Indiana’s Black Legislative Caucus wants to teach Huntington Senator, Andy Zay, a thing or two about what it really means to experience racism as a Black person living in America.
Members of the organization have invited the politician to sit down and explain his recently surfaced Facebook messages, which included a baseless comment that read, “racism is not real,” according to the Journal Gazette.
Last week, Zay landed himself in hot water after a three-year-old Facebook conversation was revealed where he carelessly expressed that, “the biggest minority class is in America is the white male.”
While exchanging a series of back and private messages with a second person, Zay, who was a township official at the time, said, “More white males are refused to college, medical schools and law schools than any other group.”
He continued, “Yes, there are more, but these so-called minorities are given way more opportunity to succeed and be part of successful programs than the average white male.”
In response to the Senator and his questionable facts, the members of the Indiana Black Caucus want to meet with Zay and “talk more about his remarks.”
“What this demonstrates once again is a shocking trend in our country that has risen in the past couple of years,” the Black Caucus told the publication. “It is keyed on the belief that those who have played a large role in perpetuating racism in our society now believe they are the ones who are the most oppressed.”
The other person involved in the conversation, a Democrat named Tyler Cooley, was appalled and even warned the Senator by saying, “Do you realize that everything I’m telling you is getting tweeted and sent to every reporter I know. You are a horrible bigot.”
Cooley told ABC 21, a Fort Wayne, Indiana news station, “It’s the epitome of privilege.”
Although it didn’t seem to stop Zay from ranting at the time, he now seems to be backtracking on his earlier comments from 2015.
“My remarks were part of a much broader discussion on the American Dream. I believe every Hoosier and every person should be treated equally regardless of race,” he said, as reported by the Gazette. “I agree with the words of Martin Luther King Jr. that all people should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.”
The IBLC, however, isn’t letting him off the hook so easily, “We welcome him to come to our districts and meet with the folks who live and work there. Talk to people, understand their experiences, and you will get the chance to see how wrong it is to say ‘racism is not real.'”
