Buffalo GOP Hopeful Suggests Busing Blacks to Pick Veggies

Selah March

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http://www.buffalonews.com/topics/chris-lee/special-election/article367437.ece

Congressional candidate Jack Davis shocked local Republican leaders in a recent interview when he suggested that Latino farmworkers be deported -- and that African-Americans from the inner city be bused to farm country to pick the crops.

Several sources who were in the Feb. 20 endorsement interview with Davis confirmed his comments, which echo those he made to the Tonawanda News in 2008, when he said: "We have a huge unemployment problem with black youth in our cities. Put them on buses, take them out there [to the farms] and pay them a decent wage; they will work."
To be fair, Davis ran as a Democrat his last two times at bat. For some reason, he thinks he'll have better luck as a Republican...but they ain't havin' it, apparently. And good for them.

However...

Spurned by the party, he is now collecting signatures in hopes of appearing as the Tea Party candidate in the May 24 special election.
We'll see if the Buffalo-area Tea Party rises to the same level of good taste.
 

Kitty27

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Lawd! I understand what he is trying to say and I won't go IN on him.

But he just fucked up the presentation. Saying blacks should pick crops is not the way,sir. Just,no.
 

Alpha Echo

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Wow. This has to be a case where the man just didn't think of what he was saying before he said it, right? I mean...wow.
 

Kitty27

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Wow. This has to be a case where the man just didn't think of what he was saying before he said it, right? I mean...wow.

I hope so! I don't think he meant that Blacks should picky da cotton as that is our place in the natural order of things.

Then he goes and disses Latinos,too. I am going to be charitable and put this down to a nasty case of foot in the mouth syndrome and not any malicious intent. Unless something else comes out about him.
 

Selah March

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I hope so! I don't think he meant that Blacks should picky da cotton as that is our place in the natural order of things.

Then he goes and disses Latinos,too. I am going to be charitable and put this down to a nasty case of foot in the mouth syndrome and not any malicious intent. Unless something else comes out about him.

Except that his comments were a repeat of those he made three years ago.

Several sources who were in the Feb. 20 endorsement interview with Davis confirmed his comments, which echo those he made to the Tonawanda News in 2008...
(bolding mine)
 

Kitty27

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Except that his comments were a repeat of those he made three years ago.

(bolding mine)


Oh,dear. Then I have to take back my charitable comments. Well,like I said in the other thread,I like when bigots out themselves. It makes life much easier.

He has made an ass of himself with these comments and any chance at a political career is DOA.
 

Selah March

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Before anyone comes in to play Devil's Advocate ("but they're unemployed! who doesn't want a job, after all? it could be just what the Buffalo inner-city black youth needs!") let me say that Buffalo was a depressed (and depressing) city before the current economic crisis, and will probably continue to be depressed after the rest of the country comes out of the slump.

The reason upstate/western NY farmers employ non-citizens is because they can't afford to pay what US citizens consider a "living wage."

In addition, there are PLENTY of poor, unemployed white folks in Buffalo, and especially in the rural areas surrounding Buffalo, but I don't see Davis proposing this "solution" for ALL the poor, unemployed folk in the region. Just the black inner-city youths.

No matter how you cut it, his comments reek of racism.
 

Bird of Prey

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To be fair, Davis ran as a Democrat his last two times at bat. For some reason, he thinks he'll have better luck as a Republican...but they ain't havin' it, apparently. And good for them.

You mean there've been bigots in the Democratic Party?? You think there's a few left?? I bet there are. I know there's more than a few sexists. . . .


We'll see if the Buffalo-area Tea Party rises to the same level of good taste.

You know that's just unfair, trying to associate the Buffalo Tea Party with this former Democrat. Sounds a little like propaganda, Selah: sort of a smear tactic. . . .
 

muravyets

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I suspect that GOP candidate sincerely does not know how racist his remarks are, and that alone should disqualify him from public office, in my opinion. The actual remarks themselves just add to the crippling lack of awareness.
 

Monkey

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I don't think it's a Democrat OR a Republican idea, I think it's a Jack Davis idea.

My evidence is that the idea has apparently stayed the same, despite being labeled Democrat, Republican and now, possibly, Tea Party.

The general sentiment: "Bus the poor out to do this work instead of using illegals," isn't abhorrent...it's just uninformed. Even the poor need something approaching a living wage. It's the singling out of black youth that makes the statement bigoted...without that, I think the idea could have flown with various political groups.


ETA: "Bus city folks out to do farm labor" is also ignorant on another level: much of the work these illegals are doing is SKILLED labor. They repair fences, they build things, they work heavy machinery. They work crops in ways other than just picking the fruits, and even in that, more skill is better. It's not a race thing, I'm just saying that inner-city youth are less likely to have the necessary skills for farm labor.
 
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Zoombie

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I didn't think of slavery at first.

No, no, I thought of Pol Pot and his attempt to make a load of urbanites become good honest farmers.

Then I thought of the 2 million people who died!

And then I was sad.

:(
 

Don

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Good catch on the Year Zero thing, Zoombie. :)


You know, energy's getting expensive. Instead of all that busing, maybe we can get FEMA to build some camps close to the fields...


yes, it's :sarcasm.
 
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Ink-Stained Wretch

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What's really scary is, this is NOT the worst "What to do about illegal immigrants/how to replace their labor" suggestion I've heard; back around 2006, Dana Rohrabacker of California suggested deporting illegal immigrants and replacing them with prison labor; he actually said "let the prisoners pick the fruits."
 

clintl

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Under Rohrabacker's idea, who pays the guards?
 

muravyets

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Just for clarity's sake, Davis was the actual Dem party nominee in 2004 and 2006.

Apparently, this was a democrat idea before it was a republican one...
A Democrat idea before it was a Republican one? You sure about that? You don't think maybe it was just a Dumbass Racist idea consistently throughout his career? I.e. HIS idea, not a party's?

ETA: Oh, I saw your later post. You know, you folks around here really ought to try making your points when you make them. :p Anyway, I think the real point here is that haters gonna hate and they're going to look for what they think is a friendly audience for their hate. If either or any party is attracting this kind of talk, that party needs to clarify its platform.
 
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Selah March

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Just for clarity's sake, Davis was the actual Dem party nominee in 2004 and 2006.

Apparently, this was a democrat idea before it was a republican one...

Did I say it was a Republican idea? No. I called Davis a "GOP hopeful," which he was at the most recent time he made the remarks. And I applauded the GOP for finding him as disgusting as I do.

Did I mention that he'd also run for the job as a Democrat? Yes, I did.

But I thank you for pointing out that he got the nom as a Dem, and ran twice. My original point was less about party affiliation -- or approbation of his cockeyed racism -- and more about "look, we can ALL agree this guy's a loon, right?"
 

Slushie

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The idea's not a bad one provided it's colorblind. Obviously the guy shouldn't have singled out just one race.

However I see this idea as a reasonable answer to a couple issues. Crime among poor teenage and early-adult males is the highest of any demographic. So put these city doods (and doodettes) on a bus out in the country for eight hours of work a day, or maybe some kind of multi-week program, and that's less trouble-making time on the street corner. So maybe this leads to a reduction in crime?

Plus, these kids get to learn some skills, get resume references, and build on a work ethic if needed. That's better than vegetating on the block or slothing in the mom's house all day. This could be a step in the right direction towards meaningful long-term employment. Even if it's only for $8 an hour, that's still far better than zero dollars an hour or trying to make money by selling drugs and then getting caught up in that underground culture of violence and a life in-and-out of prison.

As far as the illegal immigrant situation, whatever. I don't even know what numbers to believe anymore. I've read mostly they're working for mere dollars under the table and flooding the emergency rooms and welfare offices, then I read they're mostly faking SS cards and are paying into taxes like citizens so they're not actually that much of a liability; the truth is probably somewhere in between. If a few illegal immigrants loose out and get sent back south of the border so a few disadvantaged kids can get work and build towards a more positive future outside their crime-ridden poor neighborhood, then I can live with that just fine.
 

Gregg

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There seems to be no question that inner city youth unemployment is very high. (Why they're not in school is a different difficult issue.)
Seems obvious to me that we need innovative ideas to address the problem.

But Jack Davis? Former Democrat, now Republican? Next?

This guy might be a nutcase, but the problem still exists.
 

rugcat

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Plus, these kids get to learn some skills, get resume references, and build on a work ethic if needed.
I'm thinking that the skills employed in stoop labor aren't particularly transferable to other venues -- like the kind of jobs that lift people out of poverty. We're already flirting with a permanent underclass. I don't have the answer to what is a difficult and a complicated problem, but I'm pretty sure that sending kids into the fields to pick fruit and vegetables is not it.
 

Monkey

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Eight dollars an hour is a lot more than most of these farmers are dishing out now, and right now, they're getting skilled workers that they don't have to spend their precious time training and keeping an eye on.

I drive a big tractor. If you've never done it before, you don't understand, I guess...but there is no gas pedal. When in gear, they go forward (or in reverse) until you make them stop, which with mine means pressing the clutch and both brakes to the floor--I have to actually stand, and use the steering wheel to press myself downward onto the pedals in order to apply enough pressure. While learning to drive the thing, I had a couple of mishaps. These tractors can tip if you lift too much, they have a PTO that can rip off limbs, they have attachments perfectly capable of crushing anyone nearby, including the driver if they aren't secured properly.

You do NOT want an unskilled inner-city teen driving one of those monsters through your fields, near your crops, your livestock, your buildings, your other equipment and your other workers. You don't want kids tromping through your fields, period. And if you've got jobs that involve livestock, or fence/equipment repair, or carpentry...then what?

The thing is farm labor isn't as "unskilled" as people tend to think, and the farmers and ranchers generally need it done yesterday, and on the cheap. Eight an hour is too much, and there's no time to train kids, and there's damn sure no time to watch over them and do hand-holding. There's no one out on the ranch ready to rush water to little Timmy when he dehydrates because he's used to drinking sodas instead of water, and certainly no one ready to argue with a kid who's refusing to do his assigned work.

I'm not saying that it's a terrible idea...but to do this right, there'd have to be government or other outside funds involved. Those funds would pay for buses, education, part of the wages, and oversight. And in the end, the skills the kids would learn wouldn't be applicable in many places...construction sites, maybe, or other farms. On the other hand, they'd be learning life skills: hard work and...well, more hard work. Lots of hard work. And hey, they'd be off the street.
 
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