State GOP rep: Blacks earn less because they don't work as hard

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Oklahoma state representative Sally Kern is known for ruffling a few feathers with her politically incorrect statements, and her latest remarks are no different.

Kern, a Republican, was reported as having said that blacks don’t work as hard as whites, and helped the Oklahoma House of Representatives pass a constitutional amendment yesterday that would eliminate affirmative action in state government.

Rep. T.W. Shannon, the sponsor of the bill, explained the reasoning behind the bill: “While discrimination exists, I don’t think affirmative action has been as successful as we like to believe.”

Kern said that minorities earn less than whites do because they don’t put worth the same amount of initiative and aren’t as motivated as whites to succeed:

We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.

She also said women earn less because “they tend to spend more time at home with their families.”

Kern is known for her extremist opinions — from saying “homosexuality is more dangerous than terrorism” to introducing legislation to force teachers to question evolution.