Signal columnist and anti-immigration activist Roger Gitlin loves to send emails. Getting snagged onto his list is the stuff of local legend. Rub shoulders with the guy and before you know it, your inbox is getting peppered with his nativist screed on a weekly basis. Some of these unwitting recipients will take note the nuttier messages and pass a copy along to me.
Last week, I received a forwarded message of Gitlin’s that caught my attention. It contained a large attachment, a .wmv file, which doesn’t play nicely with my Mac. After a tussle, I managed to get it working (pro tip: Flip4Mac).
What followed was a disgusting, bigoted rant that recalled the rhetoric of an uglier time. This four-minute-clip features a man, Grady Warren, with a neo-segregationist screed disguised as anti-Obama piece. Let’s jump to the money quote:
Who are the pissed off people in our country? Well, the pissed off people, sir, are the white people. It’s the white people, stupid. It’s taken 50 years for things shoved down our throats that we now have had enough.
Whoa. What’s been shoved down our throats for 50 years? Equal protection under the law? There’s also this:
You have declared war on the white man in America, putting the wants and needs of moochers, leeches, looters, and criminals ahead of the producers and workers of America. And we don’t want 15 to 20 million illiterate Mexicans and Chicanos as our new welfare society, living like rats in our neighborhoods.
My jaw hit the floor, my stomach turned. This is white supremacy, plain and simple. Lest I pull us into the illegal immigration debate again, I should point out that “Chicano” means an American of Mexican descent. This is pure racism.
There’s more:
You’re an angry negro and you have now broken the hearts of more Black Americans than any white man ever could. You have now proven you are an enemy of the United States….
…if you’re a Black American, it’s time you need to decide: are you an American first, or are you an African or Black American first?
Watch for yourself:
Having viewed this, Mr. Gitlin though it worthy of sharing. Here’s a copy of the email that preceded the clip:
From: RAGITLIN@aol.com
Date: July 31, 2010 3:42:38 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Barack the angry NegroBeautiful and honest !
I will share this with patriots everywhere. Please send this to all on your e mail contact list.
It is time to unite. This country is under regime control. The Constitution means nothing to these ideologues who are hell bent on destroying the United States.
Let this powerful video blanket America.
Roger A. Gitlin
SCVIMM
“Beautiful and honest”? “Let this powerful video blanket America.”?
To those of us who sensed that Gitlin’s single-minded preoccupation with immigration had a more sinister motivation, we can regretfully claim vindication.
Santa Clarita is largely a community of decent people – a multiethnic town where coexistence is the norm. I don’t mean that to be mushy. It’s true. We ought to reject Gitlin’s promotion of hate speech, unequivocally. Are you with me, Mighty Signal?
Comments (49)