Thanks to Hank Stephenson for witnessing this particular exchange on the Arizona House floor yesterday, as first, Rep. Richard Miranda stood up for some sort of state official holiday and committee celebrating Hispanic culture, and then Rep. Jack Harper says something sort of dumb about Cesar Chavez, then Rep. Ruben Gallego fires back, but then it gets really good when Rep. Cecil Ash hopes that white people will have a holiday when they become the minority. One might assume that the audience might be unwilling to applaud such a ridiculous and possibly bigoted idea, but nope, the applause ensues. Another great legislative session, everybody!
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2012.
Isn’t it called President’s Day? Or did Obama ruin that too?
We have many of those days….they’re called “AZ LEGISLATIVE SESSION DAYS” The days white people form together and take more cracks at enslaving the rest of us “people of any color darker than WHITE”
I think its bigotted if they dont have a holiday for whites. I thought its called equality? But no! It seems equality only goes one way.
A holiday for whites is just as inappropriate as a holiday for Hispanics. (Note: a current article points out that the term ‘Hispanic’ is being rejected by more and more folks who have some kind of ‘south of the US border’ relative in their heritage. … I had to strain to figure out how to lump everyone that could claim ‘Hispanic’ into another group. … Or, should the term be better defined. For a while, back when, ‘Octoroon’ was used to define ‘Negro’. Guess it meant 1/8, however that could be interpreted!)
Perhaps the humorless Ninzel would like to ‘fight’ for a holiday for every ethnic group. I would propose an Icelandic holiday for people like me. After all, Iceland still has the oldest democratic representative house – the Althing – in the world. It’s been there since before 900 A.D. So there’s lots of good that would come from studying the contributions of Icelanders to this nation. Gee, maybe TUSD could set up an Icelandic Study program!
It makes just as much sense to have a White Day as a Hispanic Day…why not?
Chuck: I don’t really mind that you misspelled my name, but I’m gonna have to take issue with the notion that I’m humorless. That’s about the meanest thing anyone has ever said about me! And how did I get dragged into this, anyway? You do realize that Dan Gibson posted this particular entry, don’t you? Or do all journalists look alike to you?
What the heck does he think Columbus day is? That’s about as white and imperialistic as it gets. It’s a two for one holiday. I (a white person, almost) personally feel we have enough bank and post office holidays as it is.
I have always found it amusing that Italian-Americans hit the roof at the idea of not celebrating Columbus Day. After all, Italy didn’t send Columbus on that journey; they laughed at him.
Columbus Day and Thanksgiving could both be considered holidays celebrating white people.
I’d tell him we’ll take up new holiday issues if and when “white people” ever become a minority, but I’d probably be accused of racism.