Criticized Black History proposal dropped
MADISON - A white Wisconsin lawmaker under fire from his black colleagues for drafting a resolution for Black History Month that honored mostly white abolitionists said Tuesday he was dropping the proposal.
Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha, said he instead wants to get behind a resolution drafted by African-American lawmakers in the Legislature and suggested he made a mistake in drafting his own resolution without their input.
“The resolution was judged as inappropriate by many because it was authored by a white-skinned man and because it recognized some whiteskinned individuals,” Allen said in a statement. “More important than content, however, are the feelings of the members of the African-American caucus and our relationship as legislative colleagues.”
Allen’s retreat comes after the exercise of honoring Black History Month in the state Legislature devolved into explosive debate the last two years after Allen and other white lawmakers sought to block or change Black History Month resolutions drafted by black lawmakers.
Last year, Assembly Republicans objected to the inclusion of Colin Kaepernick, the former NFL quarterback who chose to kneel during the National Anthem to protest police mistreatment of African-Americans. The year before, Allen said the resolution should have been expanded to all Wisconsin African-Americans — or at least a larger list of individuals.
Allen introduced a 2020 proposal in December that honored 10 Wisconsinites, most of whom are white, who helped free black slaves with the Underground Railroad. It was drafted without input from the Legislature’s black members — prompting one to compare Allen, who is white, to a slave owner.
Allen, who is married to a black woman and has two children, said at the time he wanted to draft a resolution that his GOP colleagues would support. He invited black lawmakers to meet with him in January to discuss the resolution, and just one attended — Rep. Kalan Haywood of Milwaukee.
Haywood told Allen he just wanted to “diffuse this bomb” that he worried would go off if Allen didn’t involve black lawmakers or back off from drafting the resolution.
Allen said Tuesday he may have made “incorrect assumptions” about his relationships with his black colleagues and has in recent weeks had conversations that prompted him to change his mind about the resolution.
“As people, we often make assumptions or draw conclusions about our relationships based on our interpretation of experiences. Sometimes those assumptions are wrong. Sometimes we just don’t know,” he said.
“We cannot change our history, but we can change our course ... Relationships erode due to a lack of communication and relationships can grow when we invest in communication.”
Democratic Rep. David Crowley, who is black, said Monday he believes Allen’s “heart is in the right place.”
“To see what he did in December was just mind boggling for me and kind of disingenuous,” Crowley said. “I think he genuinely wants to recognize Black History Month, but I think he needs to recognize you need to work with other people.”