Former City Official Drops N-Word During Georgia Confederate History Month Meeting
A recently uploaded video of a Griffin city meeting has recently gone viral as it showed a Caucasian male uttering a racial slur several times while speaking to an African-American official. According to a report from CNN, the meeting was regarding the newly approved Confederate History Month proclamation, which designates April as the official Confederate History Month. Despite its recent approval, several cities in the south are still choosing not to observe Confederate Memorial Day. It is currently only being observed officially, and unofficially, in a few cities.
In Griffin, Georgia, a small city just a few miles south of Atlanta, southern heritage is apparently a big deal for some residents. This is mainly the reason why a city meeting was held to discuss the newly approved proclamation. However, the meeting immediately went sour when one citizen uttered a racial slur several times directly at an African-American member of the city council.
According to a report from the Washington Post, the heated exchange occurred at the public comments portion of the meeting when former city commissioner Larry Johnson talked about the city’s history. Johnson was directly addressing the current city commissioner Rodney McCord when he used the n-word to describe a town he had lived near when he was a child.
Griffin declared April as Confederate History Month. April 26 will be Confederate Memorial Day. https://t.co/okal3TAGGZ pic.twitter.com/zaZSmyHvzG
— GPB News (@gpbnews) April 6, 2018
McCord quickly reacted upon hearing the racial slur and asked Johnson to repeat himself. Johnson obliged and repeated the N-word a third time. McCord was visibly upset following the exchange, which he addressed later on in the meeting. The city commissioner explained that he was offended by the language that was used and that he was not willing to tolerate it. McCord has had a staunch stand against the celebration of the particular holiday and has been completely against the Confederate History Month proclamation. He explained in a recent interview that there was no way a black person could possibly celebrate such a holiday.
A former city official in Georgia used the N-word while pushing for Confederate History Month at a city meeting https://t.co/TjtL1FpHOj pic.twitter.com/v4iB7ILvcX
— CNN (@CNN) April 7, 2018
Johnson also appeared in an interview after the proliferation of the video and explained that he was just trying to make a point by using a familiar term used back in the day. He mentioned that he wasn’t able to finish his point due to McCord’s interruption. He apparently wanted to mention that those words are no longer being used and are in the past because the world has already become a “better place.” Johnson ascertains that the celebration is to observe and commemorate the history of the Confederate States of America and the people who had served under it.
