As I was watching the Arizona shooting massacre unfold on television and all of the subsequent discussions surrounding the role former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s political rhetoric played in fueling such incidents, I immediately thought about Charlotte’s very own Palin — County Commissioner Bill James.
James has been offending people for more than a decade, and yet, with each election he is returned to office. Like Palin, James has a penchant for making outrageous remarks … like the one about “predatory gays” in the military, which ended up taking away way too much time from pressing issues facing the county. Don’t get me wrong: Homophobia and heterosexism are major social ills, but to have to continue to deal with this man, who tosses around hateful comments like one tosses out trash, is maddening.
Like Palin, James does not seem to have a filter or enough common sense to know when to shut it down. After Palin was blamed by some journalists and pundits for helping to fuel the climate of hate in this country, instead of demonstrating any type of remorse, empathy or humility, she released an eight-minute video slamming the journalists who tried to pin this terrorist act on her. In defending herself, she used the term “blood-libel,” which recalls a term used for the justification of anti-Semitism.
While I do not believe that Palin caused the Arizona shootings, I do believe that the way you use language and images can inspire a mentally unstable person to attempt to assassinate a member of Congress. While her intent may not have been violence, the end result is based on the language of violence.
Like Palin, James doesn’t know when to stop. He will never stop making crude and offensive remarks because that’s who he is and what he does. Feigning outrage when this man makes an offensive remark is old and tired. For the life of me, I don’t know why anyone would vote for someone who spews venom like that. We’ve all said things that we regret and should never have said, but hopefully we apologize, look at ourselves and endeavor to not repeat what we have done that has caused harm. Our very own Sarah Palin — Bill James — doesn’t seem to possess those qualities. How are you not able to discuss the business of the county without demonizing a group of people in the process?
The most wonderful aspect of our political system is the opportunity for debate — to disagree and hash out issues to such an extent that the best possible measures are put in place for the benefit of our citizens. What James and Palin fail to acknowledge is the same way that they use language to exercise their political power, is the same way that people receive language to extract power. Sometimes it’s for the good of society (i.e., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), and sometimes it is to our detriment. James and Palin’s words are often to our detriment.
But I’m not mad. James has consistently shown Charlotteans what he is about. Even after he was admonished for his hateful comments about homosexuals, he still failed to exercise any humility. James signed onto a resolution pledging support for diversity, tolerance and inclusion in the community, while opposing inflammatory speech that could hurt others. He said he only signed the provision because “it won’t really accomplish anything.” I immediately wondered why anyone would vote for someone who signs provisions that are meaningless.
Again, my ire is not for James; it’s for the people who continue to vote for him without demanding that he conduct himself in a respectful and thoughtful manner and the county commissioners who failed to censure him. If that measure is meaningless, would a measure to censure county commissioners who use hate speech in written or verbal correspondence be meaningful?
Ostensibly, the commissioners put the bid for the Democratic National Convention over the opportunity to take a real stand against hate speech, which is synonymous with Bill James. In my mind, that makes them just as complicit with James’ behavior (spewing hate speech is a form of behavior) as those who continue to vote for him.
This article appears in Jan 18-24, 2011.
Bill James is an actor. He’s playing the role of Jesse Helms, although he holds a much less powerful position. Charlotte has always had a substantial population of white males who believe that people of color are savage, oversexed, dumb, etc. of course with the Chinese and Japanese being the exception. They never get to express their hatred because of political correctness so Bill James is their mouthpiece, just like Helms and Thurmond in SC used to do. Black people are delusional if we believe that most white people would have a problem with slavery if it was re-instituted tomorrow. They wouldn’t. We’d be right back in chains (although we are in mental chains now and it’s worse this way).
James is not going anywhere and he will not be censured. Who’s going to do it? His superiors probably agree with him and most black people just try to keep whites happy so we don’t lose our jobs and starve to death. Once a system has been corrupted (just like this federal government and corporations) all the way to the top you are wasting your time trying to reform it. Only some freak of nature can reverse the damage done at that point. Maybe that’s the miracle that black people keep waiting on that will never happen.
In light of all of this let me say with 100% certainty that gay is NOT the new black. You can identify blacks (at least in your mind) with visual inspection. The same does not apply to gays most of the time. Gays were not lynched or made to work for free 18 hours a day for 500 years. Anyone making that comparison knows nothing about history.