Mayor is criticized for White House watermelon patch e-mail

Businesswoman receives e-mail with image showing watermelon patch in front of White House.





By JAIMEE LYNN FLETCHER
The Orange County Register


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.
The e-mail was sent to at least one other person, but the mayor said he isn't sure how many people received it. He said there is a "small group" of people he sometimes forward e-mails to.
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."
Peter Eliasberg of the ACLU said that while the mayor wasn't acting as a city official at the time, it doesn't mean that it was OK to send.
"Even though as much as we may always think they're always public officials, they're not always public officials; it's kind of going out as a private citizen," Eliasberg said. "That doesn't mean that she doesn't have every right to demand a public apology. It seems like it was pretty offensive."

 

One of the (many) good things about the Obama presidency is that it further reveals the falsity that his election has signaled the end of racism.

 

cool.

I prefer a strawberry patch.

 

I didn't agree with people saying 'get over racism, you got a black president' to begin with..

We still have a ways to go

 

... never learns.

 

Nobody should be surprised by that. A lot of white people in positions power and authority have been getting away with those kinds of comments for years. Racism is still here and just because Obama is in office that dosen't mean it has come to a halt.

What is different now to a large extent is that these idiots who have these views are getting put on blast more than they would 20-30 years ago. And a lot more people in society don't think these remarks are acceptable.

 

And a derogatory racist term for white people is cool to use here, huh? Figures.

 

I guess you see nothing wrong with a watermelon patch in front of the White House. Stick to writing your man in prison. He needs to hear from you more than I do.

 

Britty, you do make a good point here, racial slurs are never ok no matter who is using them. The sheer level of stupidity in this news story is staggering, the Mayor in this story clearly is suffering from a severe lack of brain cells.

 

Calling Michael Steele, Calling Michael Steele!

 

No shit..she didn't say a damn thing about the watermelon patch but started WHINING about the word whitey.

SMH

She's an AM radio racist and a fuckin troll.

 

Urgh, what's up with all these racist politicians coming out the woodwork? Damn.

Britty isn't racist, she's right... no racial slurs should be acceptable.

 

This is true.

 

I agree. It's unfortunate that some racist comments are considered acceptable here

 

Mayor who sent watermelon e-mail says he'll resign

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – 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.
Located in Orange County, Los Alamitos is a 2 1/4-square-mile city of around 12,000 people.

 

You and karmachameleon really need to shut the fuck up. I'm tired of your mealy-mouthed bullshit and temper tantrums. Learn how to be men and grow the fuck up.

 

Karma called that racist politician whitey...

WHITEY is what some Black people call RACIST white folks

NOT you

NOT non racist whites

You'd think a WW that gives a shit BM would undertand that.

 

You're crying because somebody called a RACIST politician whitey and you got nerve to tell me to grow up.?

You ass-suckin....buck-dancing...one-man minstel show.

Take your own advise and grow the fuck up...

 

For the record, I don't believe the watermelon patch was right or excusable. I guess I just didn't feel so obliged to share that after seeing someone in HERE in THIS forum use a racist term for white people, knowing that no one would care or say a damn thing if I didn't say something. You expect me to sympathize about a watermelon patch because it's racist towards black people, but if I "WHINE" about something racist towards white people, I get a "fuck you bitch" and called a "fuckin troll" and an "AM radio racist"? Wow...
And how are YOU going to call ME a troll when the only time I see you post is to call white people racist and to disrespect people?

And "I guess you" look like this since you don't post any pictures of you. My point being that "guessing" doesn't hold any gravity. You should stop assuming, especially when you're not that bright in the first place.

Yeah, and "cracker" is only used by some people to describe saltines. "Whitey" is an anti-white ethnic slur, no matter if "some" try to give it somewhat of a different meaning. "Some" white people use the N word to describe a person of ANY race who takes advantage of someone with no regard for their well-being, but that doesn't mean it's okay for anyone to use it, nor does that make it any less offensive, racist, or wrong.