The Vanguard has learned that John McGinness has withdrawn as investigator for the Picnic Day matter.
In a statement from Chief Darren Pytel:
Earlier Story
This morning’s article that highlighted former Sacramento John McGinness’ comments regarding the impact of the 1964 Civil Rights Act on African Americans has had immediate ramifications, as Councilmember Will Arnold issued a statement this morning calling for his replacement.
He issued a statement to the Vanguard, “I have thus far remained silent regarding the Picnic Day incident in hopes of allowing an independent, unprejudiced investigation to take place. But the recent on-air statements of former Sheriff McGinness are beyond the pale, reveal an ignorant and insensitive view toward African-Americans, and threaten the very independence and lack of prejudice we must preserve.
“Therefore, I am calling for the immediate replacement of Sheriff McGinness to lead this investigation.”
In his radio show on Friday, John McGinness said that our country has done the best at times when “capitalism has been unbridled, unfiltered.” But then he went on to say, “If you look at certain groups within our broad population, for example, African-Americans in this country did much much much better before the Civil Rights Act.”
He did say that slavery was never defensible, but “prior to the 1960s when the Civil Rights Act came into play and there were efforts specifically undertaken to theoretically prop up one race of people, African Americans in this country were doing much much better.”
He continued: “Economic growth, intact families, children being raised by both parents, completion of education at least through high school – those statistical data were much much better before the Civil Rights Act.”
Thank you council member Will Arnold.
Council may want to look at the investigator we have on contract through the end of June (Bob Aaronson). This is the type of investigation AAronson does and it would save the city and tax payers $$$$.
“Council may want to look at the investigator we have on contract through the end of June”
I cannot imagine why that wasn’t the first step.
Well said Cecilia. I agree wholeheartedly.
I appreciate the proactive approach of Council member Arnold with regard to this issue.
Is any of this wrong?
Yes. Most of it actually. Economic growth of African Americans is much higher, a much larger percentage are middle class. High school graduate is way up since 1964. I don’t have data on the other right before me.
Keith O: “Economic growth, intact families, children being raised by both parents, completion of education at least through high school – those statistical data were much much better before the Civil Rights Act.”
Is any of this wrong?
I would want to know what evidence there is of that assertion. Comprehensive census analysis? Don’t know what graduation rates were like pre-Civil Rights, but one thing that desegregation did was wipe out a generation of African American teachers (integrated white schools were often still prejudiced enough to not hire many, or any, African American teachers from the old black schools), which had to have some negative impact, and that’s definitely not to argue that school segregation is ideal, just that desegregation reform was still tainted with residual prejudice.
Just heard an interesting Fresh Air interview with Richard Rothstein, author of , giving another interesting take on pre-Civil Rights Era phenomenon of racial discrimination policies in housing. It offers a lot of helpful context to contemporary issues.
https://contemporaryfamilies.org/are-african-americans-living-the-dream/
Education and employment have improved. Poverty and incarcerations have remained steady or gotten worse.
Thank you Cindy.
If poverty and incarceration are worse/same despite being “better” educated and more often employed then it means the situation of black Americans is actually worse and less hopeful than before.
The education and jobs are just a cloak in this case so that it’s harder for “outsiders” to recognize the slavery and racism still at work.
You can’t well fight what you can’t clearly see
From Pickett’s link, childhood poverty has been slowly trending upward, including for whites, though it is persistently higher for African-Americans and Latinos. Data only goes to 2011, and since then the stats have ticked down slightly, but it’s still higher than it was ca. 2000.
Keith O: “Economic growth, intact families, children being raised by both parents, completion of education at least through high school – those statistical data were much much better before the Civil Rights Act.”
Is any of this wrong?
I would want to know what evidence there is of that assertion. Comprehensive census analysis? Don’t know what graduation rates were like pre-Civil Rights, but one thing that desegregation did was wipe out a generation of African American teachers (integrated white schools were often still prejudiced enough to not hire many, or any, African American teachers from the old black schools), which had to have some negative impact, and that’s definitely not to argue that school segregation is ideal, just that desegregation reform was still tainted with residual prejudice.
Just heard an interesting Fresh Air interview with Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, giving another interesting take on pre-Civil Rights Era phenomenon of racial discrimination policies in housing. It offers a lot of helpful context to contemporary issues.
“there were efforts specifically undertaken to theoretically prop up one race of people”
What he either neglects to mention or does not appreciate is that the entire structure of our society prior to those efforts “propped up” or advantaged one race of people, namely, whites.