Tulare Councilman Spouts Racism

The following quote comes from Hillary Meeks, the Target Content Editor for the Visalia Times-Delta newspaper.

Tulare City Councilman Skip Barwick: "We up here, we keep our yards watered and mowed, we try to keep our house exteriors looking nice, and a lot of Hispanic people, those are not their priorities, whereas it is ours, because of where we come from and how we’re raised. And sometimes we think, ‘Why would you want to live like that?’ …They don’t want a nice, clean home and no animals in their yard. They want to park their cars in the grass and do what they want to do. They don’t have the same values, and trying to impose those values on them is very difficult. That’s one problem when you have a diverse community.”

It seems the neighborhood in question, Matheny Tract, has bad water, a common problem especially in unincorporated areas of the Central Valley.  They desperately want to get annexed into the city of Tulare to get on its municipal water system.  The city councilman was expressing his views about why he is opposed to their request.

The councilman's statement does rather speak for itself.  It also suggests that those who try to maintain that racism is no longer a problem in our society really aren't paying much attention.