Hatred greets Pledge protest
CITY COUNCILMAN Jumaane Williams has been targeted with racist hate mail since he refused in protest to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Brooklyn Democrat got one letter calling him a “f---ing plantation monkey.”
“Plantation owner should have aborted your great-grandmother. You sit during the Pledge — well hope you have an accident that causes such physical trauma you will not be able to stand or kneel,” read the letter obtained by the Daily News.
Williams remained seated with his head bowed in prayer when the Pledge was recited at the opening of a City Council meeting earlier this month.
He said he wanted to protest killings of black men by police in addition to other injustices, and show solidarity with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has taken a knee during the national anthem. The backlash against Williams
included another hate-spewing note that said the protest “brings attention to how pathetic some if not most Blacks are.”
The writer went on to rant about affirmative action and rap music and wrote, “Black parents wait (some pray) that a son will get shot by a cop; of course he was on his way to college or usually church. This is called Payday for them. The ghetto lottery. What’s one kid when they usually have 6-8 maybe 10.”
Williams said the blatantly racist missives just go to show how much there is to protest.
“It just underscores that we really haven’t gone as far as we think we have on these issues,” he said. “People try to pretend we’re past that in this country, and we’re not.”
Another note sent to his office contained an article about his sitting out the Pledge with the message “Drop dead you f---” scrawled over it.
Williams said he has long declined to recite the Pledge but always stood out of respect, and has now decided to make his private protest public.
“I feel sorry for someone who can’t even see how illogical it is what they’re saying,” Williams said. “They’re walking around with so much anger in their hearts. It’s a disappointing thing, but that’s what we’re dealing with.”