Miss Millie is the wife of the mayor of the town where Sophia lives. Miss Millie is racist and condescending, but she admires the cleanliness and good manners of Sofia’s children, so she asks Sofia to be her maid. Sofia replies, “Hell no,” and is sent first to jail, then to Miss Millie’s, where she ends up working as her maid after all. Miss Millie considers herself very liberal, tolerant and humanitarian, because she does things like organize fundraisers for black children, but she reveals her own behavior to be somewhat deceptive and phony. Later as she is trying to drive herself back home after dropping Sofia off for her first holiday visit with her family in years she has problems getting the car to cooperate because of her lack of experience and talent with driving. As Sofia's family members, most of them men, try to help her get started her true self comes to light. She begins panicking and shouting "I'VE BEEN GOOD TO YOU PEOPLE!!!" in her presumption that all a bunch of black men would be trying to do to her as a white woman is "attack" her. She then goes on to state plainly that she won't allow any black person, especially a black man, she doesn't know to drive her home alone, even if it is one of Sofia's family members and insists that Sofia be the one to do it. Despite the fact of her believing she is progressive she is still a bigot and is actually a hypocrite.
So what is the point? With the ridiculous amounts of blatant racist propaganda coming from the elected Republican officials, I feel compelled to write this, more to inform and educate people, since these individuals keep claiming ignorance as their excuse! But considering the ages of these idiots, claiming to be unaware of the offensive nature of these remarks is preposterous. First, allow me to introduce to some and present to others this special class of racist moron that has been parading around in political arenas, nore noticably now in recent years.
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| Mayor Gary Frago |
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| left side of pic old ads from 1800's-1960's right side pic sent from Grose |
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| Mayor Dean Grose |
After sending a picture of the White House with watermelons on the front lawn with a caption that reads: “No Easter egg hunt this year" to people, Grose apologized for the email and has stepped down as mayor. In his so called apology Grose said, "he wasn't aware of the racial stereotype concerning the watermelons." To add insult to injury, this idiot sent the email to Keyanus Price, a local businesswoman and city volunteer who is an African American. Though Grose stepped down as the mayor, he retained his seat on the city council and was able to cast a vote for his replacement.
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| Representative Marilyn Davenport |
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| right side is photo sent by Davenport left side is ad from late 1800's |
Then of course there is the other CA representative, Marilyn Davenport. Hmm yes, she is the one responsible for sending the email depicting Obama's face on the head of a monkey in a supposed family portrait. The caption read, ""Now you know why -- No birth certificate." Davenport said, "I'm sorry if my email offended anyone, I simply found it amusing regarding the character of Obama and all the questions surrounding his origin of birth. The thought never entered my mind until one or two other people tried to make this about race." Davenport then accused the media of "making much ado about nothing," and indicated she would hunt down the "cowardly" person who leaked the contents of the e-mail. When Dean Grose came under fire in 2009, Davenport defended him. She is also noted as defending former Newport Beach City Councilman Dick Nichols for making an offensive remark about Mexicans. Davenport at the time of this writing has refused to step down despite her local party censuring her and asking her to and following 2 public apologies.
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| Rep. Sally Kern |
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| from the "March on Washington Wednesday, August 28, 1963 |
And it's not just Californians. Ok State Representative Sally Kern recently said that minorities just don't work as hard as [their white counterparts]. "I taught school for 20 years and I saw a lot of people of color who didn't want to work as hard -- they wanted it given to them," she added. As to the reason there are a disporprotionate amount of African Americans in prison, Kern says, "Is this just because they're black that they're in prison or could it be because they didn't want to work hard in school?" Kern asked, according to an official transcript. In response to the criticism and fury over her words, Kern responded, "My words do not represent my heart and my actions of the last 60 years...My husband is a pastor of a diverse, inner-city church and the way that my words came out last night is certainly not my true spirit." She went on to say, "I've asked the Lord to forgive me for my careless words, I hope you will find it in your heart to accept it." Representative Kern was censured after a vote of the House, 76-16 and then made a public apology. Yet there were members of the House such as Representative Paul Wesselhoft (R), who is an ordained Southern Baptist Minister, said that the reprimand, "flies in the face of every Sunday school lesson I’ve ever had.” Really? It makes me wonder what they taught in his Sunday School Classes. I also would like to know what exactly they teach about the comments that got her in trouble? But then again, Rep. Kern is the wife of a Pastor of a Southern Baptist Church. Hmm. No reason to be suspicious there right?
So what then is all the fuss about? After all, didn't Vice President Biden say something about Obama? Joe Biden, when talking about Obama in the primaries, said it was nice to have a black candidate that was "clean" and "articulate?". And the Senate majority leader Harry Reid said Obama was elected because he was lighter skinned and lacked a "Negro dialect?" Well, aren't they racists too? Aren't the Democrats just playing the "race card" to when the elections in 2012? Aren't these Republicans being wrongfully branded as racist? Didn't they finally "apologize" after strong rebuke and public outcry. After all, haven't they been "GOOD TO YOU PEOPLE?!" Don't they each have at least one African American friend who can and will attest to the kindness of these kind white folks? Well VP Biden's commits in context weren't racist. And Senator Reid's point was actually valid, however, these candidates "manned" up to their mistakes. They apologized directly to President Obama and the public. They didn't wait for a party vote to offer a "sincere apology". And that speaks to the sincerity of the apology and the intentions of their statements.
And perhaps I am most offended by the repeated references to these Republicans "token" African American friends as excuse for the comments as well as some sort of "proof" of non-racist intent. Each of the candidates said they have "a black friend" or that they do alot for "black people". Well, HELLO WORLD: so did Miss Millie. And in fact that was in part the source of Miss Millie's hubris as well as for these idiots. In fact there were slaves who fought alongside their masters for the South during the Civil War. Some slaves even saved or rescued their master during the war. So what then, is slavery not to be condemned? Was the war really just about economics? Really?!
Well, why do I keep calling them idiots? Well they themselve have implied they are so. Or are they just blatantly incompetent. Each of these individuals is at least 60. How then could they say they are unaware of the racial tensions and stereotypes in this country, past and present? Where they all in time capsules when Dr. King Marched on Washington? Did they really miss the signs that said "colored" and "white"? Or the signs that said "no niggers allowed"? Or do they miss them now? How is it people who have volunteered for and accepted the responsibility for making laws or upholding them be so ignorant of legal precedents? Rep. Kern's statements came during a debate concerning state sanctioned Affirmative Action. She was arguing against affirmative action and trying to pass a bill to do away with it. My question for her is does racism no longer exist? Well from the stories above I would say that YES, it does absolutely exist! But again, after all, Miss Millie can always use a maid.
**Below: the top clip is of Miss Sophia and Miss Millie's first encounter. The bottom is of Miss Millie "helping" Miss Sophia.
