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Sunday, April 29, 2007
Everson: Imus, Coretta and a double standard
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rep. Melvin Everson last week managed to upbraid four local and national luminaries over their use of racial slurs or their failure to condemn them.
Everson called shock-jock Don Imus’ on-air reference to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “inexcusable.”
The Snellville Republican also took to task Democrat Roberta Abdul-Salaam, a fellow African-American Georgia House member, for saying a word this newspaper won’t print.
On April 11, a House committee voted down Abdul-Salaam’s proposal to hang a portrait of Coretta Scott King at the state Capitol. The action enraged Salaam, who said that the committee’s action “was just like calling Mrs. King a nappy-headed [expletive].”
“I am equally as upset with Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam due to her emotional outburst and comment,” Everson said in a prepared statement. “Being African-American did not give her the right to make such comments.”
Then Everson turned his fire on two bigger-name black leaders.
“Where were Reverends [Jesse] Jackson and [Al] Sharpton when this most recent event took place? Honestly, I am disappointed in the leadership in the African-American community since they have not moved as swiftly to condemn Rep. Abdul-Salaam’s comment as quickly as that of Imus,” Everson said. “Everyone who uses this kind of language should be denounced.
“The African-American community should be the first ones held to this standard, not the last.”
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