Letters to the Editor: ‘Redneck’? Councilmembers’ racist remarks were a lot of things, but not that red.
A handful of councilmembers have recently said or done things that can best be described as racist. In a council meeting last week in the middle of the night, several councilmembers made some statements that they characterized as “just plain racist.”
We are not advocating that members of the council should be personally insulted and shunned. We are, however, concerned that the statements made by the people involved were not warranted. What is the proper way to treat an individual councilmember’s offensive statements?
Our view is that the proper response is to try to learn from the experience. The same should be done with the people involved. We believe that councilmembers need and should be held accountable for their actions.
I have to admit that I was shocked at the first several Council meetings to learn that the council members are of diverse backgrounds. I thought they might be mostly Caucasians, but maybe not. (I did not know how to ask who they are. I eventually learned that their names appear on each individual councilmembers’ web pages and that they are the councilmembers’ own children.)
They told me that they love the city of Pueblo and that they want to serve it. I think they all probably are proud to be residents of Pueblo.
I will bet that the majority of these men and women live in Pueblo and have a wide variety of racial/ethnic backgrounds. They probably know many of their fellow council members because they know most of Pueblo.
I will bet that many of these councilmembers are also Puebloans who grew up here and feel a sense of patriotism and pride for this community.
They probably are proud of their city because they know and love their community.
The following are quotes that may best be described as racist.
I, along with some others, will not discuss the specifics of what some of these councilmembers said. Let them speak for themselves:
You can read all about this on the Pueblo Voice web site. The following examples are just a few of the statements made in