Blogged

WWMLKD?

When a white mayor is booed out of an MLK Day event (!) by supporters of the black fire chief whom he demoted months ago - and over “appeals for calm” from the erstwhile chief himself - it’s safe to say that no, we can’t all get along. Welcome, friends, to St. Louis.

As they say, this post is useless without pictures. Here are a few, posted at Antonio D. French’s PubDef.

On his blog, the mayor responds:

It is way too easy these days to call someone with whom you disagree a racist. Not every disagreement over policy, even if it involves people of different races, is racial. But, we also cannot ignore racial disparities where they exist.

There are two things I am not going to do: I am not going to encourage counter-protests because we need to unite, not further divide. And, I am not going to choose the events I attend based on whether or not there are going to be some shouters present. I am mayor of the whole City.

Mayors accumulate friends and enemies. It’s a tough job, and I think I am pretty good at it. Yesterday, the detractors were on TV.

In the interim, we have a mayoral recall effort, an proposed economic boycott of the city, and a year until Francis Slay is up for re-election.

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