Leroy Brooks ought to be ashamed.
We’re referring to his conduct Monday during his appearance before the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau board.
What should have been a discussion on resolving a dispute over CVB policy deteriorated into an ugly accusation of racism.
Brooks, a long-time county supervisor, appeared before the CVB board to ask for the second half of a $7,500 grant awarded for the Juneteenth Festival, an event he helped found and organize but now does not direct after a change in CVB rules prohibiting funding events lead by elected officials.
The board ultimately voted to provide that funding by a 8-1 margin with board member Rissa Lawrence being the lone no vote.
Not content to let the vote stand for itself, Brooks lashed out at Lawrence, claiming she harbors a racist attitude.
What I’m saying to you is that this is not 1955,” Brooks said. “I’m not Emmett Till. I don’t whistle, I talk. One thing I was raised as a young boy in the South to do more than anything in the world was to respect women.
“Unfortunately, the nicest thing I can say about you is that you appear to have a racist attitude and a personal attitude towards me.”
Interjecting race into the discussion was, to put it mildly, unfortunate.
But in this case, Brooks has made an association so patently absurd, so deeply offensive that no thinking person can condone it.
To evoke the brutality of the Emmett Till horror to describe a board member’s vote on a minor funding matter is not only an attack on decency but trivializes one of the darkest moments in our state’s history.
This is not the first time Brooks has resorted to such a tactic. In fact, when the CVB made that change in its festival funding policy in 2012, Brooks invoked the memory of the violent acts that followed James Meredith’s efforts to integrate the University of Mississippi in 1962.
Now, as then, Brooks has acted irresponsibly in making that sort of connection.
Few will dispute that racism continues to exist in our society. But it is precisely because racism still exists that Brooks’ comments are most troubling.
By virtue of its explosive nature, charges of racism must not rely solely on opinion, but on demonstrable facts. Without facts to support the charge, the effort to face and resolve real provable instances of racism are undermined.
It’s the old story of the boy who cried “wolf.”
It dilutes the efforts to fight the very real instances of racism our society confronts. It emboldens the racists, who can point to false claims as “proof” that all charges of racism are a fiction.
For Brooks to suggest a board member’s decision is based on racism — without citing any tangible evidence to support that claim — damages Brooks’ reputation and undermines his credibility.
Nobody wins.
Everybody loses and Brooks loses most of all, whether he realizes it or not.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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