White supremacist runs for Minneapolis council
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Sept. 1, 2005:
Rochelle Olson, Star Tribune
September 1, 2005
Larry Leininger, a University of Minnesota janitor, is running for the Minneapolis City Council's open Third Ward seat on a white supremacy and segregationist platform.
Leininger, 53, said the city should ask nonwhites not to come to Minneapolis. "My yardstick for deciding whether or not a piece of legislation should be passed is whether it's beneficial to white people," he said in an interview Wednesday. "In the past, everything's been going against white people."
Leininger, who affiliates with the "White Working Man's Party," is one of five candidates running in the Third Ward, just off of downtown in northeast and a small portion of north Minneapolis. The ward is open because of redistricting.
Diane Hofstede, a Library Board trustee, is heavily favored to be one of two candidates who will advance from the Sept. 13 nonpartisan primary to the Nov. 8 election. The rest of the field includes novices Aaron Neumann of the Green Party and independents Julian Pishko and Mike Ludwig.
Leininger is a long shot. He ran for mayor in 2001 and received 78 votes in the primary. Mayor R.T. Rybak was the top vote recipient that year with 20,059, or 34 percent.
Leininger's white supremacy platform is unusual for the city. Asked whether he expects to win or just hopes to put out a message, Leininger said he thinks he may have an outside shot at winning and adds, "Yes, I am getting a message out. Hopefully, after a while, it will sink in."
In addition to his supremacy views, Leininger favors a trackless trolley system instead of light-rail expansion. He would power the trolleys with a hydroelectric dam on the Mississippi River.
So far, his campaign has amounted to distributing some pamphlets that argue that black people have IQs so far below white people that affirmative action should be precluded. While Asians have slightly higher average IQs than whites, fewer of them are geniuses, Leininger's pamphlet says.
Leininger said that affirmative action works against white people and that "since the 1960s, the government has gone against white people."
He would pursue passage of an ordinance allowing the Minneapolis Police Department to ask immigrants for their documentation at traffic stops.
Leininger said he doesn't intend to spend a lot of money on the campaign. "I figure I owe it to society. I've benefited from society and I ought to pay back a little to society."
The party to which he affiliates "is not huge, but you've got to start someplace," Leininger said.
Natalie Johnson Lee, one of two black members of the City Council, said, "We'll contend with Larry if he gets through the primary, which I seriously doubt."
I don't think I need to say anything other than, Comments anyone?
EDIT:
More information can be found at the sites listed below...
On Downtown's East Bank, rolling down the river ward
White Working Man's Party website
Larry's email address: whiteworkingmans@excite.com
And this archived Minnesota Daily article from July 2001 has a picture of our buddy Larry:
New Party Makes First Mayoral Bid
SECOND EDIT: Anyone else think he resembles Denethor from Lord of the Rings? He has that same kind of evil look about him.
posted by SouthernCanadian @ 12:23 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Several things strike me as being unbelievable/nauseating:
1. That people still think this way.
2. That he is a University of Minnesota employee AND ran for mayor on this platform 4 years ago AND is still alive (both the U of M and the city of Minneapolis are quite liberal).
3. That he appears to have taken Arthur Jensen's The Bell Curve literally.
4. That he thinks this is something he "owes to society."
I don't know...maybe I'll move up to MPL just to vote for him. Then I'd show up at his rallies, wave at him from the crowd, and loudly tell him that he left his car keys and his toothbrush in my bathroom last night.
I posted that article largely because I find Larry and his assertions humorous (albeit as I said before, nauseating), and it amuses me to poke fun at him.
On a serious note, you ask if I think he should not be allowed to run...I'm not saying that at all, actually. Remember that I am speaking from a certain viewpoint that is influenced by my ethnic background, my cultural background, and my education at a liberal arts college. It is probably fairly discernible, given those things, that I have a pretty negative opinion of Larry's values. I do not agree with Larry's views and would not vote for him.
Do I think he should be allowed to run? Absolutely. He is entitled to his views and as far as I can see is entitled under the First Amendment to express them. I may hold it to be self-evident that any form of prejudice/stereotyping and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion or lack thereof, sexuality, etc. is wrong, but that does not mean that everyone does or that I can force everyone to agree with me. And we need dissent, i think, to make a democratic society work and grow. Too much agreement (or a situation in which people are afraid to disagree) can lead to groupthink and stagnance.
I know I sound idealistic - which I am - and naive - which is arguably true. And that was a really long answer. But that's my two cents' worth of clarification.
owner's manual, a white supremacist has every right to run for whatever office he or she chooses. No one would deny him the right to pursue his dream. I would hope, however, that his pursuit would end in failure. I respect any person who is up front about their feelings, beliefs, and convictions, and they have every right to have them. I have every right, conversely, to disagree with them, and I'd hope that the vast majority of Minnesotans and Americans as a whole feel the same way. Any place that supports his views is a place set back in time by 50 years.
I think you make an important and salient point: If Larry, or someone with similar views, were to win an election or stand a good chance of doing so, I would not worry as much about the person.
I would worry more about the society or community that voted to elect that person (or the subset that elected the person).
I only regret that I didn't move to Minneapolis soon enough to vote for him. I respect some of the africans that I work with, but I want the residents of the cracks stacks gone.
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