One of the daily features on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's editorial page is a box called "Quick Hits," containing a brief opinion written by someone on the paper's editorial board. Today, this little gem by Mabel Wong caught my eye:
"It's rare to see in today's youth the strength of individuality as displayed by Keenya Hofmaier and Rosetta Riley. They're the high school students embroiled in a dispute with Mike McGee Jr. over what they say was racist and anti-gay behavior by the Milwaukee alderman. The girls, who are biracial and who embrace both sides of their heritage, call prejudice as they see it, regardless of the source. The assumption that people of color are a homogenous lot with a single set of beliefs is as offensive and racist as any other stereotype assigned to them."
Admittedly, the Journal Sentinel has been covering this story for some time, so it's possible the timing of this was just a coincidence. But one has to wonder at the fact that, even as O. Ricardo Pimentel continues to back Gregory Stanford's "asterisk" editorial to the hilt, the only other minority member of the editorial board writes a piece that closes with a line which blatantly contradicts the assumption that spawned the controversy (that there are "black" beliefs, and blacks who don't hold to those beliefs aren't "authentic" blacks).
Perhaps the board isn't as enthusiastic about the editorial as Pimentel's "no regrets" commentary might suggest. At any rate, though, given that commentary, this is probably as close to a retraction as we're going to get.
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