A Louisiana city official who refused to take Robert E. Lee out of a school’s name got taken to task by a black activist, who forced her to leave a meeting in utter shame. The incident was caught on a video that’s now gone viral on both Twitter and Facebook.
In the clip, Baton Rouge resident Gary Chambers, a black man and publisher of The Rouge Collection, calls out East Baton Rouge School Board member Connie Bernard, who is white, for allegedly online shopping during a meeting on Thursday.
Part of the purpose for Thursday’s meeting was to circle back to an issue that’d been discussed recently in the community — namely, taking the “Lee” out of Lee High School, which was already a stripped-down version of Robert E. Lee High School.
“This is a picture of you shopping while we’re talking about racism and history in this country,” Chambers said at the board meeting, holding up his cell phone. “Only white members of the board got up while we’re talking. You don’t give a damn.”
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“You sit your arrogant self in here and sit on there shopping while the pain and the hurt of this community are on display,” Chambers said in a video from the June 18 meeting. “You should walk out of here and resign and never come back because you are the example of racism in this community. You are horrible.”
Chambers also points this out in the video, saying: “Robert E. Lee was a brutal slavemaster. Not only would he whoop the slaves, he said, ‘Lay it on ‘em hard.’ After he said that, he said, ‘Put brine on them.’”
In a photo that has since gone viral, Bernard’s internet browser appears to have an online clothing store’s website open during the meeting.
Bernard has since issued a statement of apology, but the pain and bigger picture structural issues remain.
Here is the video on YouTube.
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