Mayor sent e-mail with watermelons at White House

[liberal N proud]

The Associated Press
Posted: 02/24/2009 06:23:45 PM PST


LOS ALAMITOS, Calif.—The mayor of Los Alamitos is coming under fire for an e-mail he sent out that depicts the White House lawn planted with watermelons, under the title "No Easter egg hunt this year."
Local businesswoman and city volunteer Keyanus Price, who is black, said Tuesday she received the e-mail from Mayor Dean Grose's personal account on Sunday and wants a public apology.

"I have had plenty of my share of chicken and watermelon and all those kinds of jokes," Price told The Associated Press. "I honestly don't even understand where he was coming from, sending this to me. As a black person receiving something like this from the city-freakin'-mayor—come on."

The Orange County Register first reported the e-mail on its Web site Tuesday night.

Grose confirmed to the AP that he sent the e-mail to Price and said he didn't mean to offend her. He said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons.

He said he and Price are friends and serve together on a community youth board.

"Bottom line is, we laugh at things and I didn't see this in the same light that she did," Grose told the AP. "I'm sorry. It wasn't sent to offend her personally—or anyone—from the standpoint of the African-American race."

Grose, who became mayor in December, said he sent an apology e-mail to Price and her boss and also left her a voicemail apology.

Regardless, Price said it will be difficult for the two to work together.
"Now I am like—wow, is this really how he feels?" Price said.

Los Alamitos is a 2 1/4-square-mile Orange County city of around 12,000 people. The mayor is elected by fellow members of the five-seat City Council.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11777282

[Occam Bandage]

1. "He said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons."

Did he think this was just an absurdist bit of fantastical whimsy?

[GodlessBiker]

2. He's a lying horse's ass.

[LiberalFighter]

Under what rock was he hiding under that he didn't know the stereotype??

[bliss_eternal]

9. If he didn't know, he wouldn't have sent it.

He shouldn't be in politics, as he's not a very good liar.

[Rashel]

44. Ya know, it just shows that these bigots are really acting out.

And using the same lame excuse as the monkey cartoon apologetics. They're really trying to set things back.

[sarge43]

12. If he was unaware, then what's the connote to President Obama and watermelons?

Hizzoner is most likely an idiot, but he shouldn't assume the rest of us are.

[Left Is Write]

36. Yeah, that's my question too.

[sarge43]

37. I'll take back the idiot assumption.

He isn't. He knew exactly what he was doing. He told a vile racist joke and got away with it.

He's no different than the KKK night crawlers who burn crosses. His white hood is his 'apology'.

[Kalyke]

19. I smell bovine droppings.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

39. Right - why create it if you don't know?

Unless this dude is the most random person in the world and the slot machine turned up 777...

[WinkyDink]

45. So he's just STUPID, is that it??

[nc4bo]

3. Hmm sounds like.........some of his best friends are black........hmmmm. nt

[BuyingThyme]

4. I was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons.

I'm just a big, big fan of watermelons and incorporate them into my emails whenever possible.

[LiberalFighter]

8. I hope there is someone in that city that calls him on it. That knows he used to slime Obama.

[BuyingThyme]

10. Orange County can be ugly.

[liberal N proud]

13. Isn't Orange Country largely republican?

[BuyingThyme]

15. I think that would be an understatement.

But I don't know about this little town.

[bliss_eternal]

20. I think reagan said once...

...that orange county is where all the good republicans go to die. :eyes::puke:

It's where most of the 'white flighters' ended up when they left the inner city, during the late 70's in Los Angeles.

[tanyev]

35. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

GROSE, DEAN MR
LOS ALAMITOS,CA 90720 EVENT MEDICAL SERVICES/MEDICAL COOR 1/5/05 $2,000 Royce, Ed (R)
GROSE, DEAN MR
LOS ALAMITOS,CA 90721 EVENT MEDICAL SERVICES/PRESIDENT 3/8/06 $500 Royce, Ed (R)
GROSE, DEAN MR
LOS ALAMITOS,CA 90720 EVENT MEDICAL SERVICES/MEDICAL COOR 9/8/04 $500 Royce, Ed (R)
GROSE, DEAN MR
LOS ALAMITOS,CA 90721 EVENT MEDICAL SERVICES/PRESIDENT 2/27/07 $400 Royce, Ed (R)
GROSE, DEAN MR
LOS ALAMITOS,CA 90721 EVENT MEDICAL SERVICES/PRESIDENT 2/20/08 $400 Royce, Ed (R)
GROSE, DEAN MR
LOS ALAMITOS,CA 90721 EVENT MEDICAL SERVICES/PRESIDENT 9/9/06 $400 Royce, Ed (R)
GROSE, DEAN MR
LOS ALAMITOS,CA 90720 EVENT MEDICAL SVC 5/27/03 $250 National Republican Congressional Cmte (R)
GROSE, DEAN MR
LOS ALAMITOS,CA 90720 EVENT MEDICAL SVC 4/25/03 $250 National Republican Congressional Cmte (R)
GROSE, DEAN MR
LOS ALAMITOS,CA 90720 EVENT MEDICAL SERVICES INC/MEDICAL 12/5/03 $250 National Republican Congressional Cmte (R)

www.opensecrets.org

[bliss_eternal]

16. Yes.

Democrats in the last four years or so have managed to turn some parts of it blue. But this is the region of California that supported things like prop 8, and McCain in high numbers.

[malaise]

21. Check this

http://www.ferris.edu/JIMCROW/question/may08/
<snip>
The Jim Crow Museum itself has hundreds of images of African Americans -- usually with very dark skin, blood red grinning lips and raggedy clothes -- eating watermelons. These images on postcards, sheet music, ashtrays, and souvenirs are visual expressions of the stereotype of Blacks as ignorant, mindless buffoons. Why worry about persistent patterns of institutional racism and racial economic and health disparities when you can just eat a watermelon? The association of Blacks with watermelons is, at its root, a mean-spirited attempt to insult and mock Blacks. Keith M. Woods, from the Poynter Institute, wrote:

"Since the earliest days of plantation slavery, the caricature of the dark-skinned black child, his too-red lips stretched to grotesque extremes as they opened to chomp down on watermelon, was a staple of racism's diet. Over time, the watermelon became a symbol of the broader denigration of black people. It became part of the image perpetuated by a white culture bent upon bolstering the myth of superiority by depicting the inferior race as lazy, simple-minded pickaninnies interested only in such mindless pleasures as a slice of sweet watermelon. Like all racial and ethnic stereotypes, this one's destructive properties have, through the decades, stretched far beyond mere insult. It has helped poison self-esteem, pushing some people to avoid doing anything that seemed too 'black,' lest they be lumped into the company of Uncle Remus, Aunt Jemima, or some other relative of racism."1

[BuyingThyme]

27. That's not me talkin'.

[malaise]

33. LOL my bad

Discussion on this coming up after the break on GEM$NBC

[ecstatic]

30. Right. Just like the guy at the Post "didn't know"

that black men have been portrayed as apes by racists in this country. :eyes:

[Connie_Corleone]

5. I call bullshit on the mayor.

Why send an email with watermelons at the white house as a joke if it's not a well-known racist stereotype?

[flobee1]

6. If you were unaware, then you would not understand the email!

and not forward it, thinking it was funny

"we laugh at things and I didn't see this in the same light that she did"
"He said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons"

He is a lying sack of racist crap and should be fired on the spot.
would you or I still have a job after this?

[liberal N proud]

11. I know I couldn't put this on a company email

Nor would I at work or home.

I am sure I will get the picture from some racist assholes I know. I am working on a response for when it arrives

Step one will be REPLY ALL

[firedupdem]

7. STFU you lying creep. You knew exactly what you were sending..

you wouldn't have found it humorous if you didn't know the meaning!

[malaise]

14. The mayor is a fugging liar

There is no 'joke' about watermelons on the WH lawns during Obama's Presidency that is not connecting him to said melons. He knew exactly what he was doing.

[bliss_eternal]

17. Definitely.

I wish I didn't have a busy schedule today, as I would personally drive out to this jerks office to protest.

[ClarkUSA]

18. Here's the phone number and email of the mayor right here, folks. Let's go get the bastard!

Link: http://www.ci.los-alamitos.ca.us/city_council/city_home.htm

To leave a telephone message, please call: [phone]
To send a facsimile: [phone]
To send an email: [e-mail]

[bliss_eternal]

23. Thanks so much!

Bookmarking...will check in here later after I leave my message by phone, send a fax and e-mail.

:grr::mad:

[malaise]

24. Add this link

http://www.ferris.edu/JIMCROW/question/may08/

[firedupdem]

26. Just called...actually stayed on the line and told the girl answering

that her mayor's email was extremely offensive and racist. She said nothing, I added that he was a coward and he knew exactly what he was sending in his email. She said, I'm sorry, will pass the message on.

Everybody Call!

[bliss_eternal]

34. Good work!

:thumbsup:

I couldn't get through (line busy).
Sent e-mail. Will fax before end of day. :hi:

[AngryAmish]

22. I like watermelon

[BuyingThyme]

25. I think we should have more large fruits.

[flobee1]

28. We just voted a whole bushel of them out of office

:-)

[ecstatic]

29. He said he and Price are friends... series!!1

"...we laugh at things and I didn't see this in the same light that she did..."

Yeah... Right... Or maybe his definition of a "friend" is someone who will sit down quietly while he tells one racist joke after another. :eyes:

[kestrel91316]

31. The good mayor is LYING when he says he didn't know about

any racist connection between watermelons and blacks.

L-Y-I-N-G.

Not surprising, given how it's Orange County, that Republic stronghold and home of the likes of Bob Dornan.

[ellacott]

32. This is the image

They've got a pretty stupid mayor if he expects anyone to believe that he didn't know what he was sending was offensive.

[vaberella]

40. Ah for fucks sake it's doubly worse when you see the image.

The house was built by african slaves and then added to that we have images of watermelon (negatively used to mock Blacks). It's like a double flap in the face.

[ZombieHorde]

42. If the watermellons were replaced by grapes or apples, the picture would make no sense. nt

[vaberella]

38. And this is the burden of being Black....

Every damn day and it could be anyone. I have to mentally prep myself before the day start because of this non-sense.

[BlooInBloo]

41. And a jillion DUers will leap to defend this as not-racist.

[vaberella]

46. I've come to realize there are many racists on this board.

Or I should say those with questionable morals.

[Rashel]

43. I wonder if he got the earth is round memo. He needs to resign. Zero tolerance for this.

[geardaddy]

47. Idiot.

and why don't the citizens elect their mayor?

[apnu]

48. "(Dean Grose) was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons" BULLSHIT!

If he didn't understand the symbol, why did he send it?

[geardaddy]

49. I think we have a candidate for this week's Top 10

Conservative Idiots.