GOP lawmaker says businesses should have right not to serve blacks
theGRIO REPORT - Phil Jensen, a Republican state senator from South Dakota, has raised eyebrows with some of his recent remarks about the rights of businesses to be prejudiced on the issue of race...
Phil Jensen, a Republican state senator from South Dakota, has raised eyebrows with some of his recent remarks about the rights of businesses to be prejudiced on the issue of race.
According to the Rapid City Journal, Jensen doesn’t see a problem with people refusing to serve someone because they’re black.
“If someone was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and they were running a little bakery for instance, the majority of us would find it detestable that they refuse to serve blacks, and guess what? In a matter of weeks or so that business would shut down because no one is going to patronize them,” Jensen told the Journal.
Jensen is not a stranger to this topic. He introduced legislation (SB 128) in the state senate earlier this year which would have allowed businesses to show bias against people in the LGBT community. The bill failed.
The Journal, which suggests Jensen may be the deep red state South Dakota’s most conservative legislator, reached out to one of his most vocal local opponents, David Patton, president of the Black Hills Center for Equality.
“The free market didn’t do away with slavery,” Patton said.
Click here to read more about Jensen’s views.
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