Really? He had no Idea He was Being a Racist Jerk!

I saw a story today from Black Snob that just infuriates me. Yet again we have people making racist remarks against Obama and then claim that black people are making more out of it than we should. There was a link to the following article: Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose Emailed His Friends A White House Watermelon Picture. The article explains that the mayor of Los Alamitos, California, Dean Grose, sent around a personal email containing the following picture:

with the caption “No Easter egg hunt this year,” and yes, those are watermelons photoshopped into a picture of the white house. He sent this to a bunch of people as a joke. Out of the 12,000 people who live in that town, I doubt that there are a lot of black people but there is at least one black person on his e-mail list, Keyanus Price. She did what you are supposed to do just talk to the person who offended you. She wrote:

"Hey, that’s not nice at all. Not all black people like watermelon… you should know better than that.”

Grose replied: “The way things are today, you gotta laugh every now and then. I wanna see the coloring contests.”

In other words, no apology so Price went public. Now Grose says:

“It was just poor judgment on my part, and I am deeply sorry. It wasn’t meant to hurt her,” he said.

and

"Bottom line is, we laugh at things and I didn't see this in the same light that she did," Grose told the AP. "I'm sorry. It wasn't sent to offend her personally - or anyone - from the standpoint of the African-American race."

His defense: I didn't know it was racist. I'm sorry. Well at least he is stepping down as mayor. However, he never admitted that it was a racist joke!

I have also seen a quote from another person concerning this incident:

Obviously the email was a reference to certain agricultural policies of the Obama administration and their impact on California melon growers…some people are so touchy. If it makes you feel any better, I’m sure Mayor Grouse will apologize for you being so thin-skinned.

"Thin-skinned"? Serious? This with the monkey cartoon last week shows us that Eric Holder was right last week. Offending others using racist jokes and sterotypes has got to be faced head-on. Americans don't do that. That is why Holder said that we are nation of cowards. We gotta stop proving him right.