GotZoom
Senior Member
Pa. House session halted after ethnic remarks, "cracker" slur
By MARTHA RAFFAELE
The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A session of the state House of Representatives was suspended for more than an hour Wednesday after a black lawmaker, upset by a white colleague's comments about ethnic groups, referred to him as a "cracker."
The House was debating a bill that would allow residents of communities governed by homeowners' associations to fly the American flag on their property, even if association rules prohibited them from doing so. No vote was taken on the measure.
Rep. John Myers, a black lawmaker from Philadelphia, objected to comments that Rep. Thomas Yewcic, a white lawmaker from Cambria County in southwestern Pennsylvania, made in support of the bill. Both are Democrats.
"I don't think we should be embarrassed or ashamed to support the American flag or what it represents," Yewcic said. "If any ethnic group wants to fly ... a flag, and they're embarrassed to fly an American flag, they should go back to their ethnic origins and fly it there."
Myers said that he supported a person's right to fly the American flag, a military flag or a state flag, but was bothered by what Yewcic said.
"The one thing that does disturb me is that if you disagree, that you almost use a belligerent, racist doctrine to explain the disagreement by telling people to go back where they came from," he said.
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Myers asked House Speaker John M. Perzel whether Yewcic's comments violated House rules, and Perzel told him they did not. Myers then asked whether he would be ruled out of order for making a derogatory remark, and Perzel said he would have to rule on a case-by-case basis.
"I think that those type of remarks would come from a cracker," Myers said, using a derogatory term for a poor, white person.
Perzel called Myers to his desk to admonish him. Yewcic then apologized for his comments, which he said were not intended to offend any individual ethnic group.
Myers then got up to speak again.
"I'm hearing my colleague. I appreciate him standing up and being a man, and I'd like to do the same thing. I'm sorry for referring to him as a cracker," Myers said, prompting hoots of laughter mixed with boos.
That offended Rep. Eugene F. McGill, R-Montgomery.
"I think the apology from Mr. Myers was completely insincere," he said. "I resent the fact that the black caucus thought it was so funny to call a white person a cracker."
Perzel then banged his gavel and said the House would be in recess for more than an hour.
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I'm offended. Where is the outrage?
Oh......that's right...damn, I keep forgetting...
African-Americans can say those things to anyone - it's not racist.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-06292005-508865.html
By MARTHA RAFFAELE
The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A session of the state House of Representatives was suspended for more than an hour Wednesday after a black lawmaker, upset by a white colleague's comments about ethnic groups, referred to him as a "cracker."
The House was debating a bill that would allow residents of communities governed by homeowners' associations to fly the American flag on their property, even if association rules prohibited them from doing so. No vote was taken on the measure.
Rep. John Myers, a black lawmaker from Philadelphia, objected to comments that Rep. Thomas Yewcic, a white lawmaker from Cambria County in southwestern Pennsylvania, made in support of the bill. Both are Democrats.
"I don't think we should be embarrassed or ashamed to support the American flag or what it represents," Yewcic said. "If any ethnic group wants to fly ... a flag, and they're embarrassed to fly an American flag, they should go back to their ethnic origins and fly it there."
Myers said that he supported a person's right to fly the American flag, a military flag or a state flag, but was bothered by what Yewcic said.
"The one thing that does disturb me is that if you disagree, that you almost use a belligerent, racist doctrine to explain the disagreement by telling people to go back where they came from," he said.
Click Here!
Myers asked House Speaker John M. Perzel whether Yewcic's comments violated House rules, and Perzel told him they did not. Myers then asked whether he would be ruled out of order for making a derogatory remark, and Perzel said he would have to rule on a case-by-case basis.
"I think that those type of remarks would come from a cracker," Myers said, using a derogatory term for a poor, white person.
Perzel called Myers to his desk to admonish him. Yewcic then apologized for his comments, which he said were not intended to offend any individual ethnic group.
Myers then got up to speak again.
"I'm hearing my colleague. I appreciate him standing up and being a man, and I'd like to do the same thing. I'm sorry for referring to him as a cracker," Myers said, prompting hoots of laughter mixed with boos.
That offended Rep. Eugene F. McGill, R-Montgomery.
"I think the apology from Mr. Myers was completely insincere," he said. "I resent the fact that the black caucus thought it was so funny to call a white person a cracker."
Perzel then banged his gavel and said the House would be in recess for more than an hour.
----
I'm offended. Where is the outrage?
Oh......that's right...damn, I keep forgetting...
African-Americans can say those things to anyone - it's not racist.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-06292005-508865.html
