Speaking Out On Walt Baker
The Tennessee blogosphere is talking about Walt Baker, the CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association, who did this.
Let’s take a look around.
Walt Baker’s marketing firm has been fired by The Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau. Yes, Mr Baker is the kind of business leader who got big contracts to make Nashville seem like a welcoming and hospitable place, while at the same time sending out racist emails as an inside political jab “… in the spirit of having some fun with some close friends.”
It’s not the first time that dehumanizing racist materials, used as a political bludgeon meant to erode power and cultivate hate, have brought Tennessee the national spotlight. The email that was forwarded from Republican State Sen. Diane Black’s office was described by it’s sender as a mistake. “I inadvertently hit the wrong button,” the sender was quoted as saying. “I’m very sick about it, and it’s one of those things I can’t change or take back.” How human it is to regret being caught being ourselves. I still can’t stop asking the question I asked last June: who is on the right list?
Eric Ragle has an open letter to Baker.
The point of this letter, Mr. Baker, isn’t to insult you or to encourage you to resign from your position due to your open and blatant racism. No, the purpose of this letter is simply to request for you, and people like you, to move out of Tennessee. Yes, you read that correctly. I want you, and those like you, to pack up your belongings, sell your house at a fair market price, and leave this state.
I was born in Indiana but have lived in Tennessee for most of my life. I married a Tennessee girl and we’re raising two Tennessean children. We enjoy the mountains, the wonderful town we live in, and our community. We root for the Vols and the Titans and we try our hardest to be upstanding members of our community. We are raising our children to be open-minded and tolerant of those who are different from them. The bottom line is that we love it here. We will likely grow old together and die here. We won’t leave.
I’ll be honest, each time I hear of some high-profile Tennessean displaying their overt racism, I start thinking about moving my family. I cannot stand the thought of my children growing up to believe that the color of someone’s skin makes them less-important or inferior. Seriously, it’s bad enough that we live in one of the most homophobic states in the entire country, but we have to be one of the most racist too?
As of Saturday, the Tennessee Hospitality Association was under fire by Baker’s lame and racist attempt at humor, which was not embraced at all.
The Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau has decided to drop its contract with Walt Baker’s marketing firm over the hospitality executive’s email comparing First Lady Michelle Obama to a chimpanzee.
And the work that he actually does has become secondary to his gaffe.
until the obama machine makes any derogatory comment regarding him and his rapatious chosen an act of treason (as in crimes against the piety of the sovereign ) “we the people have free speech” ( yeah right). way to go mr. baker, in the photo, she and the chimp had the EXACT same facial expression! it was funny! it is not your fault that she is painfully unattractive. those two O's are power drunk and out of control. and sadly, it will get worse. he is the harbinger of the end that Nostradomus wrote about you know. i'm not a believer in “creation by an omnipotent entity” but that bible book has a lot of info about obama too. you know that whole “mark of the beast thing?” it's here in the form of a “biometric id card” to be followed with FORCED human microchip implantation. my point is everyone should just say and print anything they want about those “O's” THE END IS NEAR thanks to old ANTI-c;;; Obama! live it up one and all cause we are all @##$%& anyway.”O's old lady is a chimp face with a huge high butt and that older daughter of theirs is lookin pretty butch lately too don't you think?