Beverly Whaling was the mayor of Clay, West Virginia, when she woke up this morning. However, after a social media storm regarding her comments on another person’s Facebook page were revealed, she’ll go to bed tonight as an ordinary citizen who happened to have once been the mayor. Clay has a population of 491 people, all of whom are White.
Clay County Development Corp. director Pamela Ramsey Taylor made the initial Facebook comment posting, “It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a [sic] Ape in heels.”. Then Mayor Whaling commented on her post “Just made my day Pam.”
Ex-Mayor Whaling sent a statement to the media saying that she was referencing the change in the White House and she’s not a racist. Neither is Donald Trump, if you ask him.
There are and always will be a percentage of people who are openly and proudly racist in their thinking and their actions. There’s not much that would ever change these people’s minds and understanding of race and racism.
Racist people who think they aren’t racist create a much bigger problem in this country. They create and maintain the institutionalized racism that exists without ever saying a negative racist word and often believing that they aren’t racist. There is a monstrous lack of understanding of racism in the White community, which isn’t surprising based on what is taught in America’s school systems (a very racist institution). Many of them could do better if they had been taught better, aka the truth.
Please contribute your solutions. Let’s discuss and see how we can move the country forward.
