In Warner Robins, Ga., a city located 100 miles south of Atlanta; a white councilman told his black counterpart that he should be working in a cotton field.
The verbal exchange between councilmembers John Williams, who is white, and Daron Lee, who is black, was the result of a heated debate. Lee said he was tired of being interrupted and was upset about how he was treated at an earlier meeting. The entire incident was caught on tape by WMAZ-TV in Macon, Ga. According to Lee, Williams has made such racially insensitive and stereotypical comments before and that “He smiles in your face and makes racial remarks.” Last spring, he allegedly told Lee’s brother, Gary, who is Warner Robins Redevelopment Agency director, that “I don’t want your skin to touch me.” Gary Lee made that claim in a letter to city officials.
Lee said that this is the second council meeting in a row where a council member has made racial remarks. He stated that during a closed meeting two weeks ago, Tom Simms Jr. referred to him as “boy.”
Williams attempted to infer that the “cotton field comment was not racist saying “I drove a cotton basket many miles. It is not a racial remark at all. [Lee] makes everything racial.” Earlier this summer, Williams was accused of filing a false police report regarding a stolen cell phone.
Formerly known as Wellston, Ga.,, the city was renamed Warner Robins in 1941 after Brigadier General Augustine Warner Robins during the same time the United States Air Force established a military depot now known as Robins Air Force Base.
Local officials with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People wrote a letter to city officials stating that if any of them feel they cannot represent all the city’s constituents, they should step down.
–torrance stephens, ph.d.
