Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

Winkler Mike Winkler, a progressive – very progressive -- state representative from Vernon, Connecticut, tumbled into a postmodern mare’s nest when he attempted, poorly, to discriminate between different kinds of discrimination. During a public hearing on bills before the Planning and Development Committee, Winkler said that Greenwich Housing Authority member Sam Romeo had counted Asian Americans among minorities presently suffering from invidious discrimination. Winkler had just suggested that Greenwich officials had deployed zoning regulations to deny access to African Americans, and here was a Housing authority member claiming that 37% of the population of Greenwich were minorities. Well yes, Winkler grudgingly conceded. However, “You count Asians and other minorities that have never been discriminated against,” Winkler said during the hearing, at which point the frigid waters of Critical Race Theory closed over Winkler’s head. Critical Race Theory holds that the law and legal ...