Ah, not-so soft prejudice
I first noticed this at Tondee's Tavern in the diaries, and then sought out the article in The Augusta Chronicle the further explained it.
Wow. As I noted a few days ago, race-baiting is not some new development when it comes to politics in Augusta, but this does kind of take it to a whole new level.
Dave Barbee, now a former member of the Augusta Housing Authority, put together an email filled with such idiocy, one has to read it to believe it ...
Gentlemen I am begging you both not to give in on the revitalization of downtown Augusta!!! The problem with the politicians is the White/Black ratio in downtown Augusta. The development of the property beside St. Paul's Church is high income folks who will tend to be White and now we are closing GM (Gilbert Manor) and moving Black folks out. We will be making the downtown Whiter with moving 200 whites in and moving 500 blacks out! The numbers will affect political boundaries, school board lines, commission district lines, State Representative district lines, and Senate district lines.
For his part, Barbee has resigned from the board and apologized for ... a poorly worded email being made public. He goes on to say that 'it literally breaks' his heart to see he plight of the poor in Augusta and that he intended to use the phrase 'mixed-use' rather than, say, 'let's ship off all of the blacks.'
Again, all you can really say is wow.
Flack follows up a bit and, aside from noticing as I did that Barbee didn't actually apologize for his race-tinged rant, that the Republican Party is content in letting him remain as the chair of the 10th Congressional District. While that is disappointing enough, what's even weirder is the fact that they go along with the line that Barbee's thoughts were misconstrued to some extent ... but then argue that Barbee's comments don't reflect the positions of the state party.
If his positions don't reflect your party, then why are you letting him keep his seat? One would think if I had someone who didn't represent my party, I wouldn't necessarily want them representing me.
Wow. As I noted a few days ago, race-baiting is not some new development when it comes to politics in Augusta, but this does kind of take it to a whole new level.
Dave Barbee, now a former member of the Augusta Housing Authority, put together an email filled with such idiocy, one has to read it to believe it ...
Gentlemen I am begging you both not to give in on the revitalization of downtown Augusta!!! The problem with the politicians is the White/Black ratio in downtown Augusta. The development of the property beside St. Paul's Church is high income folks who will tend to be White and now we are closing GM (Gilbert Manor) and moving Black folks out. We will be making the downtown Whiter with moving 200 whites in and moving 500 blacks out! The numbers will affect political boundaries, school board lines, commission district lines, State Representative district lines, and Senate district lines.
For his part, Barbee has resigned from the board and apologized for ... a poorly worded email being made public. He goes on to say that 'it literally breaks' his heart to see he plight of the poor in Augusta and that he intended to use the phrase 'mixed-use' rather than, say, 'let's ship off all of the blacks.'
Again, all you can really say is wow.
Flack follows up a bit and, aside from noticing as I did that Barbee didn't actually apologize for his race-tinged rant, that the Republican Party is content in letting him remain as the chair of the 10th Congressional District. While that is disappointing enough, what's even weirder is the fact that they go along with the line that Barbee's thoughts were misconstrued to some extent ... but then argue that Barbee's comments don't reflect the positions of the state party.
If his positions don't reflect your party, then why are you letting him keep his seat? One would think if I had someone who didn't represent my party, I wouldn't necessarily want them representing me.
posted by Jmac at 6:27 AM
4 Comments:
First there was the non-apologetic apology, now we have the non-denouncing denouncement. I suppose the next logical step is the Larry Craig-patented non-resigning resignation.
I don't know where the two of you are from but this is the way racism is done here in Georgia. Comments like this are made and they are never directly defended. Instead,those who make them and their supporters play a sort of strange passive-aggressive game by never really addressing the issue, obscuring it with straw-man arguments and otherwise intimating that one is a traitor to one's racial group or class by openly opposing the racist in the public eye at that moment.
I wonder if the NAACP is even slightly interested in this case. Isn't this the sort of issue they were formed to deal with?
oh I see that mike-el is from Georgia. I guess he must know what I mean, then!
lol you are both from Georgia. I need more coffee!!!!
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