Georgia mayor under fire for alleged remarks about black job candidate

[demmiblue]

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The mayor of Hoschton, a nearly all-white community 50 miles northeast of Atlanta, allegedly withheld a job candidate from consideration for city administrator because he was black, an AJC investigation has found.

According to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and interviews with city officials, Mayor Theresa Kenerly told a member of the City Council she pulled the resume of Keith Henry from a packet of four finalists “because he is black, and the city isn’t ready for this.”

The AJC’s investigation into the controversy revealed not only a deeply flawed hiring process, but also hard racial attitudes inside Hoschton’s government. All of this occurs as the city of fewer than 2,000 people just outside Gwinnett County is poised for dramatic growth with the construction of thousands of new homes.

Initially, Kenerly would not answer questions about her reported comments, saying she could not publicly talk about matters that occurred in executive session even though the law does not forbid that. “I can’t say I said it or not said it,” she said.

Read more: https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt--politics/georgia-mayor-under-fire-for-alleged-remarks-about-black-job-candidate/Qr403ZLnF5VuB8CzpngLjP/

[CurtEastPoint]

1. That in itself is bad enough but PLEASE read what one of the council persons said:

While Cleveland said it was not an issue in his decision on whom to hire, he did share his beliefs about race.

“I’m a Christian and my Christian beliefs are you don’t do interracial marriage. That’s the way I was brought up and that’s the way I believe,” he said. “I have black friends, I hired black people. But when it comes to all this stuff you see on TV, when you see blacks and whites together, it makes my blood boil because that’s just not the way a Christian is supposed to live.”

[dalton99a]

3. Clarence Thomas is going to hell

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. That's Councilman Jim Cleveland

because search engines need to see his name in full to get it remembered. Astounding that people think they can say things like that out loud. Even worse when it's on public record from an elected official. It's as if the sixties didn't happen, let alone a new millennium.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

7. In what century is this neanderthal living ?

And what bible is he reading ? There is NOTHING about inter-racial marriage in the bible ANYWHERE.

These people need to be put down like the rabid animals they are.

[Jedi Guy]

8. Summary execution for racist views is a little much, don't you think?

I agree such views are reprehensible, but advocating the murder of people whose views you dislike is pretty reprehensible, too.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

9. At one time, I would have agreed with you.

But as the news and time continues to show us - on a daily basis - the level of ugly, murderous blind hatred that goes hand in hand with racism, I'm no longer sure.

There was a time when you could count on "christian" values and religious leaders to appeal to our better nature and reign in this vile and vulgar behavior. But what do you hear from such "leaders" today ? They're spewing more hate than love. (Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson, Mike Huchabee, etc.)

Cops are targeting and killing your Black men and women at a rate that is incomprehensible in 2019. "School Resource Officers" are treating (and beating) these children like they are hardened criminals. Despite their lower presence in schools, Black children are being punished and expelled at staggeringly disproportionate rates. They are five times more likely than white children to be perceived as "disruptive/disobedient/deficient."

In our broken justice system, sentencing outcomes are biased in ONE direction. Do you need me to tell you which one it is ? Read Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness." (2010).

That this WH has and continues to encourage and enable racism to go unchecked makes me physically ill.

I come from a military back ground and a military family. It's often said that "There are no atheists in a foxhole." I would submit that when in a fire fight, skin color is irrelevant as well.

I hate racism and racists. That anyone would consider themselves a better _______, based on their skin color is the BIGGEST lie ever uttered. Inasmuch as this is often spewed from the pulpit, more lives. neighborhoods and communities and have been destroyed by this than any other lie in history.

And I HATE liars, too.

[Jedi Guy]

10. None of that justifies straight-up summary execution, though.

Whatever your "reasons" for doing so, at the end of the day you're still killing a human being because you don't like the way that human being views the world. That is a hideously dangerous precedent to set, and that belief has fueled historical atrocities. Furthermore, if you can kill them because you don't like the way they think, well, turnabout is fair play, isn't it? That road leads to a world I'd rather not live in.

That quote about taking care when fighting monsters comes to mind in this instance. I'm not willing to become a monster in order to fight monsters. There's also my signature line. It was taken from a Star Wars character, but is no less true for that.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

12. It's not so much what I think of what I think of their ideas.

By their behavior, racists would gleefully see every Black or brown or yellow or red person dead, if they had their wish.

EXAMPLES:

A recent court case in TX -- three rabid racist white men chained James Byrd, a Black man, to the bumper of their pick up truck and drove around for three miles, until his body was torn apart and he was decapitated - all while he was still ALIVE, leaving his body parts scattered across the roads they drove.

Dylann Roof, an avowed white racist, shot and murdered NINE Black parishoners at prayer in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC.

I could go on. And on. But I think you get it.

I have no ethical dilemma is wishing for them what they have stated - and have acted on - what they want for others.

[Jedi Guy]

14. You're describing actions. I'm speaking of thoughts and beliefs.

If a person commits an action that harms another, they need to be held to account for it. I'm not arguing otherwise. I am arguing that killing people for their thoughts or beliefs is not ethical. Killing someone because of what they might do isn't something I can support. The racist you murder today may have killed someone tomorrow, it's true. They may also grow as a person, repent of their ways, and change. If you argue that they should be killed because of a bad possibility, I can just as sensibly argue that they shouldn't be killed because of a good possibility. You can't predict what someone will do any more than I can.

What you suggested in your first post is, essentially, being the thought police. If I understand your position correctly, you're saying that you would feel no guilt in killing someone who holds a belief or beliefs that you find repugnant. Speaking personally, I find that belief itself to be repugnant. And yet I wouldn't harm you because you hold that belief.

On a related note, do you support the death penalty for people who have been convicted of heinous crimes? If you wouldn't execute someone based on what they have done, how you can execute someone for what they might do?

[Haggis for Breakfast]

15. We're talking apples and oranges here.

You talking about thoughts. I'm talking about actions. When someone has performed an overt act of racism, they MUST be held accountable and you wrote that in your first sentence, so In essence we agree.

I was never suggesting that thoughts alone should be the sole criteria by which someone is judged. Quite the opposite, thoughts are the last total freedoms we are permitted, irrespective of their focus.

As far as the death penalty, I have mixed emotions on it. I tend to be against it, as our judicial system is broken and we have seen time and time again how often innocent people of color have been railroaded into prison, despite their proven innocence.

[NOTE: It doesn't help that we have a sitting president who has demanded hysterically that the Central Park Five be put to death AFTER it they were proven to be completely innocent of the crime for which they were accused. The criminal who perpetrated these inhuman acts confessed. Additionally, DNA evidence was so overwhelming it could not be ignored. These young men were released from prison and a statement was released validating their innocence. Yet even after this, trump STILL demanded they be put to death.]

That said, there are people who have committed acts so macabre, heinous and depraved that they should not be permitted to exist in a civilized society. So, for cases such as those, I struggle with the death penalty.

Thank you for allowing us to have a respectful exchange here. It seems lately that civilized discourse between differing opinions is becoming an endangered species.

[Jedi Guy]

16. Yep, sounds like we're pretty much in alignment after clarifying our respective positions.

The death penalty is a strange animal, in my opinion. The only time I find it even remotely palatable is when there is absolutely, positively zero doubt whatsoever regarding the guilt of the accused, and the crime is, as you said, particularly heinous. Even then, though, it's still the State taking a life. I can understand those who find the death penalty unacceptable no matter the crime(s).

Thank you, as well! You get what you give, after all, and even when we disagree, all of us here on DU are on the same team. It is sad that polite disagreement seems to be a rare thing these days.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

17. Just this

[JI7]

11. fuck these people, this is why you can't appeal to them through religion

[dalton99a]

2. "my Christian beliefs are you don't do interracial marriage"

Councilman Cleveland said he did not think Kenerly was necessarily wrong.

“I understood where she was coming from,” he said. “I understand Theresa saying that, simply because we’re not Atlanta. Things are different here than they are 50 miles down the road.”

While Cleveland said it was not an issue in his decision on whom to hire, he did share his beliefs about race.

“I’m a Christian and my Christian beliefs are you don’t do interracial marriage. That’s the way I was brought up and that’s the way I believe,” he said. “I have black friends, I hired black people. But when it comes to all this stuff you see on TV, when you see blacks and whites together, it makes my blood boil because that’s just not the way a Christian is supposed to live.”

[tanyev]

6. You're free to believe that, sir, but please don't claim that's Christianity.

[Leghorn21]

4. Free press at work, LOSERS

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

[Solly Mack]

13. Idiots