Trump backer says he's 'not a racist' after insults against Obamas published
Source: Associated Press
Posted: Dec 27, 2016 7:40 PM ET
A former Donald Trump campaign official who wrote that he wanted to see Barack Obama dead of mad cow disease and Michelle Obama living with a gorilla in Africa now says those comments weren't meant for publication but were nevertheless "inappropriate."
Carl Paladino, a millionaire developer, one-time Republican candidate for governor and co-chairman of Trump's New York campaign, issued a statement Tuesday expressing regret for the insults, four days after their publication in the local weekly newspaper Artvoice.
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But in the lengthy statement, Paladino also took fresh aim at the president, calling him a "traitor to American values," and said he wouldn't resign from Buffalo's school board, which called a special meeting later in the week to discuss his comments.
"I don't intend to yield to the fanatics among my adversaries. I certainly am not a racist," he wrote.
Paladino also said for the first time that he never meant to make his comments public. He said they were only intended to go to friends, but he mistakenly hit "reply" on his computer instead of "forward."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/paladino-comments-inappropriate-1.3913638?cmp=rss
= new reply since forum marked as read
It must have been in the latest memo....
I am still raging over what he said about Michelle Obama. Just.....
May be it's time to give up the computer keyboard, Carl.
People like this are only trying to convince themselves they aren't racists/bigots. Any minority person has likely come across such a person.
"It's just a joke! Lighten up!"
"I wasn't talking about you!"
"You aren't like those people!"
"You are a credit to your kind because you aren't a stereotype."
"There are (epithet)s, and then there are (politically/social correct name)." (e.g. "There are "faggots" and then there are gay people."
"Just because I point out the truth, it doesn't make me a bigot!"
As someone who is gay and Jewish, I have heard many variations, sometimes not in a good way. I would be willing to bet that most, if not all, African-American posters here have heard similar things. Too many will say, "If that makes me a racist/homophobe/anti-Semite, then so be it. I (a white person/heterosexual/gentile) won't let someone like you (an African-American/gay man or lesbian/Jew) tell me I am a bigot!" Some even laugh it off with shitty comments like, "How expected!" or "You people are always saying things are bigoted against your people!" or "Are you really going to play the (minority) card?!"
Yeah, shit like this is way more common than many are willing to admit. But, when these people really want to make a point, they always resort to...."some of my best friends/my father (other family member)/my neighbor are/is (the minority in question)." Sometimes, they actually are a member of the minority group, as if that magically absolves them.
Not all bigots wear sheets or armbands, many wear jeans and t-shirts. Not all bigots use the "real bad words", they simply rely on more acceptable forms of bigotry. Not all bigots are uneducated, knuckle-draggers. Not all bigots are conservatives. Not all bigots are straight, white, able-bodied, cis-gendered, Christian, men. No, sadly, bigotry comes in all forms, and usually comes with all forms of excuses.
