CAUTION: This post may make you feel uncomfortable, it is not politically correct, it brings up race issues, and (hopefully) makes you think. If any of these things make you upset or uncomfortable, please do not read this post. If you flame me because of my opinions (in addition to not supporting The Bill of Rights) you apparently did not follow instructions.
Read the following and form pictures and opinions in your mind about the kind of person that must have been behind the podium.
We as white people, it’s time. It’s time for us to come together. It’s time for us to rebuild a city, a city that should be a vanilla city and I don’t care what people are saying uptown or wherever they are. This city will be vanilla at the end of the day.
Who do you think this person is? Some white, racist nut, right?
What if I told you the person who said these things was the mayor of a city and that the comments were made on the steps of City Hall? Should s/he be removed from office for those statements? Brought up on hate-crime charges? Discrimination charges? It’s definately derrogatory and racist, right?
Now, re-read the the quote replacing “vanilla” with “chocolate,” “white” with “black,” and “a city” with “New Orleans.” This is a quote from Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans in an address made from the steps of City Hall to the people of New Orleans on Human Rights Day (a.k.a. Martin Luther Kind, Jr. Day).
Here’s the video [ .wmv (900KB) ], see for yourself.
Are his remarks any less racist and derogatory because he’s black? What if he were yellow, or purple, or blue; would they be any less racist and derogatory then?
Do you still want to see him removed from offive? Why/why not?
Why, if a white person said these things, would they be critisized and threatened whereas if a black person said these things, they are celebrated.
Then again, why does it matter?
Did you see what Mayor Nagin said after being called on his “chocolate” comments? He said, “How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about,” he said. “New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina. It is going to be a chocolate city after. How is that divisive? It is white and black working together, coming together and making something special.”
I personally think it would’ve been better for him had he not said “chocolate” in the first place. Should he be impeached? Probably not. Should he be re-elected? No, and not just for these comments. Ever since Katrina, I thought that he was a dope for how he handled the situation. It seemed like instead of helping his constituants, he was blaming everybody for the disaster.
Notice that Mayor Nagin didn’t say anything (in either quote) about “chocolate milk.” His first comment is about chocolate. His second comment is about chocolate… but he gives directions in his second quote describing how to make “chocolate milk.”
Mayor Nagin was operating in damage-control mode when he made his second comment. But since he’s so good at making chocolate milk, maybe they should promote him to “head chef” or “lunch room supervisor.”
When person sincererly tries to unite a community, they say “all races, colors, creeds, and religions” (or something to that effect); singling out two “colors” is by its very definition devisive.
So true. I still think he’s a doofus.