Posted on 01/18/2006 12:44:09 PM PST by Ellesu
All of us are familiar with the fallout created by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's racially questionable comments.
But THE DEAD PELICAN has learned that in 2004, Nagin did not take kindly to some allegedly "racial comments" made by the director of city planning.
In April of 2004, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called for the ouster of the Director of City Planning over a racially insensitive remark he allegedly made during his first meeting in the position, THE DEAD PELICAN has leaned.
According to some of those in attendance at a 2004 meeting, Verl Emrick talked about wanting to hit the ground running by using an analogy to grabbing a “tar baby by the ears” and jumping right in.
The next day, Nagin called for an immediate search for another Planning Commission Director!
“I can’t imagine that in 2004 that someone would make those comments,” said a statement released by the mayor’s office. “As far as I’m concerned, we need to continue the search for a City Planning Commission director. It is absolutely unacceptable for someone to make these comments at all.”
I guess "Chocolate baby" would have been acceptable.
Verl Emrick wasn't "chocolate" enough to use that language with immunity.
ping
Exactly. Nagin's "tar baby" displeasure reminds me of the furor created when a white council member used the word "niggardly" (which means cheap, stingy or miserly) in a meeting other council members, some of whom were black, and who didn't know what the word meant, and tried to have the white person kicked out of his office.
Why is "tar baby" an insensitive phrase? Doesn't it refer to a baby doll molded of sticky tar? Is Nagin concerned that baby dolls molded of sticky tar might be insulted?
Willie Wonka Nagin and Chappaquiddick Kennedy are two birds of a feather. OK for them to say or do anything they want, but everyone else should be made to live by a different (higher) standard. Hypocrites.
Brer Fox went ter wuk en got 'im some tar, en mix it wid some turkentime, en fix up a contrapshun w'at he call a Tar-Baby, en he tuck dish yer Tar-Baby en he sot 'er in de big road, en den he lay off in de bushes fer to see what de news wuz gwine ter be.
Spell check went crazy wit dat one...LOL
Has he said if his family is coming back to NO? from TX.
It's a reference to an Uncle Remus story, "Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby". I'm not sure what is "insensitive" about Uncle Remus that could also not be said about rustic characters in the works of Charles W. Chestnutt, Gwendolyn Brooks, Zora Neale Hurston, or Toni Morrison.
When my daughters were young, I would sing them to sleep with the song "Shortnun' Bread." I was told by a friend that my song was a racist song because it used slang words, etc. I told them to mind their own damned business and I would mind mine. That was the last time they ever even thought of correcting my songs.(maybe my singing was really bad though!)
I have Burl Ives's greatest hits, and among them is "Jimmy Crack' Corn." It breaks me up every time.
The same thing happened to me at work. I said something about being niggardly in a meeting and everyone stared at me like I had sprouted horns. It took dictionary.com to convince them that I wasn't being racist. Even after that my boss brought me into his office and said that I still might be in trouble and that from now on I ought to avoid using words that sound even close to anything racist. Which was kinda funny because not a week later I heard some people shouting something across office referring to someone as "that cracker".
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