Sunday, September 14, 2008

Controversial?

So I'm sure a ton of you have heard the news about Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and her stance on naming hurricanes but if not here's an update:

Do devastating hurricanes need help from affirmative action?

A member of Congress apparently thinks so, and is demanding the storms be given names that sound "black."

The congressional newspaper the Hill reported this week that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, feels that the current names are too "lily white," and is seeking to have better representation for names reflecting African-Americans and other ethnic groups.


Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas

"All racial groups should be represented," Lee said, according to the Hill. She hoped federal weather officials "would try to be inclusive of African-American names."

A sampling of popular names that could be used include Keisha, Jamal and Deshawn, according to the paper.

Jackson Lee's call is brewing its own storm of response across America.



My personal favorite response:

Limbaugh- "I just threw up in my hands."

2 comments:

Dan Jones said...

I think she's trying to compensate for the fact that her parents named her Sheila, instead of LaShonda by imposing the name she wanted on hurricanes.

Austin said...

Yeah...I have a hard time trying to figure out why this is controversial. Why wouldn't they have racially diverse names? I don't understand why we need legislation to move that forward, but it seems strange that we couldn't have a Hurricane Pablo. It's really not that big a deal. Though I'm not stunned that Rush Limbaugh didn't have a witty rejoinder, and somehow managed to make something sound dumb without actually saying why it is.