Here we go again. Ugh.
The basic story (with a lot of unanswered questions) is at the Register & Bee website.
The better story is at the Norfolk Virginia-Pilot’s website. (Don’t ask me why a Norfolk newspaper has a better story on a Danville incident.)
So that happened. As you can see from my comments at the Register & Bee article, I think it’s a pile of horsecrap. I know Frank Ruff and I know that he’s not racist in any way. I truly believe him when he said that he had no racial intent on using the phrase “tar baby”.
If these stories are true, I’m most ashamed of Sherman Saunders for bailing out of the meeting if he was “racially offended”. I don’t seem to remember him bailing out on previous Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors Tim Barber during the speech when he spoke against foreign-owned businesses not being welcomed in this region. To me, that’s a hell of lot more offensive then a Br’er Rabbit reference. I’m only slightly pissed at John Gilstrap for getting quoted in the article. My comment would have been something like “Oh, who the hell cares? Let’s talk about why we had the meeting in the first place.” As for Danville Public Schools Superintendent Ed Newsome’s opinion on this matter… I couldn’t care less. I guess the Register & Bee had to get an easy statement from some “Important Black Person”, and that’s a shame. That being said, at least they didn’t try to get the usual local race pimp suspects to weigh in on it.
Speaking of race pimps though, our good friend State Senator Don McEachin weighed in with his unsolicited commentary on Frank Ruff’s phrasing…
“…For Senator Ruff to use an expression widely known as a racial slur was shocking, insensitive and extremely disappointing. Instead of contributing to the merits of this discussion, he resorts to old time racial epithets and dog whistles…”
Thank you, Senator Racecard.
I would say that I hope this ridiculous incident dies quickly, but I have to quote something from one of the commenters over at Blue Virginia…
Frank Ruff unfortunately accurately represents a sizable number of his constituents along south side Virginia. Ignorant, intolerant and racist. Anything coming from Washington is seen as a Yankee plot to take from hard working white folk and give to those “others”. It is a primary reason why south side Virginia is in an ever tightening spiral of economic decline. Faced with declining income, declining population and declining employment. Until all the angry old white guys die off it will probably NOT GET ANY BETTER!
Isn’t that lovely? So Frank Ruff has apologized for something he didn’t even know he had to apologize for. Good, he’s learned his lesson. No offense meant, no offense should be taken. Yeah, it was a politically incorrect thing to say and was stupid, but I’m hoping this so-called controversy is already over.
Yes, the Mayor did walk out of the meeting due to the comment. The question I’d like to know is who contacted the Virginian Pilot about the remark. How did a comment from an event with little to no media presence and an attendance of about 70 people get turned into a statewide story so fast? Did Councilman Gilstrap contact the press? His comments were disappointing.
Weighing in here. 1.) Senator Ruff made no racist comment. Americans like he and I, grew up with books and stories that were created to teach children responsibility and life lessons, examples of which are most recently reflected in Bill Bennett’s book “the Children’s Book of Virtues.” And Grimes Fairytales. The stories repeated for generations were supposed to be life lessons. Some of those stories have, in very recent times, by a society that has lost it’s way in teaching children life and family lessons, become politically incorrect.
Senator Ruff was reflecting upon a well known, childhood lesson that now, by some, is considered a racist story. His comments were not racist, nor intended to be. (MORE)
2) Gilstrap did NOT contact the Virginia Pilot, which is a very good paper. All of the Council members received calls from the Pilot. Like me, most of us work or hang out somewhere other than our homes between 8 and 5. Unfortunately, the public and the out of town Press call our homes while we are elsewhere during the day, since the official numbers shown on our Council pages are our home numbers?
Having said all that, some liberal democrat, democratic operative, racist, or perhaps innocent victim of political correctness, did contact the Pilot about an innocent, now considerd politically incorrect term, and had tried (perhaps achieved) making this a political marker.
Another example, this past summer, I made a comment amounts friends, about having an RC and a Moon Pie…a term
I’ll find out who made the original tip to the Virginian-Pilot. I’ve got a good feeling that I know who it was.
..a term I grew up with. A friend, who is black, advised me that was a racist comment. Never heard that before…
Senator Ruff’s comment was no worse than mine. Neither of our comments were intended to be racist.
Folks, can we just see each other as who we are?
Why is it that Mayor Saunders alone is subject to your personal sense of propriety in all of this? I rather doubt you would use “tar baby” in the context Senator Ruff did, but you give him a pass and suggest you can know what is in his heart. Just because you don’t recall Mayor Saunders walking out on Tim Barber’s ridiculous and hateful keynote at the Chamber, he loses any right to be offended by these comments or to walk out? That’s as I said at the newspaper site just beyond the pale. If we can accept Senator Ruff didn’t mean offense by what he said, why can’t we accept as equally sincere that the Mayor’s outrage was genuine?
To me, walking out is simply not acceptable when you’re the figurehead of Danville. Based on Saunders’ political appearances during the presidential election season, he probably wasn’t pleased to have to listen to four Republican legislators state their usual talking points so maybe he was finding a way to make a quick exit (heh). I firmly believe Tim Barber’s remarks were way more controversial that Frank Ruff’s, but everybody at least sat there and absorbed Barber’s xenophobia before blasting him deservedly.
I just find it hard to swallow that some of you are confused on this issue. We all know that using the term “tar baby” has had a history of being a racially offensive phrase and many of you act like it has a statute of limitations on it. I don’t know much of anything about State Senator Ruff but I do have sense enough to know that you can spew racially insensitive or offensive terms without being an actual racist. In a public and mixed setting like that he should have never used those terms to describe that situation. I commend Mayor Saunders for standing up and demonstrating his displeasure at Sen. Ruff’s statement because if he hadn’t done so, this story may have been swept under the rug like so many of things. I will be so glad when some of us take off the rose colored glasses we choose to wear and see the bigger picture and the real deal that many of us experience everyday. I’m not a “race pimper”, as I have been called so many times before, but I just want us to build or mend the bridge between us that has been broken for centuries…it may not be comfortable when we do it but we must do it nonetheless.
Ever heard of Danville United? Members take the Birmingham Pledge, which include the following statements: …I believe that every thought and every act of racial prejudice is harmful; if it is my thought or act, then it is harmful to me as well as to others. Therefore, from this day forward…I will discourage racial prejudice by others at every opportunity (it says much more than this but these are relevant to this issue).
Danville City Council initiated this group, Mayor Saunders and Vice Mayor Miller were the original chairs of the group during its formation. All members have taken the Birmingham Pledge. They agreed to discourage racial and other prejudices. If a phrase or word is believed to be considered by many to be a racial slur, whether or not you agree, use of the phrase or word should be called out. In this case, Mayor Saunders took the least intrusive way to draw attention to the use of a phrase considered by many to be a racial slur-he left the meeting. He could have stood up, interrupted the speaker, and made his feeling (and I hear that of some others in the room) the the phrase used is offensive. Wouldn’t that have been something!
I know that the phrase is racially offensive, I have never used it, it is not a phrase used by my family as I was growing up and it is not used in my home today. Not knowing how people feel about this phrase does not excuse the use of it. Other politicians (in recent times) have used the same phrase and been called to task for it. I mentioned the phrase to a teenage relative (they had never heard it) and they thought the phrase was a racial slur.
We must all live and work together to make our community a place where others will want to live. Diversity brings life to a community and Danville residents must embrace all. There is absolutely no reason to use racially divisive phrases or words when there are many other words that can be used. I dare to say that if this were reversed, if Mayor Saunders (for example) referred to a program instituted by former President George Bush and referred to it as something for the whitebread community, we would be reading about it.
Read the comment by Councilman Fred Shanks in which he states that he grew up with the term. A friend of his who is black told him the phrase is considered racist. All members of our community, be they white, black, Asian, Indian, gay, or straight, etc. benefit when we agree to treat each other with respect and learn more about each other. That is what this is all about after all.
I encourage Danville United to bring people to the table in an open discussion of words and the connotations that go with them, in an effort to enlighten each other. The more we know about one another, the more accepting we become. I suggest that Councilman Shanks join Danville United and encourage the open discussion that I mention. And, Bruce, on can be considerate of other people and not be “a liberal”. And, FYI, “liberal” is not an “offensive” word”. Definition: adj, 1. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry. 2. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
The term, when used in context, is racially offensive. In this case however, the it made absolutely no sense from an “I’m offended” perspective.
The term “Tar Baby” is a derogatory term for black people. Let’s substitute the term “black people” in Ruff’s original statement and see if it still passes the Racist Sniff Test:
“It’s a black person. Once you’re stuck in it, you can’t get out.”
There. Is that offensive? It makes practically no sense, but anyone who claims to find it offensive… well I’m left to assume they simply want it to be offensive because screaming “That’s racist!” is easier than arguing the budgetary implications of piling a whole new group of people onto the government dole.
Far more likely is the possibility that Ruff was referring to the perpetuity of government programs – that once they’re started they’re practically impossible to eliminate – and made reference to tar – a sticky substance totally unrelated to black people, used for paving roads; a substance that when applied in sufficient quantities, will mire, hold, and otherwise stick to anything that has the misfortune of stepping in it. It would have been a great metaphor if he’d just tweaked it smidge. As delivered – not so much, but hardly offensive.
The left takes great delight in pointing out verbal gaffes made by those on the right and drawing the conclusion that those on the left are more articulate, better spoken, and therefore more intelligent 57 states and Danville, North Carolina notwithstanding. But for some reason, this time the offender was intentionally malicious and not just a poor public speaker who used the wrong descriptor.
A tempest in a teapot.
When I was growing up, I heard a story about a rabbit that made a doll out of tar to trap a bear. I had no idea at the time it was supposed to be a reference to black persons. I still think of a ‘tar baby’ as a doll made of sticky stuff, not a black person, but maybe that’s because I just don’t think that way. Every white person does not think that way and it’s seems pretty racist to assume they do.
Sometimes people say stupid things out of ignorance, failure to think ahead, or failure to relate to others. It’s not always because they mean to insult or do harm. It’s possible, of course, that he meant to, but what if…just what if…he didn’t?