May 27, 2004

Shameful

For the most part, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's columnists are bland purveyors of conventional wisdom. Their columns are neither really good nor really bad, but they are quickly forgettable. Then there's Eugene Kane.

Kane is the race-obsessed black columnist who was "nice" enough to compare President Bush to Tony Soprano. Last Sunday, a black girl fell into the rain-swollen Milwaukee River. Twelve-year old Temisha Warren jumped into the water in an attempt to save her six-year old sister, Tia Woodley. Both are missing and believed to have drowned.

On Monday, Kane wrote a column on how there's no barrier along that stretch of the river. He also noted that few of the residents of the condos around the site were there. Kane wrote,

Meaning the homeowners, the people who live in the expensive condos. All of the people gathered at the edge of the river were black, and most lived outside the area.

Perhaps the homeowners were all at work, earning the money it takes to live in a place like this.

In his next column Wednesday, Kane responded to some readers who wondered why no mention was made about the lack of adult supervision for the children. He wrote,

Some readers think I also didn't say nearly enough in my column Tuesday about the responsibility of the two girls' parents to watch over their children and keep them safe.

These critics questioned why the sisters were part of a group of unsupervised children - including a 1-year-old - playing at the river's edge. At 12, Temisha was in charge of the group.

According to reports, their mother believed the children were playing at a park closer to their home.

Some readers suggested that good parents know where their children are 100% of the time. That seems a bit unrealistic to me.

Then Kane has to throw out the race card:

But when a tragedy like this happens, I think it's proper to ask why none of the adults in these children's lives was watching out for them.

There was a time when neighbors watched out for everybody's children, even if they were black and poor.

When I visited the site Monday, grieving relatives were there in force, along with others from their neighborhood.

It was a workday, so many residents of the upscale condo district weren't present. Somebody in the crowd wondered aloud about that, because it appeared as if the people who lived here didn't want any part of the scene.

Also, the site had no makeshift tributes or commemorations, the kind of small gestures you see all the time after such tragedies, just to show someone in the area cared.

I talked to several Beerline residents after Tuesday's column; some of them said they thought I had needlessly injected race into the story by pointing out the mourners of the children were black and most residents in the upscale condo district are white.

In between the two columns, there was this e-mail exchange between Kane and a reader (emphasis mine):

-----Original Message-----
From: Karl Kukor
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 9:01 AM
To: Eugene Kane
Subject: Tragic yes but....

Where was mom ?

From: Eugene Kane
To: Karl Kukor
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 9:03 AM
Subject: RE: Tragic yes but....

Yep, best thing to do in a situation like this, blame the mother.
You don’t disappoint me.

Eugene Kane
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Columnist

From: Karl Kukor
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 9:25 AM
To: Eugene Kane
Subject: Re: Tragic yes but....

It was a tragic accident but on cue you blame some building contractor. Why not blame God for putting the river there ? Lets wall off the river, the lake and my God we better wall off all the streets so kids don't run after a ball and get hit by cars. I grew up 1 block from lake Michigan and I managed not to drown. Do you really think some sign would have halted their curiosity, be real.

From: Eugene Kane
To: Karl Kukor
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 9:27 AM
Subject: RE: Tragic yes but....

I live for the day when a bunch of white kids get killed in an accident and the first question from readers is “where were the parents?”
Because both you and I know, that doesn’t get asked unless it’s black people, poor black people in particular…

Eugene Kane
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Columnist

Karl Kukor: I find your statement detestful and will share it with every senior management and staff at your publication.

I don't know if this exchange is a hoax or not. I'm relying on the reputation of conservative radio yapper, Charlie Sykes. [Sykes is an employee of the Journal Sentinel's parent company.]

What can be said about this callous disregard for human life because of skin color? It's racism plain and simple. I hope he didn't mean this. I hope Kane was just having a bad day. I rarely agree with what Kane writes, yet I'm willing to let this pass if he apologizes. One thing is for certain, if a local white conservative talk show host or columnist (the Journal Sentinel has none) said something like this about black kids, he'd lose his job. The newspaper's editorial board would have published a scathing editorial lamenting such divisive language. There then would be weeks of news stories on the front page documenting examples of Milwaukee's racism.

Kane is safe because 1) he's black;and 2) he's a Lefty in a Lefty newspaper.

Milwaukee is a racially-divided city partly because of race baiters like Kane. Whites are afraid to connect with their minority brothers and sisters because any faux-paus, no matter how well intentioned, could be taken as evidence of racism's ghost. Kane mentioned that one of the condo residents told him he didn't yell at the kids because "he didn't want to do anything that might look bad." It's just easier to walk down separate paths. This time it might have cost two girls' lives.

If you think Eugene Kane said things that are beyond the pale for newspaper columnist in a big city, you can write a letter to the editor, e-mail Kane, e-mail, or e-mail the paper's editor, Martin Kaiser.