Unbelievable! As our President strives for unity and non-partisanship to bring our nation together through this period of Global Economic strife, the Mayor of Alamitos, CA sends a racist email ridiculing our President with a vile, racial stereotype. Then, when asked to respond, he doesn't realize the error of his ways! Unbelievable!! OC Register reports:
LOS ALAMITOS - The mayor has sent an apology for an e-mail sent to a local businesswoman and community volunteer that she says is racist and offensive.
Keyanus Price, an African American, said she was appalled when she received an e-mail from Mayor Dean Grose's personal account that showed a picture of the White House with a watermelon patch imposed as the White House garden. "I was horrified when I read that e-mail," Price said. "What I'm concerned about is how can this person send an e-mail out like this and think it is OK?" Being a public official, Price said, made the matter worse. "He's putting the city into a bad place, and he is a liability," Price wrote in an e-mail.
Grose sent an e-mail apology to Price, her boss and the City Council saying he did not intend to be offensive. He also called and left Price a message, he said.
"It was just poor judgment on my part, and I am deeply sorry," he said. "It wasn't meant to hurt her."
The council received the e-mail from Price's boss and also received a copy of the apology. Councilman Ken Stephens said he didn't receive the original e-mail. "Being totally out of the loop on this one, I think I would be speaking out of turn if I said anything about it," he said. "I would think that anything like that at all would be inappropriate but, again, I haven't seen the e-mail." Calls to the other three Los Alamitos council members were not returned.
Price said she wanted a public apology for the e-mail and today contacted The Orange County Register to share the brief exchange that took place on Sunday.
Grose's e-mail included the picture with a heading that read, "No Easter Egg hunt this year."
"I think he's saying that since there's a black president, there will be no need to hunt for eggs since they're growing watermelons in the front yard this year," Price wrote. She responded to the e-mail with: "Hey, that's not nice at all. Not all black people like watermelon… you should know better than that."
Grose replied: "The way things are today, you gotta laugh every now and then. I wanna see the coloring contests." Price said Grose's response upset her more.
"As soon as I saw his response; that put me over the top because it was no big deal to him," she said.
Price and Grose have worked together in the past – they both sit on the board of the Youth Center, and she often works with city officials in the community representing her employer. The two have exchanged e-mails in the past. In his apology to Price via e-mail, Grose wrote that he was not representing himself as a public official. "It was not sent to a whole bunch of people, and it went through my personal e-mail," he said. "People e-mail things all the time, but that's not an excuse."
Keyanus Price, an African American, said she was appalled when she received an e-mail from Mayor Dean Grose's personal account that showed a picture of the White House with a watermelon patch imposed as the White House garden. "I was horrified when I read that e-mail," Price said. "What I'm concerned about is how can this person send an e-mail out like this and think it is OK?" Being a public official, Price said, made the matter worse. "He's putting the city into a bad place, and he is a liability," Price wrote in an e-mail.
Grose sent an e-mail apology to Price, her boss and the City Council saying he did not intend to be offensive. He also called and left Price a message, he said.
"It was just poor judgment on my part, and I am deeply sorry," he said. "It wasn't meant to hurt her."The council received the e-mail from Price's boss and also received a copy of the apology. Councilman Ken Stephens said he didn't receive the original e-mail. "Being totally out of the loop on this one, I think I would be speaking out of turn if I said anything about it," he said. "I would think that anything like that at all would be inappropriate but, again, I haven't seen the e-mail." Calls to the other three Los Alamitos council members were not returned.
Price said she wanted a public apology for the e-mail and today contacted The Orange County Register to share the brief exchange that took place on Sunday.
Grose's e-mail included the picture with a heading that read, "No Easter Egg hunt this year."
"I think he's saying that since there's a black president, there will be no need to hunt for eggs since they're growing watermelons in the front yard this year," Price wrote. She responded to the e-mail with: "Hey, that's not nice at all. Not all black people like watermelon… you should know better than that."
Grose replied: "The way things are today, you gotta laugh every now and then. I wanna see the coloring contests." Price said Grose's response upset her more.
"As soon as I saw his response; that put me over the top because it was no big deal to him," she said.
Price and Grose have worked together in the past – they both sit on the board of the Youth Center, and she often works with city officials in the community representing her employer. The two have exchanged e-mails in the past. In his apology to Price via e-mail, Grose wrote that he was not representing himself as a public official. "It was not sent to a whole bunch of people, and it went through my personal e-mail," he said. "People e-mail things all the time, but that's not an excuse."
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Late Breaking News:
Mayor who sent watermelon e-mail says he'll resign
8 hours ago
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. (AP) — The mayor of a small Southern California city says he will resign after being criticized for sharing an e-mail picture depicting the White House lawn planted with watermelons under the title "No Easter egg hunt this year."
Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose issued a statement Thursday saying he is sorry and will step down as mayor at Monday's City Council meeting.
Grose came under fire for sending the picture to what he called "a small group of friends." One of the recipients, a local businesswoman and city volunteer, publicly scolded the mayor for his actions.
Grose says he accepts that the e-mail was in poor taste and has affected his ability to lead the city. Grose said he didn't mean to offend anyone and claimed he was unaware of the racial stereotype linking black people with eating watermelons.
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