I dunno what came over him, but a little girl named Isis asked California Education Secretary Richard Riordan if he knew her name meant “Egyptian Goddess.”
Riordan replied, “It means stupid dirty girl.”
After some nervous laughter in the room, the girl told Riordan her name meant “Egyptian Goddess.”
“Hey, that’s nifty,” Riordan said.
Afterwards, Riordan issued a statement that said he “teased” the girl, then immediately apologized, and would apologize again for the misunderstanding. The girl’s mother said the daughter was fine, the issue was over, “Obviously it hurt her feelings, but she didn’t take it personally. She knew he was wrong and she let it go, I’m not going to sue them for therapy bills. He’s already apologized repeatedly, I don’t see what else is to be done.”
Story is over, right? Senile old white politician flubs a stupid, inept, and insulting joke, apologizes, and everybody is forgiven…
Except California Democrat State Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally is outraged. He schedules a protest by civil rights organizations, and gives his condemnation about Riordan. He says the child was “a little African-American girl. Would he (Riordan) have done that to a white girl?”
Alice Huffman, president of the California chapter of the NAACP, called for Riorden’s removal. Riorden “is not suitable to lead education in our state.”
The only problem with the protest is that the little girl is white with blond hair.
Dymally did not return telephone calls. His office issued a statement Wednesday calling Riordan’s remarks to the girl “outrageous and irresponsible,” then issued another statement Thursday saying, “To err is human; to forgive is divine.”
“Race is not a factor in this issue,” Dymally said in Thursday’s statement, adding that Riordan had apologized a second time. “It is time for us to move on.”
I suppose. Seems a darn shame to cancel a perfectly good protest though.
Chasing the Wind 
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