Minnesota Liberal

Thursday, March 04, 2004

State Sponsored Racism

If a lawmaker told someone, "Give me a cut of the profits from your business or else I will pass a law making your line of work illegal," he would be arrested for extortion/blackmail. But if two Republicans tell Native Americans to give the state a cut of their profits or else they will pass a law making gambling illegal, it is business as usual. This is blatant racism of the worst kind. The indian tribes were given the monopoly rights to slot machines in the state of Minnesota... forever. Just because our state is in terrible financial trouble (thanks to Mr. No New Taxes Pawlenty), we have no right to (once again) screw the tribes out of what is rightfully theirs. But as long as racists like Rep. Jim Knoblach-St. Cloud and Rep. Tom Neuville-Northfield continue to get elected, they will continue to discriminate against everyone that is not white and Christian.

Gov. Pawlenty promised not to raise taxes, but wouldn't forcing the Native Americans to give Minnesota part of their profits would be a tax on their community. Not to mention the increases we have all suffered in property taxes, decreases in education quality, and so forth.

The only reason this whole thing is happening is because Pawlenty and his goons want to finance their sports stadiums (God forbid they be remembered as the politicians that made sports franchises leave). This whole mess isn't even about financing our schools (which need money, but not at the expense of a minority group).

Don't let the politics of this confuse you. This is racism. But what did you expect from these Republicans.

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