Thursday, December 27, 2007

Only Whites Need to Apologize

We read:

"Firefighters at the East Baltimore station where a noose was found demanded Monday that the NAACP apologize for labeling them racist. Discovery of the noose had drawn sharp criticism from Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, the Baltimore NAACP president, before a black firefighter from the station admitted that he had placed the noose there.

"The firefighters that work on his shift want Doc Cheatham to be man enough to stand up and apologize for his outrageous statements," said Bob Sledgeski, a city firefighter union official. "They're furious they were accused of being racists when it was not true."

The union, Sledgeski said, is considering filing a defamation lawsuit against the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Vulcan Blazers, a black firefighters group that said the noose symbolized racism in the department.

Henry Burris, president of the Vulcan Blazers, condemned the incident but said no apology was necessary. "I do not condone it," he said. "However, I do not apologize for the information I got concerning the noose, and, as I said when I found out about the noose, it was just a symptom of racism in the fire department."

Source