Racist signs pop up in Lewiston mayor’s race
Source: Kennebec Journal
The Lewiston mayors race has taken an ugly turn.
The campaign for Democratic challenger Ben Chin on Monday denounced two large signs that recently appeared on downtown buildings criticizing Chin.
The signs read, Dont vote for Ho Chi Chin, and show what appears to be a cartoon drawing of former Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh. On the bottom of the sign are the words, Vote for more jobs not more welfare.
Both of the signs, at a mostly commercial building at 134 Main St., and at a residential building on 109 Pine St., were taken down by Monday afternoon, but landlord Joseph Dunne, who put them up, said he planned to put them back up elsewhere, although he wouldnt say where.
<more>
Read more: Racist signs pop up in Lewiston mayors race
marmar
(77,088 posts)Some people will be completely unable to cope in the next 40 years, as people of color collectively become the majority.
jpak
(41,758 posts)yup
uawchild
(2,208 posts)read my post in this thread about Maine's first "openly french-American" congressman elected in 2002. Prejudice against people of French-Canadian extraction run deep in Maine, I am sure a host of non-wasp ethnicities also suffer from this as in the case in point here about Mr. Chin.
jpak
(41,758 posts)and he sucks
yup
It is NOT acceptable.
uawchild
(2,208 posts)"Maine elected its first openly French-American congressman, Michael H. Michaud, in 2002.
People of French descent poured into Maine and other New England states from Canada beginning in the 1870's and became the backbone of textile mills and shoe factories. But resistance developed, and people began stereotyping the newcomers as rednecks, dolts or inadequate patriots. In 1919, Maine passed a law requiring schools to teach in English.
French-Americans had a saying: "Qui perd sa langue, perd sa foi" ("Who loses his language, loses his faith" . But many assimilated or limited their children's exposure to French to avoid discrimination or because of a now-outmoded belief that erasing French would make learning English easier.
"There was just a stigma that maybe you weren't as bright as anybody else, that you didn't speak English as well," said Linda Wagner, 53, of Lewiston, who takes classes to reclaim language lost as a child.
Suzanne Bourassa Woodward, 46, of South Portland, who recently joined a conversation group and enrolled her 10-year-old daughter in French classes, said "my French went underground" in fourth grade because "I was ridiculed, the dumb Frenchman jokes came out."
"After that," she said, "my parents would always speak to me in French, but I always responded in English."
As recently as the early 1990's, a character named Frenchie, who caricatured French-Americans, was a fixture on a Maine radio show until protests drove him off the air.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/us/04french.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0
==========
The phrase "first openly French-American congressman" in 2002 says it all. Good lord.
72DejaVu
(1,545 posts)who, when he gets called out on his idiocy, likes to make comments like "Well, I'm just a dumb Frenchie", thinking it covers his ass.
yuiyoshida
(41,835 posts)Ching Chong Ching chong ching Chong ...
stupid Hakujin! baka yaro!
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)Since I doubt anyone under that age would make a Ho Chi Minh reference.
uawchild
(2,208 posts)You are right, definitely sounds like a fossilized old bigot.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)47of74
(18,470 posts)They spend their retirements spewing all sorts of nasty racist shit. And then they wonder why everyone else despises them.
No Vested Interest
(5,167 posts)sudenlyseymour
(25 posts)This comes as no surprise:
When Lewiston resident Shawn Greeley moved into an apartment at 32 Horton Street, he found the conditions so appalling he had no choice but to report it to his landlord, Rick Lockwood.
When I moved in there were giant holes and leaks in the walls and floors. There are also cockroaches and bedbugs. I asked Lockwood to make repairs and I never heard back, said Greeley. I stopped paying rent because Lockwood was unresponsive and the apartment was in such bad condition. He then threatened to kill me. He actually said, Ill kill you. Code enforcement visited my apartment but has not done anything to help. Lockwood recently shut off my power. This is wrong. Its just wrong.
Lockwood is at the center of a new report released by the Maine Peoples Alliance (MPA) and the Neighborhood Housing League (NHL) exposing the shady practices of three of the citys worst landlords. The report details major health, safety and livability concerns at 71 Lewiston properties owned by a web of shell corporations linked to Lockwood and two other landlords, Joe Dunne and Ted West.
http://mainebeacon.com/report-exposes-lewistons-three-worst-slumlords/
mainer
(12,023 posts)I'm glad to see that Maine politicians and citizens are speaking up about this -- including the GOP.
72DejaVu
(1,545 posts)The GOP leadership jumped right on this and made it clear they find it unacceptable.
mainer
(12,023 posts)This may be the biggest fundraising gift ever -- for Ben Chin.
Go and donate! http://benchinformayor.com/donate/
(website was a bit buggy for me -- I had to call to make sure it went through)
mainer
(12,023 posts)So Joe Dunne calls a Chinese-American Ho Chi Chin?