Maryland Lawmaker Apologizes For Calling Majority-Black County A 'N****r District'

[GMDino]

https://news.yahoo.com/maryland-lawmaker-apologizes-calling-majority-200452856.html?ncid=facebook_yahoonewsf_akfmevaatca&fbclid=IwAR2m8oPTLcWsDP_FeIriRn-UOJWufLoYopSQsua-PzOgoIFkFo-6dxGA1gQ

Quote:A Maryland lawmaker apologized Tuesday for using a racial slur to describe a majority-black county in suburban Washington.



Del. Mary Ann Lisanti (D-Harford), who is white, allegedly told a white colleague late last month at an Annapolis cigar bar that campaigning in Prince George’s County on behalf of another candidate amounted to door-knocking in a “****** district,” reported The Washington Post.


Prince George’s County, with a population that is 65 percent black, is one of the most affluent majority-black counties in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau. Harford is 80 percent white.


Lisanti apologized for her “word choice several weeks ago.”


“I am sickened that a word that is not in my vocabulary came out of my mouth,” she said in a statement. “It does not represent my belief system, my life’s work or what is my heart.” 


Lisanti also apologized to the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland on Monday. She said she did not recall using the slur and offered an “inadequate” apology, the caucus said in a statement on Tuesday. 


“It is clear Delegate Lisanti is unsuited to continue in a position of leadership in the Maryland General Assembly,” the black caucus statement said. “The use of a derogatory term exhibits that she does not hold the requisite 
contrition to be entrusted in a leadership role moving forward.”


Lisanti announced Tuesday that she had also apologized to the entire House Democratic Caucus and had agreed to stepped down as chair of the unemployment insurance subcommittee on the House Economic Matters Committee after meeting with House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel).


Busch said in a statement Monday that Lisanti must “face the consequences of her behavior.” He did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for further comment.


The Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland also called on Lisanti to undergo racial sensitivity training, which she said she would attend.


“I understand that the use of inappropriate and insensitive language is not acceptable under any circumstance,” she wrote in her statement. “I am sorry for the hurt I have caused and will do everything I can to help heal that pain and regain the trust of my colleagues and constituents. I pray for forgiveness.”


The Post questioned Lisanti earlier this month about whether she used the slur, but she claimed she couldn’t “recall much of that evening.” Asked if she believes she’s ever used the word, Lisanti said she was “sure” she had.


“I’m sure everyone has used it,” she told the Post. “I’ve used the f-word. I used the Lord’s name in vain.”
Del. Darryl Barnes (D-Prince George’s), who chairs the Black Caucus, applauded Busch for taking swift action against Lisanti. He condemned her use of the racist slur and her comments to the Post that she was “sure” she had used the term in the past, but Barnes stopped short of calling for her resignation.


“Racism is just as prevalent today as it was in 1950 ― it’s just a sugarcoated form,” Barnes told HuffPost.


“This is not a one-time incident. This is a behavioral pattern ― those are her words,” he said. “She has to take a real close look in the mirror and do a judgment call ... and decide whether she should stay in the General Assembly or if should she move on.”


This article has been updated with Lisanti’s apology and Barnes’ comments. 

[jj22]

All these elected officials with these feelings (both parties), and we are expected to think they've done anything to help these counties or districts with high populations of minorities.... The minority struggle is real, and we are seeing how prevalent these feelings are amongst people in high positions who run America.

[Vas Deferens]

Boot her ass to the curb. Bye Bye dummy.

Anyone want to take odds on if her 'prayers' help make this go away?

[BmorePat87]

Big news here (obviously). MD Democrats are outraged at her comments, with most calling for her to resign. The response from our House Speaker was bs. You don't need a sensitivity training class at the age of 51 to know why it's wrong to say that word and that it's not the same as saying the F word (which I am unfortunately forced to refer to as "the f word" due to the board). A bunch of local politicians are calling for her to step down.

MD Republicans are outraged that the headlines aren't "Democratic Democrat who ran as a Democrat says the N word, because Democrats are the Democratic party of the KKK Democrats". A facetious comment on my part (because I know the usual suspects will focus on whether or not they literally said that) but there is a lot of outraged aimed at the media for a perceived attempt to hide this story and her party affiliation (though it has made news worldwide and her party affiliation has always been clearly stated in the local stories I read).

[BmorePat87]

I'm from PG county (My dad's side has lived there for nearly 100 years since they moved from Delaware and I can trace my maternal grandmother's family to the area back to the 1700's). We moved to a neighboring county for the better schools (but stayed in my same town) so I've always had a connection to the area. It's the 2nd largest county in the state and politically powerful.

Demographic trends in Maryland follow many other places. Prior to the 1950's, most people lived in Baltimore or DC. Since then, their population has decreased, with DC dropping by 200k in that time and Baltimore by roughly 350k. Most of those who moved out in the 50's and 60's were white, settling in the counties immediately outside of the city, creating the first real suburbs in the area. Eventually black families followed after the cities lost their tax bases and provided less services, laws prevented racial segregation in housing, and wages of black workers increased.

Increasing diversity in the 70's-2000's saw white residents flee to rural counties (which has slowly transformed them into suburbs). One of those counties is Harford. I am not really surprised at her comments. There's definitely still a lot of issues regarding race in the state, despite it being one of the most diverse states in the nation. One county introduced a plan to require freshmen in high school to take a class on diversity. It was met with a lot of backlash from white parents.

[*michaelsean*]

my son blurted out half the eff word before he caught himself. I told him you don't accidentally say words you don't use regularly.

[*Nately120*]

(02-27-2019, 12:33 PM)michaelsean Wrote: my son blurted out half the eff word before he caught himself.  I told him you don't accidentally say words you don't use regularly.

Excellent fu.....er, flim-flammin' point!

[*michaelsean*]

(02-27-2019, 12:34 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Excellent fu.....er, flim-flammin' point!

That's about what it sounded like. 

[Yojimbo]

“The word’s not part of my vocabulary.” Except it is because you used it, that’s how a word being part of your vocabulary works. Resign.

[CJD]

I remember having a debate about whether the democrats or the republicans of the 1960s were more in favor of the civil rights movement.

The votes were broken down by party and by geographic locations and it really showed that party had less to do with support of the act, and it was much more related to geographic location. The Northern Democrats and Republicans generally favored the act, and the Southern Democrats and Republicans generally disagreed with it.



https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/28/republicans-party-of-civil-rights

When it comes to racism today, I think there's a very similar scenario. It has less to do with party affiliation (we can see that here and with Northam that racism is not uncommon in Democratic party, albeit in both cases, the democrats are apologetic about it and claim their views have changed over time.)

However, instead of geographic location, I think it just has to do with age.

It's become a common assumption nowadays that old, white people, whether they are democrats or republicans, are at risk of being racist (or formerly racist) simply due to the fact that they grew up in the time when the civil rights movement was occurring.

And I know that Lisanti was merely born in the 60s, rather than living through it. But I dunno. I think she can be captured at the tail end of that bracket. You can disagree if you'd like.

There are, obviously, younger racists as well. But in terms of these democrats, it definitely seems to be related to age.

[GMDino]

I'm going to leave this here since we are talking racism too.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/style/hair-discrimination-new-york-city.html?fbclid=IwAR0eXBq6YR14foH4GlwKPkgUrulNhrh6oQOIJUkWsieZXkedkabytYkQ53A

Quote:New York City to Ban Discrimination Based on Hair
New guidelines out this week give legal recourse to individuals who have been harassed, punished or fired because of the style of their hair.

The New York City's human rights commission specifically asserts the right of people to have “natural hair, treated or untreated hairstyles such as locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, fades, Afros, and/or the right to keep hair in an uncut or untrimmed state.”CreditAndre D. Wagner for The New York Times


Under new guidelines to be released this week by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, the targeting of people based on their hair or hairstyle, at work, school or in public spaces, will now be considered racial discrimination.

The change in law applies to anyone in New York City but is aimed at remedying the disparate treatment of black people; the guidelines specifically mention the right of New Yorkers to maintain their “natural hair, treated or untreated hairstyles such as locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, fades, Afros, and/or the right to keep hair in an uncut or untrimmed state.”

In practice, the guidelines give legal recourse to individuals who have been harassed, threatened, punished, demoted or fired because of the texture or style of their hair. The city commission can levy penalties up to $250,000 on defendants that are found in violation of the guidelines and there is no cap on damages. The commission can also force internal policy changes and rehirings at offending institutions.

The move was prompted in part by investigations after complaints from workers at two Bronx businesses — a medical facility in Morris Park and a nonprofit in Morrisania — as well as workers at an Upper East Side hair salon and a restaurant in the Howard Beach section of Queens. (The new guidelines do not interfere with health and safety reasons for wearing hair up or in a net, as long as the rules apply to everyone.)

The guidelines, obtained by The New York Times before their public release, are based on the argument that hair is inherent to one’s race (and can be closely associated with “racial, ethnic, or cultural identities”) and is therefore protected under the city’s human rights laws, which outlaw discrimination on the basis of race, gender, national origin, religion and other protected classes.

To date, there is no legal precedent in federal court for the protection of hair. Indeed, last spring the United States Supreme Court refused an NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund request to review a case in which a black woman, Chastity Jones, had her job offer rescinded in 2010 at an Alabama insurance company after she refused to cut off her dreadlocks.

But New York City’s human rights commission is one of the most progressive in the nation; it recognizes many more areas of discrimination than federal law, including in employment, housing, pregnancy and marital status. Its legal enforcement bureau can conduct investigations, and has the ability to subpoena witnesses and prosecute violations.


“There’s nothing keeping us from calling out these policies prohibiting natural hair or hairstyles most closely associated with black people,” said Carmelyn P. Malalis, the commissioner and chairwoman of the New York City Commission on Human Rights.

“They are based on racist standards of appearance,” Ms. Malalis continued, saying that they perpetuate “racist stereotypes that say black hairstyles are unprofessional or improper.”


In New York, it isn’t difficult to find black women and men who can speak about how their hair has affected their lives in both subtle and substantial ways, ranging from veiled comments from co-workers to ultimatums from bosses to look “more professional” or find another job.


For Avery, 39, who works in Manhattan in court administration and declined to provide her last name for fear of reprisal at work, the answer to how often she fields remarks on her hair in a professional setting is “every day.”


Avery said her supervisor, who is white, encourages her to relax her hair, which she was wearing in shoulder-length chestnut-colored braids. “She’s like, ‘You should do your hair,’ when it is already styled, or she says, ‘straight is better,’” Avery said. She added that the only hair color her supervisor approves of is black.


Georbina DaRosa, who is interning to be a social worker, had her hair in box braids as she ate lunch with a colleague at Shake Shack on East 86th Street on a recent weekend afternoon. Ms. DaRosa said her hair sometimes elicited “microaggressions” from her superiors at work.


“Like, people say, ‘I wouldn’t be able to recognize you because you keep changing your hairstyle,’ that’s typical,” said Ms. DaRosa, 24.


Her lunch partner, Pahola Capellan, who is also black and whose ringlets were bobbed just above her shoulders, said, of her own experience: “It’s very different. There’s no discrimination because my hair is more acceptable.”



A 21-year-old black woman who gave her name only as Enie said she quit her job as a cashier at a Manhattan Wendy’s six months ago when a manager asked her to cut off her 14-inch hair extensions. “I quit because you can’t tell me my hair is too long, but the other females who are other races don’t have to cut their hair,” said Enie, who now works at a hospital.

There has long been a professional toll for those with certain hairstyles. Almost 18 percent of United States soldiers in active duty are black, but it is only in recent years that the military has dropped its prohibitions on hairstyles associated with black culture. The Marines approved braid, twist and “lock” (usually spelled loc) hairstyles in 2015, with some caveats, and the Army lifted its ban on dreadlocks in 2017.

And certain black hairstyles are freighted with history. Wearing an Afro in the 1960s, for instance, was often seen as a political statement instead of a purely aesthetic choice, said Noliwe Rooks, an author and professor at 
Cornell University whose work explores race and gender. Dr. Rooks said that today, black men who shave designs into their hair as a stylistic choice may be perceived as telegraphing gang membership.


“People read our bodies in ways we don’t always intend,” Dr. Rooks said. “As Zora Neale Hurston said, there is the ‘will to adorn,’ but there is often a backlash against it.”


Chaumtoli Huq, an associate professor of labor and employment law at City University of New York School of Law, said that attitudes will change as black politicians, like Stacey Abrams, who ran for governor of Georgia, and Ayanna Pressley, who represents Massachusetts in Congress, rise in prominence.


“As more high-profile black women like Abrams and Pressley opt for natural hairstyles, twists, braids, we may see a positive cultural shift that would impact how courts view these guidelines that seek to prevent discrimination based on hair,” Ms. Huq said.




Hair discrimination affects people of all ages. In the past several years, there have been a number of cases of black students sent home or punished for their hairstyles. In New Jersey, the state civil rights division and its interscholastic athletic association started separate investigations in December when Andrew Johnson, a black high school student, was told to cut off his dreadlocks or forfeit a wrestling match.



Last August, an 11-year-old student in Terrytown, La., was sent home from school for wearing braids, as was a 6-year-old boy in Florida who wore dreadlocks. In 2017, Mya and Deana Cook, twin sisters in Massachusetts, were forced to serve detentions because officials said their braids violated their school’s grooming policy.


Similar instances in New York City could fall under the human rights commission’s expansive mandate, as do instances of retailers that sell and display racist iconography.


In December, the commission issued a cease-and-desist order to Prada, the Italian luxury fashion house, after the window of its SoHo store was adorned with charms and key chains featuring blackface imagery.


The fashion company instituted training in the city’s human rights law for employees, executives, and independent contractors. It also immediately pulled the line of goods from its United States stores.

[*PhilHos*]

(02-27-2019, 02:39 PM)GMDino Wrote: I'm going to leave this here since we are talking racism too.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/style/hair-discrimination-new-york-city.html?fbclid=IwAR0eXBq6YR14foH4GlwKPkgUrulNhrh6oQOIJUkWsieZXkedkabytYkQ53A

Yes because white people have never been fired for failing to cut, comb or style their hair.

With that said, I'm not against this law considering this particular line: "The new guidelines do not interfere with health and safety reasons for wearing hair up or in a net, as long as the rules apply to everyone."

[GMDino]

(02-28-2019, 01:46 PM)PhilHos Wrote: Yes because white people have never been fired for failing to cut, comb or style their hair.

With that said, I'm not against this law considering this particular line: "The new guidelines do not interfere with health and safety reasons for wearing hair up or in a net, as long as the rules apply to everyone."

Gosh I've missed using this.  



Thanks.

[BmorePat87]

(02-28-2019, 01:46 PM)PhilHos Wrote: Yes because white people have never been fired for failing to cut, comb or style their hair.

The point of this bill isn't to allow people to go to work with unkempt hair. It's to address the reality that some workplaces ban hairstyles specific to certain cultures while allowing those from other cultures. 

If a black woman's hair naturally grows into an afro and you only allow them to have a straightened hairstyle, something that is not possible naturally, you are discriminating against them. 

Likewise, if you are allowing ponytails but not braids or buns but not bantu knots, you're doing the same thing.

[Beaker]

(02-27-2019, 02:39 PM)GMDino Wrote:

I didnt know that black people's hair naturally grew out of their scalp in cornrows, braids, twists and bantu knots. Hmmm, you learn something new every day I guess.