Load up the politically correct bandwagon for another trip down protest lane. A recent Email joke forwarded by Los Alamitos California Mayor Dean Grose has anti-racism protesters up in arms. The picture, shown on the left is of the Whitehouse lawn replaced by a WATERMELON patch with the headline "NO EASTER EGG HUNT THIS YEAR"Although Mayor Dean Grose did apologise for sending this Email out to all his friends, including a Black business woman, the Mayor admitted not fully understanding the "racist" overtones in the WATERMELON JOKE. Honestly, neither do I.
The source tags of the White House image are: "watermelon," "kfc," "whitehouse," "obama," "easter," "uncle tom" and "house nigga."
Grose is in firm crisis-control mode now as he tries to stem the public anger caused by the e-mail. The mayor has sent an apology for the e-mail to the Los Alamitos City Council and to Keyanus Price, a black businesswoman and community activist, who said she was appalled when she received the e-mail from the mayor saw the image and so took her concerns to The Orange County Register. The apology was also sent to Ms. Price's boss, who is an apparent valued member of the city's business community.
The mayor did not return two calls for comment from Raw Story on the source of the image in his e-mail.
"The mayor said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that African Americans like watermelons," reported The Orange County Register.
In his apology letter for the e-mail the mayor wrote, "I am deeply embarrassed... It was poor judgement on my part and was never intended to be offensive to Ms. Price, your company or anyone in the African American Community.... You can be assured that I will not allow this to happen again. I in no way was representing the City of Los Alamitos, or my role as a council member in sending this out and it went via my private business email. That doesn't justify the fact that it was sent, however, we gratefully appreciate the contributions that your company makes to our community and I wish to publicly apologize to anyone within the firm or organization that may have been offended."
Price told The Register she was "horrified" when she read the e-mail.
"What I'm concerned about is how can this person send an e-mail out like this and think it is OK?" Price said, adding, "He's putting the city into a bad place, and he is a liability."