I wonder if the problem is the administration of that city is packed with incompetent racists? Nah, that can’t be. Here’s one of those administrators with his own entirely rational explanation for the Flint water crisis.
Flint has the same problems as Detroit—fucking ni**ers don’t pay their bills, believe me, I deal with them,Phil Stair, sales manager for the Genesee County Land Bank said on May 26th during a conversation with environmental activist and independent journalist Chelsea Lyons in Flint.
You may gasp in disbelief, but there is a recording of the conversation. That’s his argument.
Corruption in Flint runs deep; as do the racist undertones of its officials. Government officials, both elected and appointed, have a habit of blaming Flint’s problems on the poorest and most vulnerable. In reality, the families trying to get by in a dilapidated city suffer through rate hikes, water shutoffs and tax liens while the taxpayer-funded employees get raise after raise after raise.
I’m not surprised that the guy would believe something like that, but I am baffled that he would say it to a journalist. I guess in his bubble that sort of vulgar bigotry must be so normal, he can’t imagine that another white person would object to it (at least I assume the journalist is white, since he seems to have treated her civilly).
We could only hope this guy and the whole episode is an isolated case.
We all should know better.
Put together with the last post about R.E.Lee, we can see how deep and long running the problem is.
Did someone recently try to make the argument that racism is dead?
I bet he believes the invisible hand of the market is going to magically correct that water back to acceptable lead levels. By which I mean him and his family drink bottled water. Or live someplace else.
I guess the water isn’t the only thing that’s poisonous…
I’m glad he feels so free to openly speak his racist mind. Everyone who feels that way should have total freedom to say their bullshit……that way it’s really easy for the remaining non-bigoted population can easily identify them and cast them out, as they deserve.
You know, treat RACISTS with a racist lens, that’s what they advocate right? Judging someone solely on their looks or race because you believe yourself superior?Well then works both ways, This time it’s judging on actions instead of looks, but same idea…if you’re racist you are wrong, we ARE intellectually superior to you, and you get lesser status in society as long as you hold your backwards views.
No worries though, get to actually know a few other races and you’ll catch up eventually, or you’re too far gone to function properly in our world, and being racist is not functioning properly.
People in Flint face foreclosures because they refuse to pay for the poison their government calls water.
The guy has now resigned.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2017/06/land_bank_official_flints_prob.html
One of the nasty side effects of the Trump election is that racists are now emboldened to be public about their racism in ways they weren’t before. A year ago, he would have thought it; now he boldly says it. I guess it’s some comfort that it still cost him his job.
You can call me all the racial slurs you like, I’m still not paying you for sending poisoned water to my house.
P.S. Jackass.
Thirdmill @#8 They definitely need to re-think as imback at #7 points out.
dbhacker @ #2
Why yes, yes they did. Did you see PZ’s recent post about Ken Ham? Racists frequently claim that racism is dead.
PZ Note: I seem to be unable to get comment previews to work.
I’ve met jackasses like this guy, but not racist jackasses like him. With people like these, money magically changes value depending on who has it or better yet, who has spent it. Poor people apparently only ever possess monopoly money which everyone else grudgingly accepts, perhaps as a courtesy to keep from disabusing the poor dears of the notion that they’re worth something as people. Or somesuch gagworthy nonsense.
If anyone needs a brush-up on the background info for this, check out the link below (may not work outside the US). I knew mots of it but I still found out new information when I watched it today.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/poisoned-water.html
Of course racism is dead. It died during the Civil War. Unfortunately, it almost immediately came back as a shambling corpse and gradually, sometimes slowly, other times becoming runners, became something much worse than the overt racism that existed before the Civil War. Think of all the horrible boss type zombies in the Resident Evil franchise. Racism can hide, but it always pops up at the worst possible times, and is always there in the background.
No, I don’t really think racism is dead, this is just a “fun” thought that popped into my head reading this entry and the comments.