A Georgia City and It’s Racism On Display

• Steve
• April 6, 2018
• 0 Comment
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In Griffin, Georgia earlier this week a former elected official used the word “nigger” multiple times during a city council meeting.  Larry Johnson, the former official was speaking as a concerned citizen to the board and had focused his attention on Rodney McCord who was one of two black council members present.  Johnson began to tell a story of how he and McCord had previously interacted when they worked together, and then went off on the side of town he lived, which is where the situation gets tense.

Johnson preceded to talk about the white side of town and then repeatedly referenced “Niggertown”.  McCord was not willing to let this go unchecked and proceed to interrupt Johnson after the third iteration of the reference.  McCord expressed his frustration and Johnson went on to “apologize” yet also express his support of the confederate flag, the confederacy, and his white heritage.

An older white man, in his 60’s – 70’s, from Georgia rambling on about his support for the confederacy and the confederate flag, and using the word “nigger” in public isn’t surprising, and definitely isn’t news worthy.  Yes it’s 2018, but racism didn’t just pop up out of nowhere the last two years (although if you’re a Trump hater you might think that), nor did it just pop up the previous eight years (which is what you might believe if you hate Obama) while Obama was President.  No folks, racism has been woven into this country’s fabric since Europeans started bringing African slaves to the west.  It sounds hyperbolic, but think about it, we went from slavery, to Jim Crow/Separate but Equal, the Civil Rights Movement, Nixon and Lee Atwater’s Southern Strategy, the war on drugs, mass incarceration, birtherism, and now the Alt Right and the number of accusations of racism surrounding the current administration and other conservative factions.

The Confederate flag flies proudly in the south alongside Old Glory and a Trump MAGA Flag.

Now some will immediately jump to “but Obama, and Oprah, and Ben Carson”, all great but stop, the truth is this country has never dealt with it’s history of racism and segregation, and stigmatizing blacks, and until white and black people really start to work through this as a whole, we’ll continue to have issues.

When I began writing this I wanted to go off on a rant explaining why the Civil War was definitely about slavery, and basically drag you through a history lesson of how and why, but then I realized no one wants to read that, unless they’re a history nerd like me, and honestly it shouldn’t need to be explained.  What I will do is tell you this, that war of “Northern Aggression” as it’s called by people in the south and confederate sympathizers was most definitely over slavery.  The south was fighting over their states’ rights to keep slaves.  When the Federal government said no, those states voluntarily seceded from the Union and fought a war against the remaining United States of America.  That was treason, it was Un-American, and it ripped our country apart, and I will argue we still haven’t healed from it, not all the way.

So when Southerners tell me the confederate flag and the confederacy are about heritage, I reply with “yes, an un-American, traitor, racist, human rights violating, treasonous heritage, that is just as reviled as the Nazis, heritage”.

This is my response when people start with the civil war and states’ rights.

Griffin, Georgia and Larry Johnson are nothing new, and actually it’s more of the same.  The question is what are we as  a country going to do about it?  Do we have a new response, or will it be the same old same old?

A former elected official used the n-word several times during a public meeting, offending a black member of a Georgia city’s board of commissioners.

The tense exchange between the two men happened on the same day that the Atlanta suburb of Griffin, Ga., declared April as Confederate History Month. While speaking about the declaration during the public comments portion of the meeting, Larry Johnson, a former member of the board who is white, immediately turned his attention to Rodney McCord, who appears to be one of two black officials at the table.

What began as harmless reminiscing of their differences back when they were serving as city officials together quickly escalated when Johnson reminded McCord of a conversation he said they once had about race.

In the next few minutes, as shown in a public video of the meeting, an agitated McCord tried to express his frustration, while the board’s chairman, Douglas Hollberg, stopped him so Johnson can keep talking.

“Mr. McCord, please let him get to the point so we can move on,” Hollberg said.

To which McCord, with his voice raised, said:

He can get to his point, but I’m not going to sit here … Maybe y’all are comfortable with it, I don’t know. I’m not going to sit here and let this man use that type of language. And if nobody else is offended, then I am. Now if y’all want to clap and think that that’s okay for this gentleman to stand, in 2018, and get here at the board of city commission meeting — 2018 — the Civil War is over and he is using the n-word not once, not twice — three times! And he just continues to say it with not one word about who it offends.

At that point, Hollberg asked Johnson to refrain from using the racial slur. Johnson then went on to talk about the Confederacy, why he supports the Confederate flag, the Civil War and his Scottish heritage.

“My skin is white, my neck is red, and I was born in Southern bed,” he said. “Nothing wrong with that. I hope that doesn’t offend anybody.”

Earlier during the meeting held last week, the board declared April as Confederate History Month and April 26 as Confederate Memorial Day for the city. In 1861, Georgia seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy, which the declaration described as a fight for “states’ rights, individual freedom, and local government control.” Georgia became the last Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union in 1870, several years after the Civil War ended.

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