Education is a Trust: Carl Paladino Must Go
On Thursday night, the school board for Buffalo Public Schools sent a clear and scathing message to one of its own: resign or we will find a way to force you off our council. The member in question is upstate real estate developer, former Republican candidate for Governor of New York, co-chair of Donald Trump’s New York state campaign, and all around dumpster fire of vulgarity and bigotry, Carl Paladino. Mr. Paladino earned national attention and scorn when he was asked to reply to a Buffalo weekly about his wishes for the upcoming year. In a fashion familiar to those who have observed his public antics over the years, Mr. Paladino wished for the death of President Obama from mad cow disease contracted by bestiality. He further wished for the death of White House adviser Valerie Jarrett by beheading after conviction for treason. He piled on with a hope that the First Lady “return to being a male” and that she would “return” to Africa to live with a gorilla.
Condemnation of his remarks were swift and pretty much total. While Donald Trump has not yet spoken on the issue, the Trump transition team issued a rebuke calling Paladino’s words “absolutely reprehensible,” and his own son took to the family company’s Facebook page to distance the business from his father’s words. The Chancellor of the New York Board of Regents announced a blistering rejection of Paladino’s bigotry on Twitter:
Further denunciations came from sitting Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mr. Paladino’s alma mater, St. Bonaventure University, and parent groups in Buffalo while official calls for his removal from the school board grew.
In his typical fashion, Mr. Paladino defied his detractors, insisting he was not racist and that his remarks were a form of “deprecating humor.” On his own Facebook page, he insisted that his comments had “nothing to do with race,” and proceeded to go on a lengthy rant about his alleged grievances against the Obamas, including numerous accusations that source from fake news and debunked rumors from the dredges of the Internet…or from emails forwarded by your racist uncle (Ms. Jarrett is an American by birth, Mr. Paladino). He also casually referred to the President as a “lazy ass” and signed off by saying “tough luck if you don’t like my answer.”
Considering the long history of dehumanizing African Americans by comparing them to gorillas and the body shaming African American women endure, Mr. Paladino’s comments were blatantly racist. However, to be fair – his comments were not merely racist. They were also obscene, misogynist, homophobic, and immoral. None of this is that much of a surprise. During his catastrophic run for governor in 2010, Mr. Paladino’s personal email habits became public and let’s just say what he offered to Artvoice is in line with his penchant for racist and sexually obscene material. What was not expected was a revised statement as the controversy deepened where Mr. Paladino said that he had not intended to make those “wishes” public, apologized to the “minority community,” and Education is a Trust: Carl Paladino Must Go | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.: