Why A GA Mayor Rejected A Black Candidate — And A City Councilman Backed Her Up

385014 02: The new Georgia state flag flies below the American flag January 31, 2001 atop the Georgia state capitol in Atlanta, less than 24 hours after it was approved in the state senate. The new flag design portra... 385014 02: The new Georgia state flag flies below the American flag January 31, 2001 atop the Georgia state capitol in Atlanta, less than 24 hours after it was approved in the state senate. The new flag design portrays five former federal and state flags in a small banner along the bottom edge of the flag. Civil rights organizations say the change means the state will no longer face threats of economic boycotts. (Photo by Erik S. Lesser/Newsmakers) MORE LESS
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Mayor Theresa Kenerly of Hoschton, Georgia — a nearly all-white suburb of Atlanta — rejected a candidate, Keith Henry, for city administrator because he’s black and she thought “the city isn’t ready for this,” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

Hoschton City Councilman Jim Cleveland added his racist views to the chorus.

“I don’t know how they would take it if we selected a black administrator. She might have been right,” he said.

He added some background on his philosophy.

“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.”

Kenerly made her comment during a private council session, and two councilwomen conveyed it to the city attorney.

Henry was depressingly unsurprised.

“It comes with the territory,” he said. “If you live in America as a minority you can’t be naïve that it is the reality that you face.”

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Notable Replies

  1. Oh, yes, the old “I have black friends but…” I get that from a nephew who is both a racist and misogynist. His brother is also but at least he doesn’t deny it.

  2. They will find a position in the city with “urban” in the name and offer it to him.

  3. Councilman Jim Cleveland defended the mayor: “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.”
    No, sir, you don’t have ANY Black friends if you believe they should live “separately but equally”, what you have are Black acquaintances who are afraid to call you out for the racist you are!
    And please don’t call or consider yourself a “Christian”, you’re not.

  4. Get on that midnight train out of Georgia as fast as you can!

  5. These people are out of their cotton picking minds.

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