Tag: racist

Posted on

Viral Video: Oklahoma Fraternity Shut Down Over Racist Chant

The national office of Sigma Alpha Epsilon shut down a chapter at the University of Oklahoma when a video surfaced that showed members singing a racist chant:

UPDATE:

University of Oklahoma president Boren issued this statement on the scandal:

“To those who have misused their free speech in such a reprehensible way, I have a message for you. You are disgraceful.

“You have violated all that we stand for. You should not have the privilege of calling yourselves ‘Sooners.’ Real Sooners are not racist. Real Sooners are not bigots. Real Sooners believe in equal opportunity. Real Sooners treat all people with respect. Real Sooners love each other and take care of each other like family members.

“All of us will redouble our efforts to create the strongest sense of family and community,” Boren added. “We vow that we will be an example to the entire country of how to deal with this issue. There must be zero tolerance for racism everywhere in our nation.”

The members of SAE at OU were given until Tuesday night at midnight to gather their belongings and get out. Boren added that he doesn’t plan on helping the displaced residents find housing.

“That’s not our responsibility,” he said. “We don’t provide student services to bigots.” He added that he’d offer to pay the student’s busfare if it would help them leave the community faster.

The national SAE organization had this to say:

“We apologize for the unacceptable and racist behavior of the individuals in the video, and we are disgusted that any member would act in such a way,” the online statement read. “Furthermore, we are embarrassed by this video and offer our empathy not only to anyone outside the organization who is offended but also to our brothers who come from a wide range of backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities.”

I’m curious if anyone has identified any particular student in the video, and if so, what they might have to say on the incident. I always have a passing interest in how bigots justify their positions and behavior.

Posted on

Rep. Aaron Schock’s Week Gets Worse As Top Aide Resigns Over Racist Comments

Rep. Aaron Schock and ABC News’ Jeff Zeleny talk office decorating

In the wake of his current Congressional decorating woes, Rep. Aaron Schock now has to deal with a PR debacle as news comes to light that his policy and communiciations adviser, Benjamin Cole, had taken to social media in the past to compare African-Americans to zoo animals.

The posts appear to have been removed this week in light of “OfficeGate.”

In a series of Facebook posts obtained by ThinkProgress, the senior adviser for policy and communications to Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) posted racial comments and endorsed gentrification of his neighborhood.

Benjamin Cole, a former Baptist pastor and energy industry spokesman, posted a series of videos and comments on October 13, 2013 mocking two African Americans outside his DC apartment. In the first, he compared them to animals escaping from the National Zoo engaged in “mating rituals.” That message included a video of a woman, shouting and seemingly engaged in an argument with someone not visible as she walked. In each of his posts, he used the hashtag “#gentrifytoday.”

To be honest, Cole brought this on himself not only by posting his hideous remarks but also by making himself news this week with his knee-jerk reaction to the “Downton Abbey” inspired office story. Had he handled the issue with a fairer hand, his name wouldn’t have sparked interest in the national media.

You can see the screen capture of one of the posts (before it was deleted) below:

Cole’s resignation was announced today with Schock issuing this statement:

“I am extremely disappointed by the inexcusable and offensive online comments made by a member of my staff,” Schock said in a statement to the Peoria Journal Star. “I would expect better from any member of my team. Upon learning about them I met with Mr. Cole and he offered his resignation which I have accepted.”

Glad to see Schock take the only real.

Posted on

GOP House Majority Whip Scalise Acknowledges Speaking At “White Nationalist” Meeting

Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner surely didn’t imagine he would begin the next Congress in this manner.

First, Republican Congressman Michael Grimm of Staten Island pleads guilty to felony tax evasion.

And now another GOP House member is in the middle of a racial controversy literally days before the Republican party is to take control of both chambers of Congress. 

The incoming House Majority Whip, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, has acknowledged that he spoke at a meeting of “white nationalist leaders” (read that “white supremacists”) while serving as a state legislator in 2002.

The 48-year-old Scalise, who ascended to the House GOP’s third-ranking post earlier this year, confirmed through an adviser that he once appeared at a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization.

That organization, founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

As JoeMyGod points out, it should surprise no one that Scalise was the lead author of Louisiana’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Posted on

Wisconsin: 19 Year-Old Republican State Assembly Candidate Cancels Campaign Over Racist/Homophobic Comments

Jacob Dorsey

A 19-year-old Republican candidate for Wisconsin State Assembly has ended his campaign after racist and homophobic comments he had made on Twitter and YouTube came to light.

From LGBTQNation:

Jacob Dorsey told The Janesville Gazette on Tuesday he was ending his campaign for the Assembly, just five days after apologizing for a Christmas Day 2013 tweet in which he said “fags need 2 leave my favorite state alone.”

Dorsey was commenting on Twitter after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit refused to issue a stay in a federal court ruling last year striking down Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage.

“I have decided to withdraw from the race due to insensitive remarks that have surfaced from years past,” Dorsey said in a statement to The Gazette. “This race has been extremely hard on my family and myself.”

Although Dorsey tried to add some “spin” that his comments were from “years ago,” some of the comments were posted just five months before he announced his candidacy.

Clearly the young man is still on the immature side of life and not qualified to hold public office.

Dorsey says he plans to return to school to pursue a degree, having taken the semester off to run for public office.

See some of his YouTube comments below:

Posted on

Baton Rouge cop resigns after text messages wishing someone would “pull a Ferguson” on n*ggers

A Baton Rouge police officer has resigned in scandal after several text messages came to light in which he wished “someone would pull a Ferguson” on African American citizens, whom he referred to as a “bunch of monkeys.”

From Raw Story:

Fifteen-year-veteran Michael Elsbury resigned on Thursday after text messages he sent to a female friend were brought to the attention of his superiors. In one message, Officer Elsbury — whose patrol included the area around the historically black Southern University — wrote that blacks are “nothing but a bunch of monkeys,” and that the “only reason they have this job is the nigger, nigger in them.” It is unclear what “job” he is referring to.

In another text, he wrote that “I wish someone would pull a Ferguson on them and take them out. I hate looking at those African monkeys at work…I enjoy arresting those thugs with their saggy pants.”

In a public statement, Police Chief Carl Dabadie admitted that “it was gut-wrenching to believe that someone had that much hate in them, especially a police officer who is out there enforcing the law every day. It made me sick to my stomach.”

“I believe this is an isolated incident that occurred between the officer and this girl,” he said. “I do not want this to become a direct reflection on our officers. I have 650 officers, and 649 of them work their butts off every day for the city of Baton Rouge.”

According to a statement by the police department, there is still an ongoing investigation regarding Officer Elsbury.

Posted on

Ferguson police officer who shoved CNN anchor takes early retirement

The police officer who pushed CNN anchor Don Lemon during a live newscast from Ferguson, Missouri, has taken early retirement (with full benefits!) after being racist, homophobic video rants came to light.

From the Advocate:

Dan Page, a St. Louis County police officer, had been suspended but opted to retire to avoid further investigation, reports MSNBC. His last day was Monday.

Page pushed Lemon and others during the out journalist’s coverage of protests in Ferguson over the fatal shooting of unarmed black man Michael Brown. Afterward, Lemon notified Page’s supervisors about a speech the officer gave in 2012 to an organization called Oath Keepers, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

In video of the hour-long rant, Page calls gay people in the military “sickening” and “pitiful,” rails against hate-crimes laws, and says four of the U.S. Supreme Court’s justices are “homosexual sodomites.” He calls President Obama “that illegal alien who claims to be our president,” says Muslims “will kill you,” and advises women to relax about “domestic violence stuff,” as couples who don’t get along should “just shoot each other and get it over with.”

He also warns Missouri’s U.S. senators, Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt, that he is “real good with a rifle,” and says that while he is a Christian, he is nonetheless proud of being a killer. “I’ve killed a lot,” says Page, a former Green Beret and 35-year veteran of the police department. “And if I need to, I’ll kill a whole bunch more…. God did not raise me to be a coward.”

In related news, the Ferguson police have begun wearing body cameras to help capture an accurate record of police-involved incidents.

Posted on

New Hampshire: Small town police commissioner resigns over using “N” word to describe President Obama

A local police commissioner has resigned after a firestorm erupted last week in the New Hampshire town of Wolfeboro.  Robert Copeland  was brought to task for using a racial slur to refer to President Obama.

Copeland admitted using the slur, preceded by an obscenity, while he was at a restaurant in March. The comment was overheard by a resident of the New Hampshire town and acknowledged by Copeland in an email to his fellow police commissioners.

As the story grew, even former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney denounced the use of the slur.   “The vile epithet used and confirmed by the commissioner has no place in our community,” Romney said. “He should apologize and resign.”

At a town meeting last week, over 100 residents called for the resignation of Copeland. Copeland didn’t even attempt to defend himself:

“I believe I did use the ‘N’ word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse,” Copeland said in the April email sent to the two other commissioners and forwarded to O’Toole. “For this, I do not apologize — he meets and exceeds my criteria for such.”

A handful of people at the meeting spoke on behalf of Copeland, saying he had a right to free speech. But the louder message came from those who wanted him out.

“Comments like these, especially coming from a public official, are not only inexcusable but also terribly, unfortunately, reflects poorly on our town,” O’Toole said at the meeting.

Posted on

Fallout continues over LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s alledged racist comments

The fallout continues in the Donald Sterling debacle. 

Magic Johnson, mentioned by name in the recording that appears to reveal Sterling as a raging racist,  tweeted this response soon after the recording went viral.

At a press conference in Malaysia, President Obama was asked to his thoughts on the scandal.  See below:

Posted on

LA Clippers Owner Donald Sterling to Girlfriend: Don’t Bring Black People to My Games

TMZ Sports has obtained audio of LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling making racist comments during a heated argument on April 9th with his girlfriend V. Stiviano after she posted a photo on Instagram posing with Magic Johnson.

Sterling rails on Stiviano — who ironically is black and Mexican — for putting herself out in public with a black person (she has since taken the pic down). But it doesn’t end there.  Among the comments (via TMZ):

— “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?” (3:30)

— “You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games.” (5:15)

— “I’m just saying, in your lousy f***** Instagrams, you don’t have to have yourself with, walking with black people.” (7:45)

— “…Don’t put him [Magic] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.” (9:13)

UPDATE – The NBA is investigating the issue, according to NBC Sports: “We are in the process of conducting a full investigation into the audio recording obtained by TMZ. The remarks heard on the recording are disturbing and offensive, but at this time we have no further information.”