Black leaders, others speak out against blog
Leaders say the hateful speech on it has created ‘dangerous environment’
ANTIOCH >> Black leaders and other community activists gathered Tuesday to denounce a local blogger they said promotes racism and creates a “dangerous environment” for the city’s Black elected officials.
Led by local Pastor and emcee Lamont Francies of East County Northstar, a Black-owned online news source, along with the NAACP, Urban Church Coalition, Black Elected Officials of the East Bay and others, the group contended that the website East County Today, its social media pages and publisher Mike Burkholder have created a forum for racists and White supremacists to spew their hatred in relative anonymity.
“We’re here to address a very, very serious issue in our commu
nity,” Francies said. “This has been going on for some seven to eight years, and in 2021 we are now saying enough is enough. We, Black, White, Brown and Asian people in the community, have come together to say this is not welcome in our community.”
After the November election, Antioch’s council’s composition changed to three Black and two White members, a reflection of the changing demographics in the once predominantly White, blue-collar town. But divisiveness grew among community members through unrestrained social media attacks on the new Black majority, the leaders said at a Tuesday news conference in front of City Hall.
Burkholder denied the allegations in an email.
“Mayor Lamar Thorpe and Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker are using race as a way to deflect from what is really going on here: Both are being criticized and facing a recall by Antioch citizens — not because they’re people of color, but because they have failed to do their jobs.”
Despite the claim, no official recall has begun.
None of the council members or mayor attended the news conference. But reached later, all said they knew about the racist comments and some had experienced threats.
Thorpe said he was aware of blog commenters calling council members “thugs,” “hood rats” and the like, and some had sent him screenshots of people trying to organize against him outside his home. He also called out the racist rhetoric at the last City Council meeting.
Torres-Walker said she received threatening calls and hate mail and her home has been vandalized as “someone attempted to but was unsuccessful at setting front porch furniture on fire.”
“I think the headlines pander to a certain kind of reader; they are catchy and hateful,” she said of the blog. “It’s an opinion, not news.”
Councilwoman Monica Wilson said she has had a
lot of hostile emails sent to her. And though it has been “an undercurrent for years,” she said it has gotten worse in the past couple of years, citing as an example a posting of her picture with a monkey’s standing alongside other council members with red noses a couple of years ago.
“He was fanning the flames, and that’s when it really took off for me,” she said. “People felt like this is a place I can go and spew my hate and animosity toward people of color.”
Community activist Warren Lutz said the vacuum caused by thinning newspaper staffs in recent years has been filled with outlets like East County Today, which through commenters on its social media and website allow unsourced misconceptions to “pass as truths.”
“Specifically, I saw warnings and accusations made toward democratically elected Black leaders alleging they were anti-police, engaged in some plot to defraud the community or grandstanding for personal or political gain, along with many misleading headlines,” he said.
“It (East County Today) is a haven for longtime East County residents who are upset with the area’s changing demographics and a place to voice their outrage in relative anonymity,” Lutz added.
The activist said one can frequently find language on the blog’s Facebook page calling minority leaders “ghetto trash, hood rats, thugs and other dog whistles,” while on the website “one can find hundreds of anonymous comments riddled with the ‘n’ word and every conceivable racial epitaph and homophobic slur one can imagine.”
Lutz pointed out that Burkholder has responded to the comments online and is aware of them but does not remove them.
“I realize the First Amendment protects Mr. Burkholder’s right to publish whatever he wants, but I, too, have a First Amendment right to tell whoever cares to listen that East County Today is a major source of division and racial hatred in our community and it is not reflective of our community, and if you choose to advertise, you will never have my business.”
Joshua Anijar, executive director of the Contra Costa Labor Council, meanwhile, said the council “stands united against racism and misinformation.”
“Yes, you can have disagreements, you can disagree with policy, fine. But there is no room for hatred and racism in the public discourse, in the media and especially here in Contra Costa County.”
Demnlus Johnson III, president of the Black Elected Officials of the East Bay, asked if the community was going to adhere to the tenants of White supremacy and nationalism or be “a country for all.”
“What’s happening in Antioch, some people say was never supposed to happen,” he said, referring to the migration from West County to East County of people of color and the majority Black council. “Now what you have is this anger because people are trying to hold onto this old way of being that the community is saying they don’t want anymore.”
Pastor Damon Owens of the Urban Church Coalition for East County said it’s important to speak out against hate speech. “When we don’t speak up against it, we are agreeing to the negative rhetoric.”
He added that the church stands up for what’s right, not what’s politically correct, or politically expedient. “I want to challenge you to stand up for what’s right and speak truth to power and call a spade a spade,” he said.
“A lot of these words, you can’t just put them in a shredder — those days are over — these words are in the cloud forever … Be mindful of what you type because once you hit send, you can’t take it back.”
Francies, meanwhile, said he wrote a letter to East County Today more than a month ago to “stop providing a platform for racists” but never heard back.
“Enough is enough,” he said, calling on the blog’s subscribers and advertisers to stop supporting him.
“Over 47,000 African Americans live in East County, 16% of the population . ... We are not going anywhere.”