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edbermac

(15,919 posts)
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 07:40 AM Aug 2020

Michigan official defends using racist slur while refusing to wear a mask.

A local road commission meeting in northern Michigan on Monday started with one commissioner asking another why he wasn’t wearing a mask amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The unmasked official responded with a racist slur and an angry rant against the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Well, this whole thing is because of them n-----s in Detroit,” Tom Eckerle, who was elected to his position on the Leelanau County Road Commission in 2018, told his colleague at the start of the public meeting.
The commission chairman, Bob Joyce, immediately rebuked his colleague, but Eckerle continued his diatribe.

“I can say anything I want,” Eckerle said at the meeting, which the public could listen to via a dial-in number, the Leelanau Enterprise first reported. “Black Lives Matter has everything to do with taking the country away from us.”

The racist remark spurred widespread
condemnation of Eckerle, who is Republican, and calls to resign from party officials. Despite the backlash, Eckerle doubled down on his comments on Thursday, defending his position and using the slur repeatedly in an interview with the local public radio station.

“I don’t regret calling it an n----r,” Eckerle told Interlochen Public Radio. “A n----r is a n----r is a n----r. That’s not a person whatsoever.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/07/michigan-mask-racist-slur/#click=https://t.co/DxRMoJFdc

16 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Michigan official defends using racist slur while refusing to wear a mask. (Original Post) edbermac Aug 2020 OP
Tantruming toddlers in adult bodies... dlk Aug 2020 #1
Dog whistle ornotna Aug 2020 #2
Toss away those dog whistles, mates, and take up the bullhorn. The Genealogist Aug 2020 #9
What dog whistle??? obamanut2012 Aug 2020 #11
"...who is Republican..." are the three most unnecessary words I'll read today. CaptYossarian Aug 2020 #3
So in both instances it was recorded? nt Guy Whitey Corngood Aug 2020 #4
yes obamanut2012 Aug 2020 #12
Then, I'd say someone needs to make an add using this. But Guy Whitey Corngood Aug 2020 #15
You got a real purty mouth, boy tavernier Aug 2020 #5
Try real hard to picture this POS. Here he is... CurtEastPoint Aug 2020 #6
As ugly as hell inside as well as outside. Butterflylady Aug 2020 #8
He's not alone up there Johnny2X2X Aug 2020 #7
The Traverse metro area is pretty tame... Act_of_Reparation Aug 2020 #14
We need a photo of this fuckhead in a MAGA hat. Paladin Aug 2020 #10
Well, you know how racist folks here in the South are obamanut2012 Aug 2020 #13
Every time I see someone make a comment about the south being racist gollygee Aug 2020 #16

The Genealogist

(4,723 posts)
9. Toss away those dog whistles, mates, and take up the bullhorn.
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 09:07 AM
Aug 2020

If this guy had a shrine to Donald Trump in his home, I'd not be the least bit surprised.

CaptYossarian

(6,448 posts)
3. "...who is Republican..." are the three most unnecessary words I'll read today.
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 07:55 AM
Aug 2020

Remember, this is northern Michigan during the Trump era. At least in the 1860s, Confederates "knew their place" and wasted oxygen south of the Ohio River.

These cretins have "overbreeded" to all corners of our nation.

(Naturally, I'm using the same racist terms Eckerle would use in discussing people of color.)

Guy Whitey Corngood

(26,481 posts)
15. Then, I'd say someone needs to make an add using this. But
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 10:04 AM
Aug 2020

make it about the entire party. Same as these knuckle dragging goat fuckers would do to us.

Johnny2X2X

(18,733 posts)
7. He's not alone up there
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 08:23 AM
Aug 2020

Absolutely a gorgeous part of the state, but outside the Summer homes it's a cesspool of racism, white supremacy, and neo-nazis. Drove up through there just a couple years ago, saw more than a couple Swaztika flags flying. Have family outside of Petosky, this is no surprise to me.

I don't think middle America realizes how hateful rural America is in a lot of places. This guy isn't stepping down because he knows he has the support of more than half the people. There's large swaths of this state where the white population only knows about minorities what FOX News tells them.

Paladin

(28,202 posts)
10. We need a photo of this fuckhead in a MAGA hat.
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 09:08 AM
Aug 2020

There are bound to be some around. Maximum circulation in a pro-Biden campaign ad.

gollygee

(22,336 posts)
16. Every time I see someone make a comment about the south being racist
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 10:05 AM
Aug 2020

I respond that no, we have plenty of racism in Michigan and we aren't even vaguely southern. Case in point here.

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