Reported by Dawson Bell in yesterday's Freep in the article "Lansing Mayor Offers Apology in the Wake of American Indian Remarks":
Bell wrote:
Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, under fire for what two Michigan tribes described as a string of anti-Indian racial slurs at a fund-raising speech last week, denied Monday that he directed his remarks toward Americans Indians, but apologized “to any and all who were offended by my choice of words.”
The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi and the Saginaw Chippewas, who are opponents of a proposed casino in Lansing that would be operated by another tribe, said Bernero “repeatedly used profanity and racial slurs in describing the (casino) controversy.”
The tribes said Bernero referred to a bull’s-eye on his back and said that he was the target of “bows and arrows” for championing the casino proposal.
James Nye, a Lansing lobbyist for the Nottawaseppi and Saginaw Chippewas, who is a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, said he was told by several people attending the fund-raiser that Bernero singled him out as “Chief Chicken Little.”
Nye said the remarks, at a Thursday morning mayoral fund-raiser, were “inexcusable.”
. . . Bernero was not available to comment. But his office issued a statement at midday Monday saying the mayor disagreed with his critics."My passionate support for Lansing and our casino project may have gotten the better of me, but none of my remarks were directed toward Native Americans, and nothing I said can fairly be construed as a racial slur,” he said. “I make no apologies for using strong language against our opponents … but I do offer my heartfelt and sincere apology to any and all who were offended by my choice of words.”
Comments?
"I make no apologies for using strong language against our opponents … but I do offer my heartfelt and sincere apology to any and all who were offended by my choice of words.”
ReplyDeleteHe's contradicting himself! Regardless, his use of 'Chief' is not a coincidence, it was used to mock his opponent and it is a slur.