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* Rep. Monique Davis went way over the top yesterday…
The lawmaker who drew criticism for initially refusing to relinquish a $25,000 statue that belonged to Chicago State University is now in trouble over remarks she made about minorities Wednesday.
Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) apologized to Hispanic lawmakers after she generalized about Latinos and tacos while protesting a bill to license hair braiders.
“You do not license a Chinese person to sell Chinese food. You do not license a Latino to sell tacos,” Davis said. “You do not license an African-American woman to hair-braid.”
Representatives Edward Acevedo (D-Chicago) and Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago) quickly rose to protest Davis’ stereotype.
“For anyone to come to this floor and make fun of my ethnicity, I’m so appalled at the statement that was made on the House floor,” Acevedo said.
The quotes above don’t do her initial comment or the rebukes justice. You can listen to it all by clicking here. Davis’ logic was weird and twisted, and she deserved the blow-back.
She did eventually apologize…
“I apologize to them and I want them to know and the body to know that I have the utmost respect from the bottom of my heart for the multicultural diversity of our body,” Davis said.
* We didn’t post this story from earlier this month, but it was something I broke and then eventually followed up on by Kristen McQueary of the Southtown Star. I found it today while looking for something else.
The basic gist is that a Democratic township committeeman with close ties to the Pat Quinn campaign is alleged to have pressured a potential appointee to the Illinois House to vote for the governor’s tax hike.
Worth Township Democratic Committeeman John O’Sullivan supported Kelly Burke for the House and she supported his campaign against an incumbent as well. Burke defeated a candidate backed by House Speaker Michael Madigan, but she made up with MJM and wanted the appointment after incumbent Rep. Jim Brosnahan (D-Evergreen Park) resigned. Everybody figured it was a “go” since Burke and O’Sullivan were allies. But it all fell apart.
Kristen McQueary takes it from there…
While Burke told O’Sullivan she wanted the appointment, things started to unravel last weekend. In a series of phone calls, O’Sullivan began pressuring Burke to commit to supporting an income tax increase if she was sent to Springfield.
Burke wouldn’t comment publicly on that part of the story, but four sources confirmed it happened - including someone from O’Sullivan’s camp.
O’Sullivan denied he pressured her.
“The fact of the matter is (Burke) couldn’t give me a commitment as far as protecting these teaching jobs. My wife is a teacher. She’s one of them,” O’Sullivan said. “We felt with (Carberry’s) union background - he’s very affiliated with the teachers in our community and the unions - he would be a great candidate. Saving teaching jobs is our main objective. I don’t know if (Burke) thinks she was owed this appointment, but we have plenty of teachers in our community who are very nervous about this.” […]
Burke, however, wasn’t comfortable with strings attached to the appointment.
There are many claims from insiders that the Quinn campaign was directly involved with this pressure on Kelly, but the governor’s campaign won’t comment.
* Speaking of MJM, he had a bit of fun with my intern Barton Lorimor yesterday. Watch…
And while we’re looking at silly videos, here’s a weird one of Rep. Bill Black…
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 11:45 am
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“For anyone to come to this floor and make fun of my ethnicity, I’m so appalled at the statement that was made on the House floor,” Acevedo said.
rich i disagree with you here. if you waste time responding to it, as acevedo and mendoza did, doesn’t that make it true/them look bad? the comment was silly and didn’t even merit attention, or rather the feigned outrage that it received.
Comment by Will County Woman Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 11:58 am
“You do not license a Chinese person to sell Chinese food. You do not license a Latino to sell tacos,” Davis said. “You do not license an African-American woman to hair-braid.”
She is pretty wrong. Yes, we do require that a Chinese person selling Chinese food be licenced. We do require that a Latino person selling tacos be licensed.
No one is trying to require that a lady get a license for braiding hair. They are requiring a license for hair braiding services, a license for a business. We don’t require licensing for baby-sitting, but we do when it is done as a service, a business. No one is going after moms or friends, regardless of their race.
If it is politically incorrect to point out that Chinese food is often sold by Chinese people, or that tacos are considered to be food sold by Latinos, than it should also be considered politically incorrect to assume that only African-American women braid hair.
She shouldn’t have to apologize for this, she should have to apologize for being so completely wrong on everything else, shouldn’t she?
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:10 pm
Davis’s comment is offensive on many levels, including offense to the fact. You most certainly do need a license to see Chinese food or tacos, regardless of your background. So her comment even fails on truthfulness.
Comment by ChicagoRick Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:12 pm
I agree w/ Van.
Took the words right out of my mouth in fact, except for the not apologizing part. Rep. Davis ought to have apologized both for her inept rudeness and stereotyping as well as for being so utterly wrong regarding restaurant licensing.
Comment by Rob N Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:14 pm
ditto VMan. Restaurants are licensed. For a state rep to make this kind of comment (leaving aside the racial stereotypes) hardens my opinion that many of the people who get to the state legislature lack the knowledge and skills to be effective legislators.
Picking House members at random sounds better after learning how ignorant legislators like Monique Davis are.
Comment by Carl Nyberg Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:17 pm
“She shouldn’t have to apologize for this, she should have to apologize for being so completely wrong on everything else, shouldn’t she?”
good point, now if acevedo or mendoza had said that, then ok. but instead they wasted time crying and whining about their “ethnicity being attacked”. the last time i checked, it was unusual for latinos to sell tacos. i could go to little village or pilsen and find latinos selling tacos, amongst other things. whatever.
Comment by Will County Woman Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:17 pm
correction:
it was NOT unusual for latinos to sell tacos.
Comment by Will County Woman Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:19 pm
If I was running against Monique Davis, I might buy the URL “RestaurantsDontNeedLicenses.com”.
Comment by Carl Nyberg Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:20 pm
Rep Davis has a habit of this kind of outburst.
Ready, fire, aim!
Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:33 pm
Are the French licensed to sell fries? Is the Navy licensed to sell bean soup?
The Quinn/O’Sullivan/Burke story is a good political yarn, but seems within the bounds of hardball politics.
Burke could always stick it to them later. To borrow from the great Willie Brown, “if you can’t take their seat and then turn around and (blank) ‘em, you’re in the wrong business.”
I’m sure Blago would agree. His whole defense is that he was trading the Senate seat for legislation.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:33 pm
Davis continues to defend her title to dumbest person in the house. Why did she think she could keep the statue? I feel sorry for the people of her district.
Comment by frustrated GOP Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:46 pm
Tacos are from Mexico(North America), not all Latinos/Hispanics eat and/or sell tacos. The statement made by Rep. Davis doen’t even make sense and its insulting on top of everything else.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:46 pm
Monique may have outlived her usefulness in the legislature, and seems to be making a run on ridiculousness of late…NEXT!
Comment by Loop Lady Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:47 pm
Monique has an entire career made up of racist comments, this is nothing I am surprised about.
She’s issued more apologies than Mark McGuire.
Monique’s district is so supportive of her that she never has to worry about losing. That’s a shame because she’s a disgrace to the legislative process.
Comment by siriusly Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:56 pm
False outrage. A whole lotta of nothing.
Comment by jaded voter Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:17 pm
I agree w/sirius.
So many legislators just don’t have the smarts to not only be a legislator, but to talk out loud.
I’m hispanic and it didn’t bother me. Like the many comments before mine, she’s ignorant of laws and licensing, something you would THINK she’d have a relatively slight grasp on.
Sometimes, it’s like a Jerry Springer show, minus the non-legged midgets.
Comment by Former Card Carrying Repub Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:18 pm
It also doesn’t take a license for a state rep to end up with a state owned statue from a university…
Comment by OneMan Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:19 pm
Mr. Nyberg ties the 2 stories in the post together nicely, even though it may have been inadvertent. Is there any support for the idea that Carberry is suited to be in government, other than that the powers-that-be know who he is?
Comment by Lefty Lefty Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:26 pm
Monique Davis once suggested during a committee hearing that methamphetamines be regulated and taxed by the state of Illinois.
Comment by So. Ill Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:28 pm
Monique doesnt have to worry ricky hendon will open his mouth soon and everyone will forget about her ignorance.
Comment by fed up Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:35 pm
“Way over the top”?
I don’t know. It wasn’t the smoothest way to make the point that different subclasses of the same business don’t need separate licenses.
But still - “offensive”?
There are surely 1,000 mexican restaurants in Chicago, they nearly all sell tacos; the low-price ones and even some of the highbrow places regularly refer to themselves as taquerias, even though (and this must shock Rep. Acevedo) such places often sell other things.
And while I haven’t visited anywhere near all the city’s taquerias, I’ve eaten at a large and representative sample, and I’m comfortable saying that most of the employees are Latinos, and that most of them are owned by Latinos. I’d go further and bet that most of the restaurants owned by Latinos in this city do in fact serve tacos, though there are clearly a range of other foods that Latinos make. And Latinos own, invest in and work in a range of other restaurants, and of course they also work in probably the entire range of occupations in our state.
But if there is any class of business owned overwhelmingly by Latinos, it’s taquerias.
Davis clearly wasn’t trying to insult Latinos — after all, she was drawing a parallel between the people she was defending and people in these other classes. (This may also come as a shock to Rep. Acevedo, but most hair-braiding places are owned by and staffed by African Americans. They aren’t owned by a random pool of “people who reflect the great diversity of our state.” And there’s nothing wrong with that.)
Davis didn’t say or imply that Latinos only make tacos. She didn’t put any tone in her voice that implied these other categories of business-owner were inferior to other business owners, or say anything that demeaning about owning a restaurant that served tacos. She didn’t imply that every latino works in a taco stand any more than she implied that every African American woman works in a hair-braiding shop. She didn’t tie into any known insult - at least no one I know calls Latinos “tacomakers” to insult them.
It wasn’t the cleverest comment. But you really have to be ready and hoping to be offended to hear that and be offended. People should calm down.
If I worked in a taqueria (and I did once work in a pizzeria), I’d be just a little insulted that Eddie Acevedo was so desperate to prove how different he is from me. It’s not actually social death to work in a restaurant, Eddie, let alone to own one. We can’t all be well-connected cops who stumble into legislative jobs.
We have to create some living space between not particularly effective joke drawing on true and easily observed cultural differences, and offensive comment. Sometimes people should just roll their eyes at a failed joke and move on. She didn’t make the wittiest comment. But she gave no valid reason for offense.
Comment by irving & ashland Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:42 pm
Vanilla Man,
She wasn’t saying you don’t need a food license if you’re Chinese and want to sell Chinese food. She explicitly said — you have to get a food license. But you don’t then need a special license for Chinese food.
In the same way, her argument is that there’s nothing special or dangerour or prone to financial fraud that would make it useful to license hair-braiders beyond the normal business license. For all I know, she’s wrong — there might be chemicals involved. But her parallelism does work — you don’t need a special license to sell Chinese food. No one does - neither Chinese nor anyone else.
Comment by irving & ashland Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:45 pm
Oh please. This isn’t racist. The people who own Chinese restaurants are mostly Chinese, the people who sell tacos are mostly Latino, the people who braid hair are mostly black woman. She didn’t say or mean, “When I think of a taco, I think of a Latino.”
The problem with this culture is that people are so confused about racism that they think MERELY ACKNOWLEDGING anything about race or ethnicity means you are racist. It doesn’t.
Comment by Jeep Driver Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:47 pm
I see there are several people who, like Vanilla, just used the Sun-Times quote, rather than listening to what she said. She does mention food licenses. The Sun-Times dropped that part.
Comment by irving & ashland Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:47 pm
I see there are several people who, like Vanilla, just read the out-of-context quote in the Sun-Times, rather than listening to what she said.
Comment by irving & ashland Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:48 pm
Excellent post irving & ashland @1:42pm. If I had seen it, I wouldn’t have bothered posting mine. Thanks for an injection of critical thinking into the world.
Comment by Jeep Driver Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:50 pm
I retract my statement. In the audio Davis does make reference to licensing restaurants.
Her construction is clunky enough that it’s hard to tell what point she’s making.
The Sun-Times quoted her in a way that allowed readers to draw a conclusion that was not correct.
Comment by Carl Nyberg Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:56 pm
The fact that they’re discussing hair braiding instead of the fiscal crisis is what should be offensive to all.
Comment by Responsa Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:57 pm
Jeep driver,
I actually thought you said in 25 words what it took me 300 to say.
Rich, sorry for my double post above.
Comment by irving & ashland Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 2:12 pm
Touche, Responsa, but it is a public health issue…
Comment by Loop Lady Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 2:13 pm
I see there are several people who, like Vanilla, just read the out-of-context quote in the Sun-Times, rather than listening to what she said.
No, I did listen. I thought Rich would be refering to an ugly vocal tone in her voice as she said this - but there wasn’t.
She did say “a” twice, didn’t she?
Geez, she is even crazier than I thought! She makes no sense at all, and I can’t even follow her line of thinking when I reread what she said and listened again to what she said. Crazy!
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 2:37 pm
Even if her comments were taken out of context, it’s MONIQUE and she has a track record here. She lives in my neighborhood but no longer represents me, thank goodness.
Recently, I almost got into a head on collision with her as I was exiting the drive through at the bank. She was entering the one way exit the wrong way. Luckily I slammed on the brakes and gave her a WTF look and she just smiled with that I’m above the law look.
She’s a nighmare!
Comment by Just Wondering Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:05 pm
Just Wondering: Is the purpose of this blog to malign legislators for nothing having to do with policy, or even what they said on the floor? I hope not. Why don’t you head over to the Tribune comments section?
Comment by Jeep Driver Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:49 pm
She makes inappropriate racial statements on the floor of the House, she stole a statue from Chicago State and is a bad driver to boot. I think criticism of her is valid and I don’t feel the need to take it to the Trib. She is a legislator and, in my humble opinion, a very bad one.
Comment by Just Wondering Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:54 pm
Making a big deal about this type of comparatively harmless comment just distracts. Sticks & stones, Rep. Acevado. Now get back to work.
Comment by Park Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 4:17 pm
I would demand Monique step down, but I am suffering from food poisioning after eating from an unlicensed Taco stand
Comment by Wumpus Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 4:24 pm
Paraphrasing the 1989 classic “Parenthood”:
“You know, Mrs. Buckman, you need a license to buy a dog, to drive a car - hell, you even need a license to braid hair. But they’ll let any (expletive deleted) be a legislator.”
Comment by Lefty Lefty Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 4:57 pm
Why isn’t everyone just considering the source!?!
Comment by Original Rambler Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 5:49 pm
i didn’t know that all taco bell franchises in Illinois were owned by Latinos.
Comment by asian dude Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 8:36 pm
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