On Tuesday evening, I received an email informing me that a blogger who worked for an ABC affiliate in Nashville had republished the following from a winger blog:
Smantix remembers blogger Steve Gilliard:
It goes without saying that the term “house negro” gets bandied about with great frequency against anyone of seemingly African descent when they are on the Right. Be you Clarence Thomas, Condoleeza Rice, Michael Steele, or J.C. Watts, you can expect a Harry Belafonte, a Danny Glover, or yes - even a Steve Gilliard to call you out for being the race traitor that you are. The sell-out, Oreo cookies who do Whitey’s bidding and put a black face on racist policies that would otherwise be rightly called out for what they are. Uncle Thomas and Aunt Thomasinas alike.
But really, who is doing whose bidding in those situations? Can Howard Dean call Condoleeza his “do right answer mammy who be smart”? Can James Carville call out Clarence for collard greens?
Which brings us to today’s marquee morbidity. The tragic, untimely death of Donk House Negro and all around bigot Steve Gilliard. Who knew that boiling bacon grease in a spoon and mainlining it into the neck vein was bad for your health?
I like Steve. I considered him a friend. This pissed me off.
I immediately clicked on the link to see if that was the full quote (it was) and saw that the post was titled: "Teaching Libs a Lesson." I assumed Ms Gilbert was sharing the quote because she thought it was witty or funny.
I then decided to check out other posts to see if Gilbert was the prime blogger or just some nut in the blog's "diary section." I learned that she was the main blogger and didn't see anything that would suggest that she's a liberal r otherwise providing evidence that the post about Steve may have been republished for it's ironic value.
So, what I was faced with what appeared to be a blog sponsored by an ABC affiliate in a red state approvingly publicised a right wing attack on my friend even as his family was preparing for his burial.
I responded by writing one of my letters. I addressed it to the station's news director, an anchor, Ms. Gilbert, and one of the station's advertisers. After sending the email and publishing it, I went off and worked on the Club Wellstone and GOP Heaven I'm building in Second Life. It's going to be pretty cool.
Later, I checked my comments and for some reason decided to check those at Nashville is Talking, something I seldom do because of time constraints. I argued with a few people there, but after learning that Gilbert might have reposted the crap for it's ironic value, I removed all of the contact information from my post. I didn't want to see her get fired if it was unintentional, but I also thought she owed Steve's friends and family an apology, so I have no regrets about leaving the post up.
I added an update to the post at that time, asking her to apologize. The language I used, "Apparently, Brittney is just plain fucking stupid" reflected what I felt was the gravity of her mistake.
The next morning, someone emailed me Aunt B's post, which basically said that Gilbert was important to the liberal blogging community in Nashville. I immediately posted that information in an effort to stop anyone else from writing the station demanding that she be fired. Again, I had removed the contact information long before then.
I still believed that Gilbert should own up to her mistake and apologize.
I learned she resigned an hour or so after that. She says that it wasn't because she was forced to resign. For that I am thankful. Being stupid is not a firing offence.
She finally apologized in her resignation letter. I'm glad she did.
That's all I'm going to say about this, although I will continue to resist efforts to paint me as a misogynist because of it.
Update: I apologise to Ms. Gilbert for calling her stupid. That was uncalled for.
