Posted on 03/29/2013 7:15:30 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
State Rep. Joseph Mitchell, D-Mobile, has confirmed via social media and in interviews this week that he sent a series of racially charged emails in response to an inquiry from a Jefferson County man, saying his comments were misunderstood and that he saw no reason to apologize.
AL.com on Wednesday reported on the correspondence between Mitchell and Eddie Maxwell, a retired coal miner who sent a mass email to legislators in January advising them not to pass any new restrictions on gun owners.
Mitchell’s volatile response – he referred to Maxwell’s "slave-holding, murdering, adulterous, baby-raping, incestuous ... kin folk" – exploded across the Internet, prompting state Democrats to condemn his remarks and Republicans to demand an apology.
Mitchell, who is black, has declined to respond to telephone, email and social media messages from AL.com seeking comment on the emails. But he appeared to address the controversy in a message posted to his Facebook account on Wednesday, hours after the story broke.
“I was NOT elected to make people happy. I was NOT elected to say what somebody ELSE wants me to say,” Mitchell wrote. “I got elected because I protect my community. Folk in other communities were electd (sic) to do the same thing. We do not need ‘leadership’ to go noplace.”
Mitchell posted a second message that day in which he appeared to challenge his critics.
“I am a descendent of a run-away slave. If you have problems with THAT, then it's YOUR PROBLEM,” he wrote. “If you would like citations that back my position on ANY subject or statement then (Facebook) mail me. I have more information than some folk wanna handle.”
Mitchell, a state representative since 1994, confirmed in an interview with the Associated Press that he wrote the emails. He said he was trying to explain that citizens who descended from slaves and were disenfranchised by the state constitution have a different view of history than white citizens.
Mitchell elaborated on his explanation in an interview published Wednesday by Lagniappe, an alternative newspaper in Mobile.
Mitchell, according to Lagniappe reporter Gabriel Tynes, downplayed his comments as “racial, not racist” and emphasized that he was talking about people in the past.
"Anything that I have said that was taken as racist is a misconception,” Mitchell said, according to Tynes.
"If somebody got irked that’s on them. What I was saying is if my kin folk 400 years ago had guns, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I’m in favor of guns and encourage everyone I know to have them because the last time we didn’t have them we were abused.”
Mitchell told the bi-weekly newspaper that the state House hallways are lined with portraits of former legislators — white slave owners, he said, whose descendants continue to hold positions of wealth and power in Alabama.
"If I put myself in their place I can see the context, but how many times has anyone put themselves in my place?” he asked. "I don’t have an apology, I just ask (Maxwell) to come up and look at the wall I have to face every day and know that everybody on that wall had slaves and benefitted from it.”
Republicans calmly state the truth. And then they grovel and beg forgiveness.
If his “kin-folk” had guns four hundred years ago they would have been using them on other African tribesmen and muslims!
Bump
Well, that, and not allowed in a state legislature ~ not even the one in 'Maryland ~ Freak State'
The white people will say it with votes Mitchell. Not one white person today has owned a slave, and we owe no reparations to you or anyone else. If it is reparation you seek, go speak to the tribal leaders that sold your people out.
This man needs to quit using the color of his skin to promote racism and hatred.
Holder’s people believe like this doofus does and, in his district of Mobile County, they are all Holder’s people. He can say what he wants, whenever he wants, to whomever he wants. Sad, but true. We sure don’t need folks like him in gov’t.
Talk about doubling down on stupid.
he WASN’T elected to talk to the people he represents like that either.
Just don’t call anybody a “wetback!”
Prolly not.
“We sure don’t need folks like him in gov’t.”
Au contraire, every state legislature should have one to remind us how hate-filled some folks can be.
I grew up in Mobile. This urchin is a despicable lowlife and not representative of the good black people of the area.
“I grew up in Mobile. This urchin is a despicable lowlife and not representative of the good black people of the area.”
I assume by the way you phrased that that you don’t live here now. I do. Let me tell you something, there are blacks where I work defending his remarks. There is a lot more of this type of thinking than people realize. Mobile is over 50% black. They run the show now, and they know it. Rep. Mitchell probably set back race relations 50 years with his commennts, but the truth is, we (blacks and whites) will smile at each other, talk politely for the most part, and appear to get along. But this is the under current that is reality. This is truly how a lot of black poeple think. I seem to recall a certain “preacher” in Chicago who talks the same way.
Mitchell’s a world class moron... and shockingly, he’s a black democrat.
So is he from Pritchard?
That might be true, but those “good people” continue to vote for him.
That having been said, I am not going to feign outrage over some dumb*ss running his mouth.
“So is he from Pritchard?”
I don’t think he is, but a large part of Prichard is in his district. Look at this map, district 103, lower left area. It’s a small district (gerrymandering, anyone?):
http://www.legislature.state.al.us/house/housemaps/housemap7.html
if you’re interested.
Yep. The reason certain people hate stereotypes is because they are true.
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