Republican Politician Suggests Detroit Become An Indian Reservation For Black People

L. Brooks Patterson said he’d turn Detroit into an ‘Indian Reservation’ for black people, then ‘herd them in’ and ‘build a fence.’ And he’s not apologizing. Did we mention that he’s a Republican? 

“I made a prediction a long time ago and it’s come to pass. I said what we’re gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it and then throw in the blankets and the corn.” — Oakland County (MI) Executive Director L. Brooks Patterson.

This quote came from L. Brooks Patterson, a Republican official in Oakland County, MI. Patterson has been the county’s Executive Director for 21 years. He might have said these lines back in the days when he was fighting against desegration of schools. He also said them more recently, during an interview with the New Yorker. The article came out on Martin Luther King Day, 2014.

Patterson gave the statement in response to a question about what steps Detroit might take to fix its finances.

Even as Patterson struggles against throngs of criticism and negative publicity, he doesn’t deny that these were his words. He told the Detroit Free Press that his quote was taken out of context. However, Paige Williams, who interviewed Patterson for the New Yorker, says the comment came in answer to a question regarding what steps Detroit might take to fix its financial problems.

“People know me and they know I sometimes use words to make a point,” Patterson told the Detroit Free Press earlier this week.

“When I said Detroit is going to become an Indian reservation, my point was, if you don’t get black people on their feet, the successful ones will move out and the ones that remain will be dependent. We’re getting very close to that now.”

Where does the fence come in?

So in context, he was saying that the black people in Detroit are like those other minorities, the Native Americans? But then what does herding them up have to do with getting them on feet? What benign meaning is there is ‘building a fence around them?’ Not to mention throwing in ‘blankets and corn’.

Photo of a 1971 meeting with anti-bussing activists
Irene McCabe, young Attorney L. Brooks Patterson
(now a Republican official for Oakland County, MI),
and Rep. Thomas Downey (D-VA). 

When you know where Patterson’s words are coming from, you understand that the meaning was not benign. He is the lawyer who represented the anti-segregationists in Oakland County, decades ago. He fought school busing all the way to the Supreme Court, where he eventually won the case. After that he lobbied for a ‘no busing amendment’ to the United States Constitution.

Here is a photo of Irene McCabe and attorney L. Brooks Patterson meet in Washington with Rep. Thomas Downey, D-Va., in October, 1971. McCabe and Patterson were lobbying for an anti-busing amendment to the Constitution.

Patterson’s entire career has been focused on building fences to keep ‘those people out.’

Patterson believes in fences. He’s been working at keeping ‘those people out’ of his own community for a very long time. I think maybe he’s gotten so old and set in his ways that he just forgot he was talking to an outsider, someone who might find his views shocking and more than a little distasteful.

The legacy of L. Brooks Patterson in Oakland County is that he protected the citizens of the once affluent area of from having to mingle with ‘other races.” In a way he built a fence at the border of Oakland County and the city of Detroit. In return for the fence, Oakland County voters elected him to the office of County Prosecutor. He has held one or another political office there, ever since.

Apologize for what?

Community activists and civil rights leaders gathered in Detroit, on January 21. The Reverend Charles E. Williams III called for a sincere apology from Patterson. Patterson told the Detroit Free Press “I’m not apologizing because I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Burned Cross Found Outside Tennessee Black Church Because Racism is Over

While we’re sure they were just “celebrating their heritage,” someone or a group of someones burned a cross outside the predominantly African American New Hope Baptist Church in Clarksville, TN. The cross was discovered by a member of the congregation at an entrance to the church’s parking lot.

“I’d heard of this. I’ve seen it perhaps at other churches, other buildings, but not in a million years did I think this would happen to New Hope because we are a close community,” said Pastor Vernon Hooks. He worries that this could be someone’s way of sending a violent message.

Hooks said that, when the cross was discovered, the smell of the gasoline used to light the wood still lingered. The church fortunately suffered no damage, aside from a charred gate.

Hooks says he plans to leave the cross on the church property for now, and make it a lesson in this week’s sermons. “That we will keep doing God’s will, that we won’t give up, we won’t let this be a setback for us as a congregation,” Hooks said.

The state of Tennessee is rife with Klan activity–something that those affected by this horrible attack likely know all too well. Unfortunately, while Republicans claim racism is over it is alive and well–as is made obvious by the burnt cross currently lying on the church’s lawn.

Florida Republican ‘Protecting Himself’ When He Screamed ‘N*gger’ At Black Grocery Store Shoppers

Wilton Manors Commissioner Ted Galatis apologized for hurling racial slurs at a woman in a parking lot over the weekend, but maintained that he did so because he felt threatened by the passengers in the car.

The woman told WTVJ that that the commissioner began hurling insults at her in the parking lot of a Publix on Sunday, where he “began calling her and her passengers ’N*ggers’.” Galatis gave a Standard Issue Notpology about the incident, saying that he “may have” used the racially charged invective, but said he was “protecting myself from the immediate threat.” Galatis said in a statement that:

I apologize for my use of the ’N’ word. It is something I never say. I offer no excuse, other than it was uttered when I was being threatened in front of my own home.

His wife rallied to the defense of her husband; Donna Galatis explained what happened in the parking lot when WTVJ reporter Jamie Guirola caught up with them at their family home. When asked what transpired, Donna shot back: “What did they say to me? ‘White bitch, I’ll slice you up’.”

The neighbors aren’t convinced that the confrontation deserved the slur, though:

“Unfortunately that just doesn’t go,” one neighbor explained. “I mean, it’s unfortunate you can’t say words like that and take them back. You know you got to pay the price. Donald Sterling just paid the price for what his situation was.”

Galatis is a registered Republican and announced that he will seek re-election, and hasn’t given any indication he is going to resign.

You can watch the WTVJ video below:

Town Official Defends Police Commissioner Who Called Obama The N-Word

On March 6, Jane O’Toole was in a Wolfeboro, N.H., restaurant when she heard a town police commissioner call President Obama “the ‘N’ word.” In an email response to O’Toole’s complaint to town officials, the commissioner, Robert Copeland, admitted to having made the comment, writing, “I believe I did use the ‘N’ word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse. For this, I do not apologize — he meets and exceeds my criteria for such,” according to a report from the Associated Press and the New York Times.

Copeland, 82, is one of three elected police commissioners in Wolfeboro, an overwhelmingly white town with 6,300 residents, about 20 of whom are black.

Commission Chairman Joseph Balboni Jr. told the Concord Monitor that O’Toole, whom he referred to as “this woman,” is “blowing it out of proportion,” and that he doesn’t plan to ask Copeland to resign. “He’s (Copeland) worked with a lot of blacks in his life,” Balboni said.

The town manager said he finds the comments “reprehensible” but doesn’t have the power to remove Copeland from office.

Racist Who Terrorized Disabled Black Kids and Their Mother Forced to Wear ‘I’m a Bully’ Sign

A despicable racist has been sentenced to an unusual punishment in a suburb of Cleveland. 62-year-old Edmond Aviv was ordered to hold a sign that says in part, “I’m a Bully” at a busy intersection this weekend. Mr. Aviv has been accused of harassing his neighbor of more than ten years, Sandra Prugh.

He allegedly called Ms. Prugh “Monkey Mama” as she held her disabled, African-American adopted children. He has also spit on her and smeared dog feces on the children’s wheelchair ramp and on their car windows. His record also includes trying to run down the wheelchair-bound kids, blaring loud music at their house, and shining spotlights in their windows at all hours of the night.

South Euclid Municipal Court Judge Gayle Williams-Byers handed down the sentence after Aviv pleaded no contest to charges of fourth-degree disorderly conduct last month. He will be spending this Sunday, April 13th sporting the sandwich board. The sign and its lettering must be large enough to be read from 25 ft. away and must say:

“I AM A BULLY! I pick on children that are disabled, and I am intolerant of those that are different from myself. My actions do not reflect an appreciation for the diverse South Euclid community that I live in.”

If this seems humiliating, but still not harsh enough for this horrible creep, not to worry. The sentence also includes 15 days in jail, seven months’ probation, 100 hours of community service, anger management classes and mental-health counseling. He will also be required to publish a letter of apology to Prugh in a local paper.

GOP’er Grilled Over Connections To White Pride Group

State Senator Chris McDaniel (R-Confederacy) is in hot water with the Republican Party Leadership in Mississippi.  McDaniel, the challenger to incumbent Senator Thad Cochran, is listed as a speaker for an event that promotes, “white pride” merchandise. Did no one tell the Republican Establishment this sort of racial sensitivity training is all part of the ongoing voter outreach program for those, “challenging minorities?”

The event, the Combined Firearm Freedom Day/Tea Party Music Fest, takes place in the appropriately named Guntown, Mississippi. One of the vendors at the event is an organization known as Pace Confederate Depot, a group that deals with Tea Party, White Pride, and Confederacy merchandise. Pace Confederate Depot is, unsurprisingly, listed by the SPLC as an, “active White national group,” and founder Brian Pace is on record saying, “whenever we had racial segregation, things were much better off.”

The McDaniel Campaign said that Chris never had any intention of going to the event and wasn’t going to be attending. Damage control handled the issue well; the updated fliers for the event doesn’t show McDaniel as a speaker. Still, Mississippi Chairman Joe Nosef believes that Senator McDaniel needs to backtrack as quickly as possible, clarifying where he stands on the issue. Nosef said in a statement to NBC Thursday:

I think he should clear it up as fast as he can. Running for the United States Senate is a very important thing and as a party we need to always be careful and focused and serious about what our views are and what our interests are. And if Sen. McDaniel thinks that there’s more to tell, to explain it, my thought as the party chairman would be, the sooner the better.

This is just the latest in a series of volleys between the Republicans and the Arch-conservative Right, who are eating the Republican Party alive. McDaniel, backed by a Who’s Who of big money PACs, including FreedomWorks and Club For Growth, is squaring off against Thad Cochran, supported by the Republican Establishment. This sort of thing is happening all over the country, with various moderate (or “moderate”) Republicans in danger of being eaten alive by their more extremist challengers.

This isn’t the first time that McDaniel has found himself in hot water over being politically insensitive; back in February of this year, McDaniel made some critical comments about Hurricane Katrina relief, earning some enmity from the coastal regions of his state.

Putin has racist, who depicted Obamas as monkey with banana, light Olympic flame

My god what an awful country.  Russian President Vladimir Putin selected a woman, who previously depicted President Obama and his wife Michelle monkeys ogling a banana, to light the Olympic flame during the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics, being held in Sochi, Russia.

Russia has a long history of virulent, and violent, racism against blacks, and those they consider black (basically anyone who isn’t blond).  And it would seem odd in a civilized country that one would choose to broadcast one’s hatred of black people to the world during an event that is supposedly about world peace and harmony, but this is Russia.

Russian former figure skater Irina Rodnina lit the flame.  She also posted this on Twitter a few months ago:

It’s truly amazing how poorly Russia is coming off during these Olympics, what with the ongoing toilet disasters, the overall shoddy condition of the Olympic hotels, and yesterday’s news that the Russians have installed spy-cams in the showers of Olympic hotel guests.

Not only has the world learned how much Russians hate gay and trans people – and we already knew they hate Jews, and basic democratic freedoms – but now we’re learning that Russia a supremely racist country as well.

Russia is so racist that the country’s president thought it funny to use a racist to tweak the President of the United States during the key moment of the Olympics.

What a shameful Olympics this has turned into.

#CheersToSochi

Peroutka: America Turning Into Haiti By Disobeying God's Laws

Steve Deace recently went on a mission trip to Haiti, which he discussed on his radio show today with Michael Peroutka, a white supremacist who heads the Institute On The Constitution. Peroutka took the opportunity to warn Deace that the US may soon look a lot like Haiti because the government has “abandoned” biblical law.

“I believe what you saw in Haiti was the result of decades of generations of men believing that they can do it their own way, do it without adherence to the way God made the world and so that has consequences,” Peroutka told Deace. “I guess the final point is, the dangerous thing is that in America today that’s where we are heading, we are heading toward Haiti, we are heading toward that kind of view of the world.”

Peroutka, is a member of the white nationalist League of the South, told Deace that “it’s not an accident or a mistake, it is being driven that way by those in government who have abandoned — and we as a culture — have abandoned this real view of the world.” Deace added that Detroit “has all the parameters in place to become like that.”

Right Wing Facebook Page Posts Photoshopped Pic of Obama in Sexually Suggestive Situation With Daughter Sasha

The White Wing nut jobs over at the Facebook page “Libtards“ have clearly outdone themselves! While these folks are no strangers to posting lies, fabrications, and misrepresentations of our President’s policies and actions, they have gone too far this time — even for the most paranoid conservatives! The following completely real photograph was posted on “Libtards” this morning.

Yup…these degenerate scumbags have recently been circulating a terribly photoshopped picture of President Obama with his hand down Sasha’s pants — in public! Even a quick glance makes it obvious that this is altered, but that has not stopped

unemployed

“self-employed” cartoonist and admin of the page Dixon Diaz from posting — and repeatedly defending this masterpiece. At first, it was thought that Dixon himself crafted this “Obamanation,” but sources tell AATTP that the image dates back at least to August–and the origin is very obviously not Diaz. 

Once some evil liberal scumbags found the unaltered photo and presented it in response to the “Libtards” post, Diaz took it a step further with a side-by-side comparison “proving” that this terribly photoshopped representation of Presidential molestation is irrefutable “proof” that Obama is a sick pedophile Muslim Socialist Communist Giraffe Fascist Un-Christian (was Muslim mentioned?) degenerate who is not fit for the office of President of the United States!

See? It’s not altered. He very helpfully noted the differences in the photos, citing those changes between the two as proof that they are, in actuality, two entirely different photographs! Of course even the most casual observer would note that aside from those badly performed alterations, the pictures are exactly the same.

One must wonder exactly what sort of person runs “Libtards.” What sort of sick individual would, knowing though his experience with Photoshopping images badly that the photo was altered, propagate a sexual representation of any child, let alone the President’s? Is this desperation to do anything possible to demonize Barack Obama, or is it som Only a look at this guy’s hard drive will tell us for sure.ething more sinister — a perverse obsession with at least one of President Obama’s daughters?

The Tea Party Exists Mainly Because Many Rural Whites Just Don’t Like a Black Guy Being in Charge

I’ll be honest, I really don’t like to talk about racism as it pertains to President Obama.  Not because it isn’t there — I actually believe it’s rampant throughout the Republican party — but because it’s just an argument that rarely gets us anywhere.

You can’t “prove” racism.  Sure, you can use a few examples, but most will be dismissed as the exception and not the rule.

Hell, I can throw up a map showing the states of the Confederacy, the states which supported segregation and the “strongly Republican” states today (nearly all of which are identical) and these people will continue to deny racism has anything to do with their hatred of President Obama.

And I always love how on an anniversary like Martin Luther King’s birthday, his “I Have a Dream Speech” or the Gettysburg Address, Republicans suddenly pretend to be some representative of equality and civil rights.

Because, you know, it was southern Democrats that were the real racists.  But what’s actually more believable:

• Entire regions, and generations, of Americans magically switched their system of beliefs on equality and race relations, or…
• The two major political parties simply swapped ideological beliefs over a few decades.

For that answer, you can just refer to the “Southern Strategy” as evidence of exactly what happened.

Watch, 50 years from now Republicans will be deny that they ever stood in the way of homosexuals gaining equality.

But now Republicans have the tea party.  Quite possibly the most hateful, vile, ignorant collection of people to garner mainstream attention in decades.  And of course, they deny racism has anything to do with their opposition to President Obama.

It’s funny how racism undoubtedly exists, yet it’s rare that anyone claims to be a racist.

I’m sure it’s just a “pure coincidence” that the tea party happened to hold their first big events immediately after Obama took office.

But let’s be honest, shall we?  It’s a reality almost every liberal is already well aware of.  The main reason the tea party exists, and has grown to be as popular with hardcore conservatives as it has (especially rural, white conservatives), is that many of these rural whites really don’t want a black man telling them what to do.

That’s it.

Sure, he’s a Democrat, so many Republicans wouldn’t have supported him anyway.  But their hatred of President Obama goes well beyond what political party he represents.

And trust me on this.  I live in Texas and as I’ve said several times, I hear President Obama referred to as some derogatory term for African Americans far more than I do by his name or as “the president.”  You can almost hear it in the voice of many of these white conservatives.  They detest the idea of having someone who’s black telling them what to do.  “He wants to tell me I have to buy health insurance?  Who does he think he is?  He’s not my president.” 

Their tea party rallies are almost mirror images of protests decades ago against interracial marriage or the ending of segregation.  Groups comprised almost entirely of white people, claiming they’re preserving the “American way of life.”  But of course they are—for white people.

Hell, I’ve been to a couple tea party rallies.  The openness at which racism was embraced stunned even me.  I figured there would be some, but the fact that most people didn’t even try to hide it was what caught me off guard.

Now, am I saying all Republicans are racists?  No, not at all.  But you can’t tell me racism has nothing to do the conservative hatred of our president.

So what it really comes down to for me is pretty simple.  It’s a bunch of conservative, rural whites resenting the fact that a black man is in charge.

And at the end of the day, that’s where most of the communist; socialist; Muslim; anti-Christian; not a real American; show us your birth certificate propaganda comes from.  Just a bunch of angry, rural white people resenting the black man in the White House.

Tea Party Idiocy on Full Display as Racism and Confederate Flag Displayed at White House Protest

Anyone who had heard about the Million Vet March on the Memorials knew this march wasn’t meant to be any kind of political statement.  Though you had to know that some participating in the march would participate based on their own political ideological beliefs.

You also shouldn’t be shocked that Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin and Mike Lee decided to turn the march in Washington DC into a photo-op for their own political gains.

That being said, the idiocy I witnessed when watching a video taken during a protest outside of the White House is deplorable.

Now I’m not certain what went on prior to the police being called — though a large angry group gathering outside the White House fence is cause for concern — but the police were called out to line the fence for a reason.  And after watching the video of the comments made during the 5-minute display of right-wing idiocy, I can see why they were called.

While the video plays, you hear, “This is a peaceful march!” yelled quite a few times.  Which is ironic coming from a group of people who are screaming and shouting at police officers.

Top Republican Pollster Finds Republicans Think Blacks Are Racist

Rasmussen, the top go-to pollster most used by Republicans, finds 49 percent of Republicans think Blacks are racist. By comparison, only 29 percent of Democrats, according to Rasmussen, think Blacks are racist, and 36 percent of “unaffiliated adults” think Blacks are racist.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that Rasmussen didn’t quite frame the results of their survey like this.

In “More Americans View Blacks As Racist Than Whites, Hispanics,” Rasmussen writes:

Americans consider blacks more likely to be racist than whites and Hispanics in this country.

Thirty-seven percent (37%) of American Adults think most black Americans are racist, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just 15% consider most white Americans racist, while 18% say the same of most Hispanic Americans.
There is a huge ideological difference on this topic. Among conservative Americans, 49% consider most blacks racist, and only 12% see most whites that way. Among liberal voters, 27% see most white Americans as racist, and 21% say the same about black Americans.

From a partisan perspective, 49% of Republicans see most black Americans as racist, along with 36% of unaffiliated adults and 29% of Democrats.

'Battlefield Dallas' off to an awkward start

There is a concerted Democratic effort underway to make Texas a more competitive electoral battleground. The effort, dubbed "Battleground Texas," is being led by former Obama for America field director Jeremy Bird, and it seems to have rattled some Texas Republicans.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R), for example, recently said, "Over our dead bodies are we going to let this state turn blue." State Attorney General Greg Abbott described the Democratic campaign as "an assault far more dangerous than what the leader of North Korea threatened when he said he was going to add Austin, Texas, as one of the recipients of his nuclear weapons."

But the GOP anxiety is also evident at the grassroots level (via Zandar).

Take Texas GOP chairman Steve Munisteri's efforts to drum up support for "Battlefield Dallas," an attempt by Dallas Republicans to counter the Battleground Texas push. Munisteri flew up to Dallas for an event and said all the right things during his speech.

It was billed of "the first public meeting of Battlefield Dallas." But a Tea Party Republican made the headlines when he had this to say about GOP voter outreach efforts.

"I'm going to be real honest with you, the Republican Party doesn't want black people to vote if they're going to vote 9-to-1 for Democrats," Ken Emanuelson said.

First, when the RNC wonders why the party struggles with minority outreach, and Tea Partiers wonder why they've developed an unfortunate reputation, I hope they'll keep this quote in mind.

Second, I'm generally skeptical of the Democratic efforts to turn Texas "blue," at least in the short term, but it appears some Republicans in the state really are concerned -- at least concerned enough to say ridiculous things.

And third, does Emanuelson quote suggest African-American voters in Texas should expect a new round of voter-suppression efforts?