Did you see the statements made by the mayor of Arlington, TN?

Am I surprised that a politician has made ignorant, racist statements?

I am surprised he knows how to use the internet.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir lol!

should he be “removed”? No. Stupidity, ignorance, and even racism are not grounds for removing a duly elected official from the office for which he was elected.

They are, however, ABSOLUTELY grounds for said electorate not re-electing him.

His ideas take their place in a long tradition of Nativism in the US, going way back before the “Know-Nothings” of the 19th Century. The more educated we become, and the more diverse our population becomes, the more marginalized such thinking will be.

@MrItty What is scary is that much of the population around here probably agree with him.

Not surprised at all.

What a fool. Removed from office? No. Publicly mocked, shamed, and not re-elected? Fo’ sho.

@JLeslie What do you mean the media has said “muslim is a code word for black”?

Bah… Let him and his followers bring themselves down into a cesspool of hate and ignorance. They’ll eliminate themselves, hopefully.

@ubersiren I’d like some guarantees with that

@Likeradar You know during the election when lots of people would say Obama was a Muslim, many people in the media said that those people really don’t want him as president because he is black, but can’t say that because it is not accepted anymore to be racist, but it does seem acceptible to be afraid or hold hate towards Muslims. So, they argued that these racist people were using the idea that he is Muslim to scare people, but the truth is they really are afraid he is Muslim, it is not some made up thing in their minds or some code word.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir : That, I can’t provide, unfortunately. But if the people elected him there, they’ll be just as inclined to elect a near duplicate in his place.

@JLeslie Ah, got ya. So just racist people thinking they sound better if they discriminate against religion instead. Oy.

@JLeslie ugh, I hate people.

In due course, inbreeding will do its work on that lot.

@Likeradar That is how the media made it out, but I think they are just simply terrified he is Muslim.

Is the south really like that? I mean, are these kinds of people very common in the south?

@Jeruba LOL. That seems to be taking too long.

Someone remind me, why didn’t we let the south secede?

@holden Honestly it is probably the minority, but yes there are enough people like this that it is bazaar. I have a friends at work who still passes around emails about Obama being a Muslims and all sorts of crap. They talk about it in their bible groups. They tend to be very VERY PC, but then behind closed doors can be very racist and want their Christian country to stay intact.

@JLeslie ugh.

I’m always entertained when morons post / say / do such stupid things. It highlights their ignorance and brings public attention to the fact that they are absolute imbeciles, which in the long run, is good for thoughtful, intelligent people and the elimination of hate from our social discourse. It wasn’t so long ago that it was perfectly acceptable to publicly make derogatory statements about against blacks,Jews, Native Americans, etc.Our recent return to fear of socialism (McCarthyism) and fear of non-Christian religions (mainly Islam) is just the latest in a long string of finding ways to point out “others” and demonize them. Fortunately, I think that tolerance of this type of intolerance is waning.

When we fussed about my grandmother using “those” words, she replaced them all with the term AY-rab. Thus, to her the term “Muslim” could be the latest code word for, if not black, then at least “not white.”

Here is what a friend of ours daugter wrote on my link when I posted this same thing on facebook “I like this guy, Paul. I’m glad he’s a fellow Southerner! :) What a smart guy!” Paul was also agreeing with some of the article. She is a bible thumping, living in NC, southerner. Paul, went on some long spiel about how it is bad to stereotype, and hates that everyone seems to want to be a minority, we are all individuals, and he has met hateful people in the rural north also, but then these southerners go and get all happy with what that crazy mayor said.

In 1984, I flew to Memphis, joining my Mom for the first visit either of us had with my great-grandmother. She was a dear, sweet old woman. At a quiet time, she leaned towards me, and smiled, saying “You’re from Oakland, aren’t you?”
I said I was.
She said “They got a lot of niggers there! You gotta watch them niggers!”
I smiled at my great-grandmother, who was from a world 3 generations before me, and I thought to myself: “It’s good that old people die off”.
It disturbs me that this mayor is so young.

@holden I lived in SC for many years as a child, and to answer your question… Yes. There are many, many people in the south who are that ignorant.

I need to make a correction, the woman who wrote on my facebook was not agreeing with the mayor, I misinterpreted her words, she was agreeing with a specific thing Paul had said. But, she still gets awfully offended if anyone throws around the word southerner, even though on my thread and on her own status updates she seems to throw around te word eliteist (which I guess means educated, liberal, northerner?).

Defend his right to say what he pleases, but the statement was ingnorant, at best! The voters will let him know the next election!

@Cotton101 Supposedly his facebook had over 70 responses. I looked up the article in the local newspaper online regarding this and the you would be hocked at how many people agree with him. Of course there were comments dissagreeing and disgusted, but I would not bet money on whether he would be elected again, because I think it could go either way.

gotcha JLeslie…well, the voters elected GWB twice..never know!

@Cotton101 Exactly.

@Cotton101 – I didn’t elect him. Either time.

@Darwin me either. I am still shocked to this day he was ever our president.

@JLeslie – We know his parents and were very surprised that he and not Jeb was the one to make it to D.C. My parents both thing that Barbara probably would have been the best president of the family but, wiser than the rest, she chose never to run.

@Darwin Yes, Jeb would have been the better choice. He was my governor for many years, and even though I did not agree with him on everything, he was not as offensive to me as George. For sure Katrina would not have been the disaster it was.