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| Virginia GOP's Wally Hudson's version of racism |
Mecklenburg County, Virginia is a tiny little hamlet situated on the border between Virginia and North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, there were 32,727 people, 12,951 households, and 8,962 families residing in the county. The population density was 52 people per square mile. A little under 50% of Mecklenburgers are 45 years of age or older. 60% are Caucasian and the median income for a family was $37,752. The per capita income for the county was $17,171. About 11.60% of families and 15.50% of the population were below the poverty line. Keep in mind, now, this is not a small town, it’s an entire county and Mecklenburg flies pretty comfortably under the global radar . . . . most of the time.
Now enters Mr. Hudson, Tea Bagger extraordinaire, and "today's worst person in the world". Having just blogged yesterday about the pasty white racists of the current GOP; even more proof that "coded" language, however disguised, is still racism - and which is still highly visible in both the GOP and the state of Virginia.
In a classic demonstration of “size doesn’t matter,” though, little Mecklenburg managed to set off a political crapstorm that has gone viral and now everyone knows that the Virginia State GOP has ordered Mecklenburg to clean up its FaceBook page—or else. The Mecklenburg GOP Chairman has “pleaded the First” and refuses to comply. The material that the State GOP finds offensive is a rather large collection of anti-Obama “photoshops”, some of which have already made the rounds (ie, Witch Doctor Obama) others that are obviously newer judging by topicality.
The story as it unfolded last night:
The Mecklenburg County Republican Committee refuses to take down a series of race-baiting pictures of President Obama from its Facebook page, despite the requests of the Virginia Republican Party.
The Washington Post reports that the state GOP ordered the MCRC to remove the pictures, which depict various anti-Obama and birther messages (such as, “vote for the American”), and one infamous picture that depicts Obama as a witch doctor. The pictures have been up for several months, but got a bunch of attention after Senate candidate George Allen stopped in the area.
“These kinds of images have no place in political discourse — period,” Pat Mullins, chair of the Republican Party of Virginia, told the Post. “They are offensive, tasteless and should never have been posted anywhere, let alone a local unit’s Facebook page. The Republican Party of Virginia condemns this sort of imagery in the strongest possible terms. I am in the process of contacting our Mecklenburg County unit to inform them that this is unacceptable behavior from any local unit associated with our party.”
When told of backlash against the pictures, R. Wallace “Wally” Hudson, who chairs the MCRC, said he put the pictures up himself. “We don’t consider any of it racist … I’m not ashamed of it. I mean, good God, you should have seen some of the images they did of George [W.] Bush. It’s freedom of speech.” He added: “If they’ve got a problem with it, we’re not going to change what we do.”
“They can do what they want,” Hudson said of the state GOP. “I’m waiting for the phone call.”
REV AL
In parenthesis below is Mr. Wally's facebook link, which has since been removed by facebook.
[http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150117213753909.290606.78005643908&type=3 of the Mecklenburg County VA Republican Party].
SCOTT BROWN:
In yet another story regarding racism from the GOP - this time by Scott Brown staffers whom mock Elizabeth Warren with the incredibly racist "tomahawk chop" and "war whoops" in a disgusting display of xenophobia.
I hate racism more than anyone, and I can tolerate much - I've seen some very putrid things come from some very radical righties in my time, from Dana Loesch to Laura Ingram to Ann Coultergiest and Sean Hannity, and while the material on the Mecklenburg GOP Facebook page is, admittedly, sophomoric, crude, vulgar and pretty much generally disgusting. It’s actually astonishing that Wally was able to find all of this stuff on the internet—I shudder to think where he hangs out online. Nevertheless, in a spirit of tolerance and intellectual curiosity, I struggle to undersatnd what makes Mecklenburg Virginia tick. It can’t be Romney-love because, by my calculations about 98.9% of Mecklenburg are the 47% that Romney loathes Maybe it’s a southern thing?
Sometimes a photo is worth a thousand words. Some pictures of the Mecklenburg GOP:
See how offensive photo's can be readers? Get the picture?
What's sad about all this is....... how unsurprising it is!
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Post Script: At the time of posting this blog - we have been unable to contact Mr. Hudson. Since he lives in my backyard maybe a knock on his door would be appropriate. Stay tuned.
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