Political Gumbo: The ‘Community’ Should Never Support Hate Speech

Mad respect to the City Council for taking a stance against hate speech on Monday.

During the meeting, a speaker used the word “coon” several times, before the call was finally shut down by the City Council.

The rant happened after Councilmember Felicia Williams called for a point of order after the speaker began speaking directly to councilmembers during comments on matters not on the agenda. 

The rules are simple, comments must be addressed to the entire body.

After that, the speaker began identifying people by race, the Black councilmember, etc. and then began tossing the racial slur around. 

If you call yourself a supporter of racial justice then you should not use hateful rhetoric spewed during the Jim Crow era when many Black people were lynched.

Some callers made references to the First Amendment, but ignored the decision to use the language, which disrupted the meeting and took time away from other speakers.

According to the Jim Crow Museum, “the coon caricature is one of the most insulting of all anti-Black caricatures. The name itself, an abbreviation of raccoon, is dehumanizing. As with Sambo, the coon was portrayed as a lazy, easily frightened, chronically idle, inarticulate, buffoon.”

Based on my extensive conversations with Black Councilmembers John Kennedy, Felicia Williams and Tyron Hampton that does not describe any of them.

Kennedy’s family has been in Pasadena for decades, and the former NAACP president has been a tireless and sometimes lone elected advocate for civilian oversight of the police department long before dozens of advocates were filling out speaker cards on the issue.    

Williams is a policy wonk, and arguably the most qualified first-time candidate in recent memory to run for City Council. 

Hampton consistently calls for the highest level of accountability for the officers that shot Anthony McClain. 

They were elected by the people in fair elections, and yes, you have every right to agree, disagree, advocate, ignore, criticize, scrutinize and publicize their votes.  

Yes, there are questions to be asked about local police policy, but once that kind of language enters the picture people stop listening. They just want the person using the offensive language to go away.

Monday is a prime example of that, as soon as the hate language started the engagement ended.

You cannot build bridges, while you’re carrying a pitchfork. 

To use a term that is bandied about far too much during public comment: The “community” should have no tolerance for that kind of language.

Political Gumbo is published Tuesday after City Council meetings.