Julie DelegalOn the Monday before Thanksgiving, something obscene happened in Jacksonville.
The indecency I’m talking about didn’t have anything to do with the photography exhibit at Jacksonville’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). A nude photograph of a relaxed pregnant woman enjoying the sunbeams caught the attention of Jacksonville City Councilman Clay Yarborough, who deemed it pornographic and, in writing, asked Mayor Alvin Brown to yank the museum’s funding.
The arts community rallied in protest. Attendance at the museum tripled.
And while it did, an entire city’s attention was turned away from the real obscenity.
On Nov. 24, the secretary of the Duval County Republican Party, Kim Crenier, tweeted the following about protesters in Missouri: “A suggestion for Ferguson — fire hoses. Grt big fire hoses, serious water pressure. Knock those thugs over. They probly need a shower anyway.”
Crenier tweeted under the handle, @JaxGOP, which at the time, exhibited the party’s logo as the Twitter profile picture. Party officials swiftly pointed out that it’s an old account.
The offending tweet, along with Crenier’s others chronicled by Folio Weekly writer A.G. Gancarski, were in response to a St. Louis County grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson on criminal charges. Wilson is the white officer who, in an incident described differently by different witnesses, shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
As columnist Tonyaa Weathersbee observes, Crenier is old enough to have seen — at least on film — the violent depictions of peaceful civil rights protesters being critically injured by high-powered fire hoses — the same fire hoses that knock down walls in burning buildings.
Crenier’s other tweets include labeling the President of the United States as “race-baiting and America hating.”
But the obscenity doesn’t end there. The local GOP was quick to disavow responsibility, and has yet to take action to acknowledge that the tweet was offensive, much less apologize for it, much less move to have their party official resign.
Rick Hartely, Duval’s Repubican Party county chairman, came close when he publicly expressed sorrow for the Brown family on the loss of their child.
But his sympathy is undercut by his actions: Hartley hedged on the tweeter’s identity to the press and then insisted that she was speaking on her own behalf. Hartley said that her speaking for herself directly to the press, however, would render Crenier too “emotional.”
Setting aside the blatant sexism in his statement, Hartley and the rest of the GOP need to understand this: When you are affiliated with a major political party in an official capacity, your words, made public, cease to express a “personal point of view.”
It’s akin to Florida Board of Education Chairman and education philanthropist Gary Chartrand urging school board members to vote a certain way on a certain resolution before it: Chartrand is not a “private person” either.
A long, long time ago in Jacksonville, my mother’s stepfather taught her, overtly, about racism and how to begin to combat it. My mother, in turn, overtly taught my siblings and me about racism and how to combat it. It’s a lesson I must continue to teach my own children because America still is infected with racists.
If our society is to have any hope of eradicating this ancient prejudice, those of us who know better must take action that is conscious, deliberate and public.
We who grew up in the South know that the culture is still drenched in racism. It is, shamefully, still a default setting for lazy thinkers.
To let racism lie is to endorse it.
Republican mayoral candidate Bill Bishop understands. He immediately decried Crenier’s racist rants. Lenny Curry, another GOP mayoral candidate, instead backed away, declaring that he was not a politician. Never mind that Curry’s last political gig was as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
Resign already, Kim Crenier. At the very least, apologize.
Our children are watching.
Julie Delegal, a University of Florida alumna, is a contributor for Folio Weekly, Jacksonville’s alternative weekly, and writes for the family business, Delegal Law Offices. She lives in Jacksonville. Column courtesy of Context Florida
