Michigan lawmaker: “We can’t make an African-American white. We can’t fix that’

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A Michigan state lawmaker has angered his constituents after video was released showing his racially insensitive response to educational disparities across different demographic groups.

“We can’t make an African-American white,” State Sen. Marty Knollenberg (R) said during a hearing Thursday — after seeing data that indicated most students who were struggling were students of color.

“You mention why these schools districts fail, and you mention economically disadvantaged and non-white population are contributors to that. And we can’t fix that. We can’t make an African-American white,” he said at the meeting. “That’s just, it is what it is.”

A spokesman for Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) told WXYZ Detroit there was no intention to insinuate causality between race and academic achievement.

However, many found the comments problematic, particularly the American Federation of Teachers.

“What Sen. Knollenberg said about struggling kids in schools is racist and a major step backwards in improving education for our children. If a child is struggling academically, it is not because of a problem inherent to their race or ethnicity,” David Hecker, president of the AFT Michigan chapter. “Research tells us what needs to be done and the absurd thought of changing a child’s race has nothing to do with any of it.”

Knollenberg insists his comments were taken out of context, and made it a point to share that he even has an African-American employee.

“My passion is for improving education and making sure every single child gets a good education,” he said, offering an apology to anyone offended. “We should not have failing schools anywhere.”

You can check out video from the hearing below.