After councilman Marion Barry’s latest controversial remark, D.C.’s delegate to Congress today called on the former mayor “to cease the time dishonored pattern he seems to be adopting of targeting racial groups to call attention to issues.”
Earlier this month, Barry called Asian businesses in his district “dirty.” At a district hearing Monday, while talking about the need to train more black nurses, he singled out Filipino immigrants.
“[I]f you go to the hospital now, you’ll find a number of immigrants who are nurses, particularly from the Philippines,” said Barry. “And no offense, but let’s grow our own teachers, let’s grow our own nurses, and so that we don’t have to go scrounging in our community clinics and other kinds of places, having to hire people from somewhere else.”
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who was also exasperated at Barry over his previous comment, said today that he owed an apology to Filipino nurses, “who do not deserve to be insulted” for helping fill the national void of nurses.
“The UDC School of Nursing is doing its job, but we have not done ours,” Norton said. “We have not prepared a child who wants to grow up to be a nurse with the quality of education she or he must have to study nursing.”
Norton tried to call Barry to tell him to stop using “racially cloaked language,” her office said, but hasn’t been able to reach him.
Norton and Barry first met during the civil rights movement. Her office said that her message to him is “that racial rhetoric surrounding such issues does a particular disservice beyond the offense to the group that is singled out.”
Does that also apply to white Hispanics?
For once I can agree with Rep. Norton. I understand what Br’er Marion’s trying to say: in a majority-black city it’s a shame there aren’t more black business owners and black nurses. But his implications that Asian-owned stores are especially dirty or that Filipina nurses are imported specifically to avoid hiring black nurses – justifiably not well received by most people.
However, it’s important to remember that Barry is playing to his constituency. They really don’t like all those horrible Asians moving into their neighborhoods and taking all the jobs which they believe rightfully belong to them. He’s just agreeing with them, “feeling their pain,” which is one reason he keeps getting re-elected. His act(?) doesn’t play well on national TV, but down in the Ward they eat it up.
“Asians moving into their neighborhoods and taking all the jobs ”
Why were there jobs available for them to move into in the first place? I mean why weren’t they already filled? I think it’s really funny when somebody complains about others moving in and taking the jobs or starting new businesses when nobody stood up and took the jobs in the first place.
Maybe she should call out the other race-baiter Barry in DC. You know, that Soetoro guy.
It is indeed refreshing to agree with Norton.
As others have commented, the dirty little secret is that Asians fill roles blacks seem reluctant to. Still, I have personally witnessed black entrepreneurs successfully starting businesses in niches traditionally filled by Asians, and there most ceertainly are African-American nurses, and have been for quite some time. The Barrys of the world have no justification for complaining.
– you do offend and deliberately so.