bussed in from Chicago. It was that day that I heard my best friend, with her new friend, say, “let’s kill all the whities.”

Chicago to St. Paul?

I’d be a tad cranky too after an 8 hour bus ride.

Kids let’s do our damnedest to get the old white racist bastards out of office! It’s one thing to point at them and make comments. It’s another to go to the Capitol and tell it to him straight up. Vote local! Do something.

Hope this doesn’t end up with me drinking out of the Colored fountain.

There is still the bigger picture though, that goes way beyond just “school integration”. In fact in many scenarios, such integration could arguably be said to actually cause just as much harm as good when the other social problems are not dealt with as effectively at the very same time. False hope for at-risk children is actually being offered in many scenarios, when they go to school in one environment and go home to a life that is completely different than everything that they are experiencing and learning at school. Yes, there are still those children who will overcome their situation, regardless, but what about the others? Watch the movie “Slumdog Millionare”, and perhaps you will begin to understand the split for these children in what they are actually experiencing; and, then you will also understand why school integration policies without the neccessary supporting policies to make school integration effective are often futile.

[...] Senator Hall of MN, Where Can I Buy My Back of the Bus Pass? By Spinny Liberal Minnesota Senate Republican: Integration ‘Destroyed’ Minneapolis [...]

[...] Minnesota Senate Republican: Integration ‘Destroyed’ Minneapolis [...]

If Mr. Hall “graduated with a sixth-grade reading ability,” he should never have been given a high school diploma. Why does he blame the public schools for his problems reading? Where were his parents? And why has he never educated himself well enough to think logically?

Perhaps we should use the same logic that suburban and out-state legislators apply to inner city residents: It’s all his own fault. And you’re too lazy to fix your own problem.
And you use irresponsible and unsustainable tools to get away from problems, i.e., oil and state-funded highways…

I’m excited that a guy with a sixth grade reading level now represents us in the legislature. I never really believed the capitol was a place for book learnin’, critical thinking skills, empathy, or thoughtful introspection. Knee-jerk arbitrary judgements are a more efficient use of the peoples’ time.

@ Ben- EXACTLY!

Frankly, I find it hard to believe that Hall would’ve been accepted at, graduated from Augsburg College possessing just a 6th grade reading level, even as a hockey jock in the late 60s. I know because I went there in the early 70s. He’s hesitant about giving his age, graduation dates but he was a college Hockey All-American in 1971.

I find it very hard to believe that desegration had much of an impact on Roosevelt High in the late 60s!

Rep. Dan Hall said,

1. “The system is broke.” Yes Dan, the system of segregation is falling apart, and has been since the civil rights movement. That scares you doesn’t it?

2. “My best friends are minority (sic).” I doubt that.

3. “They think integration i(s) foolish.” How convenient that the Rep knows the half a percent (just a guess on my part) of minorities that oppose integration.

4. “It’s a ploy to get more money.” Gee Dan, why would poor people in a racist society and an underfunded school system want more money spent on their behalf? Not making the most of that sixth grade reading ability are you?

Is the Klan really setting the agenda for the GOP’s urban policy? Wow.

Praise Jebus, God hates race mixing, Amen.

Wow… the people of Burnsville should be extremely embarassed they elected a complete racist and an idiot too. The man is an idiot. He said segregation about 3x and I’m pretty certain he meant desegragation.
If someone has to preceed a racist comment by saying [his] best friend is a minority… chances are it’s just plan racist and he was attempting to soften the blow by being “close” to a minority. I just cannot believe he seriously said that.

Hey Burnsville… be embarressed you elected this man to be your voices. Idiots!

We’ve had the usual civil rights programs for almost 50 years now and they don’t seem to work. Instead they promote racial antagonism. People will always want to live work and go to school with others they identify with. As long as no compulsion is involved it would be better to let it be. What proof is there that minorities are happier and more successful if they attend ethnically balanced schools? Ethnic neighborhoods can be rich sources of support. In my youth I lived in a mostly Jewish neighborhood and went to a mostly Jewish school. Would those kids have risen higher in life had a bunch of Irish, Italians, and WASPs been bussed in? Somehow I doubt it. The key to education is to spend the money on math, science, English, and history, and not on all the BS that professional educators are in love with.

If there is no integration how will everyone learn to get along?

Your view is very limited.

I am a single mom who raised her son on the West Bank of Mpls. Our neighborhood was rich in culture and full of diversity. It was after one of my son’s elementary class-rooms had more non-english speaking children than native born that I decided to spend money I could ill afford and put him in private school. I negotiated a fair monthly rate and drove him daily from S. Mpls. to Richfield. I had a schedule at work that allowed flexibility to provide transportation. The dumbing down of all in Mpls to let the less fortunate, disabled, non-english speakers “catch up” is an abomination! What a waste of kids minds and money. Let kids learn as much as they can. If not up to speed with the language or the IQ, put them in a separate “but equal” class.

[...] arranged or he tore away that thin vail to expose the ugly face of bigotry. According to the Minnesota Independent   he said that integration had ‘destroyed [...]

I would like to be segregated from some of the racist bigots commenting on this page.

rrriiiggghhhttt….name ur friends….

i remember reading recently that some schools are bringing over international students to help said school’s avg. also remember reading somewhere that some colleges were outsourcing grading papers to Indians….u.s. education is a joke…ppl expect other ppl to teach their kids, and when they don’t reinforce it, it is always someone else’s fault…grow the hell up…teach ur kids to read, hell teach urself to read. ppl r dumb b/c it’s ezier to disassociate themselves as part of the problem, instead of recognizing the true problem and trying to correct the different aspects of it…maybe it’s too much critical thinking

This isn’t racism and you people saying it is probably did not witness what it did to North Minneapolis and Northeast Minneapolis. Plain and simple it destroyed the communities. Families who grew up in both areas lost any sense of pride when there kids have to be shipped to opposite sides. I also think as a “people” we had making great progress on our own as a race to desegregate ourselves. I personally had more black friends then white fiends in the 80′s. But it had nothing to do with forced busing, those were my choices. Still, I watched from NE side as everybody left and you could basically use the Mississippi as a dividing line. This not only happened here but in every major city. Northeast is rebounding, but the people who grew up there as kids, the majority are gone and with it all community programs. I applaud the Sen in only speaking the truth. Sometimes the truth isn’t that appealing and when it is on the topic of color it is very easy to take an alarmist position, but it didn’t work and did damage not only community, but taxes, the economy of the system and now none of the churches are filled.