Posted on 02/21/2003 2:17:48 PM PST by Libloather
Yow stands by NAACP remarks
2-21-03
By ALEX WAYNE, Staff Writer
News & Record
GREENSBORO -- A group of High Point civil rights leaders called for Guilford County Commissioner Billy Yow to apologize Thursday -- or resign -- for comments he made last week about the NAACP that they consider racially offensive.
Yow, who is white, angrily refused to either apologize or resign his seat. He later criticized the group for calling him out at a public meeting.
"If they had any backbone at all they would have picked up the phone and called me," Yow said after Thursday's commissioners meeting. "They're gutless. They come here to back me down and humiliate me publicly."
Two black county commissioners joined members of the High Point Black Leadership Roundtable in criticizing Yow; one of those commissioners, Carolyn Coleman, called Yow a racist.
"I've met some Klansmen," Coleman told Yow during a heated conversation after the meeting. "There's not 2 cents of difference between them and you."
The explosive exchanges came unexpectedly. Prior to Thursday, there had been no apparent public reaction to Yow's five-day old comments. The controversy centers on comments Yow made about hiring a new county manager.
At the time, Yow believed that Commissioner Melvin "Skip" Alston, the chairman of the board, planned to hand-pick a committee of commissioners to screen applicants. The current manager, Roger Cotten, plans to end a 30-year career with the county at the end of June.
Yow charged that Alston, who is black and holds senior leadership positions in the state and national NAACP, would try to engineer the hiring process so that an NAACP member would win the manager job.
Yow, a Republican, said he wouldn't support hiring such a person "unless he was very overly qualified."
"They're locked into one thing and that's themselves, and their little thing they've got going," he said in comments published Feb. 15. "If they're going to go down to South Carolina and stick their nose into the Confederate flag issue down there, Lord only knows what they'd do with the taxpayers' business here, if they had total control."
Alston said after Yow's comments that he would let any commissioner who was interested, including Republicans, screen applicants and that he would not try to steer NAACP members into the position. His reaction to Yow's comments was subdued.
"I'm not even saying what organization he might belong to," he said last week, chuckling. "He can see all the job applications at the same time I see them. He can have the opportunity to go through every last one of them that he sees fit."
Yow later acknowledged that his suspicions of Alston were incorrect, but he stood by his comments regarding the NAACP.
On Thursday, High Point City Councilwoman Bernita Sims and the Rev. William Fails criticized Yow during the public comment portion of the meeting. Both asked him to apologize for his comments or resign.
"I was incensed that someone elected to this body would make such statements," Sims said. "Anyone who comes before this body, who has the necessary qualifications (for the manager job), should be considered, regardless of their affiliations or whether or not they are black."
Fails said there were "codes" in Yow's comments "that concern me deeply." Later, he said Yow's repeated use of the word "they" suggested Yow was referring to all black people, not just NAACP members.
After their comments, Yow responded. He refused to apologize, but elaborated on his remarks. He said his comments were not directed at black people generally and that he would consider a minority for the manager job -- but likely not someone affiliated with the NAACP.
"I oppose the NAACP. I did before Mr. Alston and I will, probably, until I die," he said.
Commissioner Bruce Davis, who is black and a member of the Roundtable group, then said he was also offended by Yow's remarks.
"Once we take on the oath to serve the citizens of this county, or anyone else, I think we also have an obligation to be above and beyond any comments that would offend any people," Davis said. "An apology would be in order. If we can't come beyond this and apologize, then a resignation would be in order."
Fails, Davis and Alston all stopped short of calling Yow a racist. Coleman did not.
After the meeting, Davis and Yow were arguing in front of reporters when Coleman, who had not spoken publicly, joined them and asked to comment.
"When I came on this board, I knew we had a lot of conservatives," she told reporters. "I didn't know we had real racists."
Yow responded: "She's a member of an organization that supports colored people and only colored people, and she's saying she's not a racist?
"The citizens of Guilford County deserve better than to have someone infiltrated into an organization ... " Yow started.
"Infiltrated?" Coleman exclaimed, then compared Yow to a Ku Klux Klan member.
Yow concluded, grinning: "I'll probably go home and in the morning put up a Confederate flag in my front yard."
Fight the establishment!
Fine, Commissioner. Then what are you going to do about this wench? Because she greatly offended this conservative!
"When I came on this board, I knew we had a lot of conservatives," she told reporters. "I didn't know we had real racists."
Obviously she's using a code that conservatives are closet racists. Her use of the word "we" is obviously an attempt to drive a racial wedge between blacks and whites. I'm terribly offended.
Who should I sue first?
And there's "not 2 cents of difference between" the KKK and someone who belongs to a "black only" club?
Yow, a Republican, said he wouldn't support hiring such a person "unless he was very overly qualified."
Qualifications. Wow, who thinks of this stuff?
So...Yow is basically accusing the NAACP of preferential treatment of members in order to secure state and/or federal employment.
The NAACP calls him a racist for this almost a week after he makes the observation.
What Yow is alleging against the NAACP is against the law. The NAACP had BEST get off the Lott offensive, which didn't work before, and get their lawyers on the job.
Look for Je$$e and $sharpton to bus in the rent-a-mobs while looking for free TV face time...heck, even Louie the Loonie might take time off from his busy schedule of cruising the cosmos in the mothership and and giving Saddam propaganda tips to go jump on the 'racism' extortion pulpit.
Skip is the most sane of the bunch. Moores was like Arator with a bad rug.
FMCDH
wow!
Exactly--we must never ever question the africanhyphenamerican aristocracy. They have been oppressed by all of us white racists for 555 years (according to Farrakhan). We must lay down and accept whatever they do, say, or decree without question.
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