Georgia bar owner Patrick Lanzo continues to claim that he is not a racist, even as he continuously displays signs outside his Paulding County bar with racist epithets, especially the N-word. It’s an even more preposterous claim since he advertises his club as a “Klan Bar.”
Lanzo has caused outrage when he posted the sign “I do not support the n—– in the White House” outside his Georgia Peach Oyster Bar. He recently tried to explain to local media that the offensive wording was not meant to be racist.
“I say just because you’re offended by it doesn’t mean you don’t have the right to say something just the opposite,” Lanzo said, according to a report from Atlanta’s Fox 5. “I don’t feel bad about anything whatsoever. Therefore, they can go out and put their own sign in their own yard and I will not be offended.”
Lanzo seems to purposely invite and relish the acrimony and attention he receives for littering his signs with inflammatory rhetoric. In 2009, Lanzo incited outrage and protests with a sign that read, “Obama’s plan for health-care: n—– rig it.” Again Lanzo maintained it was just a simple health care protest and not racist.
Asked why he uses harsh and racist language to articulate his views, Lanzo simply said. “Well, I’ve used it most of my life. There are different ways to put your opinion up, but that’s just the words I choose.”
Paulding County officials know about the sign, the media reports, but they can’t do much about it since it’s on private property. Unsuccessful protests have also been mounted by the NAACP, a group that Lanzo, laughably, said he was a member of.
–terry shropshire
