Keyanus Price, an African American, said she was appalled when she received an e-mail from Mayor Dean Grose’s personal account that showed a picture of the White House with a watermelon patch imposed as the White House garden.
“I was horrified when I read that e-mail,” Price said. “What I’m concerned about is how can this person send an e-mail out like this and think it is OK?”
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Grose’s e-mail included the picture with a heading that read, “No Easter Egg hunt this year.”
“I think he’s saying that since there’s a black president, there will be no need to hunt for eggs since they’re growing watermelons in the front yard this year,” Price wrote.
She responded to the e-mail with: “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.”
The coloring contests…?
Ugh, how I hate the “I kiiiid, why are you being so serious?”-line of defence.
This is a MAYOR? If that happened in my community, I’d report that to City Council and the Diversity Commission, and demand action. I hope their council takes action – and by action, I don’t mean printing his lameass ‘apology’. It’s unacceptable. A mayor is tasked to represent all residents and all communities within his borders, but with a statement like that, it’s clear who is and isn’t being represented by that city’s leadership.
Apparently, he quit.
Good.