Tennessee Democratic Party Chairwoman Mary Mancini got caught this week saying Tennessee is a racist state.
On her Twitter account Tuesday, Mancini admitted to all of it.
“Tomorrow, a story might be published w/ the probable headline of ‘@TNDP chair calls Tennessee a ‘racist state.’ It’s true,” Mancini wrote.
“In the heat and the frustration of seeing and hearing the constant drumbeat of bigotry, misogyny, and homophobia coming from Republican Speaker @GlenCasada.”
Mancini later wrote she “used a poor choice of words as I vented my frustration.”
On their Twitter page, meanwhile, the Tennessee House Republicans called Mancini’s words “crazy.”
“@TNDemocrats’s Chairman @marymancini doubles down on calling the entire state racist. Never mind that our GOP leaders just passed a resolution condemning all forms of racism,” the Tennessee House Republicans wrote.
Candice Dawkins, a staff member with the Tennessee Republican Party, meanwhile, tweeted the following:
“This is the kind of positivity the @tndp rejected when they reelected @marymancini as Chair,” Dawkins wrote.
“Instead of accept her part in leading her party into a superminority she’d rather generalize an entire state as racist then point the finger at Republicans.”
Mancini is the second high-profile Democrat of late to call Tennessee racist.
State Rep. London Lamar, (D-Memphis) said virtually the same thing last fall, as The Tennessee Star reported.
Lamar generated international attention after she declared in November, shortly after her election to the Tennessee House of Representatives that “Tennessee is a racist state,” as The Tennessee Star reported:
… Lamar live streamed a 15-minute rant on Facebook and said, among other things, Tennessee is a racist state and full of uneducated Republicans. She also reprimanded white men for wanting to keep more of the money they earn and suggested allowing felons to vote will help elect more Democrats.
Lamar later said she merely summed up the thoughts and feelings of her constituents when she scolded white Tennessee Republicans as supposedly racist and uneducated. She removed the video from Facebook a few days later after it got international media attention she apparently didn’t want.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Mary Manici” by Mary Manici.
If Tennessee is not racist as Mancini insists, then it is up to you all to prove her wrong. Prove to ME that she’s wrong and I’ll stand corrected in my criticisms of the G.O.P., the Tea Party, and of Blue Dog Corporate pseudo-Democrats (de facto Republicans) who run this state. But the burden of proof is on you right-wingers to show me and other leftists that our charges are false. Believe me, we leftists WANT to be wrong. I love Tennessee, but because I love her, I am willing to give her constructive criticism like the parent of an errant child has to do. If I failed to give Tennessee constructive criticism when she deserves it, I would be guilty of child-neglect. Please, I hope my former resident state of Tennessee is completely innocent of Mancini’s charges. Prove to ME that Mancini is wrong, please!
How does one prove a negative?
The Tennessee Democrat Party has no message so they just snipe at we responsible conservatives. I like it because I figure it will only help the GOP to maintain its majority in the state legislature. Now if the GOP would only govern like the conservatives they claim to be while campaigning.
If you see racism in everything, then you are the racist. From what I have seen, after moving to this great State ten years ago, racism is just not there.