Patterico's Pontifications

8/25/2019

City Council Candidate’s Pitch to Voters: Let’s Keep Our Town White!

Filed under: General — Dana @ 8:27 am



[guest post by Dana]

It’s 2019, and she really said it:

A city council candidate in Michigan shocked a public forum when she said she wants to keep her community white “as much as possible.”

Jean Cramer made the comment Thursday in response to a question about diversity in Marysville, a city in St. Clair County, 55 miles (88 kilometers) northeast of Detroit. The Times Herald in Port Huron said she’s one of five candidates running for three council seats in November.

More than 90% of Marysville’s 9,700-person population is white.

Cramer responded when the moderator asked candidates if Marysville should do more to attract foreign-born residents, who are boosting populations in some Great Lakes states.

“Keep Marysville a white community as much as possible,” she replied. “White. Seriously. In other words, no foreign-born, no foreign people.”

Seriously, in other words, no foreign-born, no foreign people because of what, in our past, we’ve experienced it’s better to have, simply American-born. Put it that way and no foreigners. No.”

Marysville’s Mayor Pro Tem, Kathy Hayman, whose son-in-law is black and grandchildren biracial, was stunned by Cramer’s comments:

“I don’t even know that I can talk yet, I’m so upset and shocked. My father was a hundred percent Syrian, and they owned the Lynwood Bar. It was a grocery store at that time. So basically, what you’ve said is that my father and his family had no business to be in this community.”

After the forum, when asked to explain her comments, Cramer mocked God by rendering judgment on Hayman and her family, and misrepresented the Christian faith with this spectacular line of bullshit:

“What Kathy Hayman doesn’t know is that her family is in the wrong. (A) husband and wife need to be the same race. Same thing with kids. That’s how it’s been from the beginning of, how can I say, when God created the heaven and the earth. He created Adam and Eve at the same time. But as far as me being against blacks, no I’m not.”

Marysville mayor, Dan Damman, used the words “vile” and “jaw-dropping” to describe Cramer’s comments:

“Mrs. Cramer’s disturbing and disgusting ideology is flatly rejected by me, our entire City Council, all of city administration, and our employees. The candidate forum was to be a mechanism to learn about the candidates and their viewpoints, thus empowering our electorate to make an informed decision before voting. The only positive result from this clear expression of overt and unapologetic racism is that this candidate’s views were put on display before our voters go the polls in November.”

All in all, I’d say the candidate forum was a great success in accomplishing what it set out to do: Marysville residents know precisely who Jean Cramer is, and where she stands. Vote accordingly.

Cramer doubled down on her comments the next day:

Asked if she understood why [her comments] might upset her neighbors, she said: “If there is the biracial marriage in the family, yes.”

“Because those people don’t know the other side of it,” she said. “For whatever reason, I’ve heard, they love each other, whatever, but there’s also such a thing as remaining single. People don’t necessarily have to get married, and, if they love somebody, love them single. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Cramer also told ABC affiliate WXYX-TV, that:

… she is not racist… that she would not have a problem with black people moving into Marysville… as long as they were committed to keeping their properties looking nice.

And more about those “foreigners”:

Cramer then proceeded to say that she doesn’t want foreigners who are pushy moving to Marysville. She said they should “go back” and fix the problems in their country instead of coming to America.

Further:

“As far as I know, as long as we’ve been here, Marysville has been a white community, a white city,” she said. “… If we have seen a black person here and there, whatever, we’re not bothered by it. I’m not bothered by it.”

While Mayor Damman, local leaders, and Kevin Watkins, president of the Port Huron chapter of the NAACP, have called for her to withdraw from the city council race, Cramer said she has no plans to back out.

Anyway, this comment by Cramer reminds me of someone:

Cramer then proceeded to say that she doesn’t want foreigners who are pushy moving to Marysville. She said they should “go back” and fix the problems in their country instead of coming to America.

Oh yeah, this guy:

Untitled

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

46 Responses to “City Council Candidate’s Pitch to Voters: Let’s Keep Our Town White!”

  1. I think Cramer was a racist long before Trump came on the scene. She did that all on her own. And in the follow-up video interview, she is clearly not the least bit concerned about what other people think of her, nor is she fearful or afraid that anyone knows. Racism comes as naturally to her as breathing. Now, whether Trump has emboldened people like her can certainly be debated.

    Dana (fdf131)

  2. Hopefully she goes down to ignoble defeat and is never heard from again.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  3. Marysville isn’t that far (~an hour) from where I went to high school. We used to drive through it on our semi-annual field trips to Stratford (Ontario), and I think our track and wrestling teams went there to compete some times.

    It wouldn’t surprise me if she won a council seat, TBH. Trump has made it OK to say ugly things like this openly (again).

    Dave (1bb933)

  4. @ Dave,

    It wouldn’t surprise me if she won a council seat, TBH.

    Yikes.

    Dana (fdf131)

  5. Yes, these are the kind of “religious conservatives” who support Trump.

    nk (9651fb)

  6. They can’t vote for Trump.
    He let his daughter marry a Jew.

    She’s a Walsh 2020 girl

    steveg (354706)

  7. Great post – as usual – from Dana.

    As to Jean: Girl, don’t go away mad. Girl, just go away.

    JRM (de6363)

  8. This bigot has made it clear to all what she is. For that I’m grateful.

    Here is an exact parallel example on the left and she’s running for Congress.

    https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2019/08/24/racist-troll-explains-how-her-former-friends-would-do-anything-for-her-but-give-up-their-whiteness/

    NJRob (4d595c)

  9. Let’s take this really odious person and conflate them with someone I don’t care for. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

    Kevin M (e4323c)

  10. It wouldn’t surprise me if she won a council seat, TBH.

    Me, either.

    Trump has made it OK to say ugly things like this openly (again).

    They were saying them before Trump. David Duke comes to mind. Even in Michigan they were saying it. This has little to do with Trump, who may be about average in racism for people his age, black or white.

    Kevin M (e4323c)

  11. Also she’s confused about race vs country of origin, so she’s stupid in multiple dimensions.

    Nic (896fdf)

  12. She’s a Walsh 2020 girl

    So, that’s Walsh’s objection? Trump isn’t a Nazi? Do you have a link or are you just trolling?

    Kevin M (e4323c)

  13. stupid in multiple dimensions.

    Endemic in the culture.

    Kevin M (e4323c)

  14. “I’m a conservative,” Mr. Walsh says in his announcement video. “I’m running because Donald Trump is not who we are. He’s the worst of who we are.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/25/us/politics/joe-walsh-president.html

    Perfectly said. Will Patterico endorse?

    Kevin M (e4323c)

  15. Joe Walsh will siphon off the Joe Walsh’s mom vote. I think that’s about it.

    JRH (52aed3)

  16. Let’s take this really odious person and conflate them with someone I don’t care for. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

    Kevin M (e4323c) — 8/25/2019 @ 11:23 am

    Did Jean Cramer make a comment that is strikingly similar to Trump’s?

    Dana (fdf131)

  17. Fast forward to 2028 and meet carpetbagger Jean Cramer; the new, junior Senator from the state of Utah.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  18. There’s a light overcast on the beach at Half Moon Bay and my white privilege is turning a golden brown.

    Colonel Haiku (846534)

  19. Think she’s got 10 years left, DCSCA? She looks like she escaped from “the home”.

    nk (dbc370)

  20. Also she’s confused about race vs country of origin, so she’s stupid in multiple dimensions.

    What? Does the poor Fraulein have to straight out say “mud people” to be understood that there’s the pure white American race and everybody else?

    nk (dbc370)

  21. @18 I’m jealous. It’s a severe clear in the Central valley and far too many degrees. But my lawn is mowed now, so I don’t have to go back out until tomorrow.

    Nic (896fdf)

  22. Think she’s got 10 years left, DCSCA? She looks like she escaped from “the home.”

    She looks like she could be one of Dianne Feinstein’s sorority pledge sisters. Bad wig and all.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  23. @20 Even our esteemed president likes the Scandinavians.

    Nic (896fdf)

  24. Dana (fdf131) — 8/25/2019 @ 8:40 am

    Racism comes as naturally to her as breathing. Now, whether Trump has emboldened people like her can certainly be debated.

    It’s ot racism – it’s geographicalism, although she seems to be thinking that all American-born people are white. Her thinking is somewhat incoherent, but basically it shouldn’t be described as racism, at least not against blacks. It’s geograhicalism. Not even really ethnicity. Her oppositon to interracial marriage seems to be something separate (and she seems to oppose interracial
    marriages more than such relationships outside of marriage.)

    Condemening something on the grounds that it is soemthing different than what it is is never going to work. It really needs to be condemned on its own terms and not called something else.

    It may be the moral equivalent of racism, (with less emotional resonance) but it’s not identival with racism.

    I think there’s no reason not to believe her that she’s not against blacks, although that’s maybe because she doesn’t think too many blacks are likely to move into Marysville, while tere isd areal prospect of immigrants.

    Her thinking does seem to have been somewhat affected by some of what Trump said, but most of it
    is really part of something much bigger that Trump didn’t invent, but tapped into.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/us/17immig.html

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/us/john-tanton-dead.html

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/us/anti-immigration-cordelia-scaife-may.html

    Sammy Finkelman (c95a5a)

  25. And I don’t think those links really get to the bottom of it, either, and this may be misisng some of the worst anti-human being arguments, some of which we may read about here:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/01/opinion/border-immigration.html

    Professional Democrats, by the way, don’t want to condemn it – they want to say there is legitimacy to it.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/opinion/on-immigration-the-democrats-are-playing-into-trumps-hands.html

    At heart, voters have legitimate concerns about undocumented immigration and the possibility of ever-larger numbers of people attempting to cross the southern border.

    I’ve read any number of op-eds etc to that effect (warning Democrats against opposing Trump’s policies too much)

    So it’s all mischarterized as racism.

    They just don’t want to tangle with this kind of thinking.

    Sammy Finkelman (c95a5a)

  26. I should just say one thing:

    It is surely less restrictive of human freedom to keep people out of one community than to keep them out of the entire country!

    If the latter is not wrong, how can the former be wrong? So why is anybody all up in arms about Jean Cramer? Unless of course your grounds for keeping them out of the country is not how it affects the local culture, but to prevent them from ultimately voting and changing policy.

    Then it might make sense..

    Sammy Finkelman (c95a5a)

  27. 21… from whence we came, beating the heat (which I usually do in the swimming pool) for three days…

    Colonel Haiku (1aa46f)

  28. meanwhile the ever present poison of the 1619 project, that will be mainlined into most classrooms thanks to the Pulitzer center isn’t addressed, well priorities,

    narciso (d1f714)

  29. Sammy @ 24,

    I’m just going to have to disagree with you.

    Dana (fdf131)

  30. @24 She has xenophobia AND racism. Her concern seems to be both that “foreigners” have a different culture and that they are not white.

    @28 It isn’t really sweeping through the history circles. I’m pretty sure my history department either hasn’t heard of it or doesn’t think it’s a big deal because there hasn’t been any discussion of it at lunch. Classrooms have a pacing guide and curriculum. It might show up in some minor way in some classrooms as supplementary materials, but generally speaking most teachers struggle to cover all the things they already have to cover and don’t have much time to add other things.

    Nic (896fdf)

  31. @19/22. Never underestimate the staying power of the elderly; see RBG, Donnie-J and, of course, JoeyBee for details.
    _____

    Speaking of which, quite by chance, was transferring a tape [yes, videotape] to DVD and came across a clip of a vibrant, healthy, heavier and articulate JoeyBee delivering the eulogy at the memorial for the late senator and astronaut, John Glenn in 2016. Biden’s physical decline in just three years is stunning to see. Compared to the images we see of JoeyBee in 2019, he looks worse than Glenn did resting in his casket just three years ago.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  32. #12
    Trolling
    I was playing.
    Sorry if I offended you

    steveg (354706)

  33. I have cousins in Lapeer. They did white flight outta Flint and I can’t blame them.
    My uncle was a racist, but his racism was generational in the sense that the forefathers had hated on every ethnic group that displaced or undercut wages of his own.
    He called Eastern Europeans “Bohunks”. Irish Catholics “Mackeral Snappers” and African Americans the big “N’ word.
    I don’t think actually he hated any of them based on race in his mind they were all just real or potential scabs

    steveg (354706)

  34. Nic @31.

    @24 She has xenophobia AND racism. Her concern seems to be both that “foreigners” have a different culture and that they are not white.

    That seems to be true, but her big concern is with foreigners.

    And they are white, even if she doesn’t know it. That area of Michigan has a large Arab population (not all Moslems)

    Sammy Finkelman (c95a5a)

  35. @31 Can confirm that 1619 won’t be “mainlined” into the physics curriculum where I teach…

    Dave (1bb933)

  36. The other day on the radio, Curtis Sliwa made the kind of mistake you might expect from Joe Biden.

    He was saying Richard Nixon was the most pro-Israel president of the United States, even thouh he was an anti-semite, but he mixed up the Yom Kippur War of 1973 with the Six Day War of 1967. He called it the Six Day war and had Jordan involved n he war. Sliwa was referring to the resupply of arms)

    Sammy Finkelman (c95a5a)

  37. Why should any city need to attract more immigrants? The woman wants her town/city to stay pretty much the way it is. BTW, the wealthy towns in my area don’t have to worry about “staying the way they are”, because you need $5 million to live there.

    “We don’t need more immigrants” = “We hate foreigners”. Dumbest interpretation ever.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  38. Why should any city need to attract more immigrants? The woman wants her town/city to stay pretty much the way it is. BTW, the wealthy towns in my area don’t have to worry about “staying the way they are”, because you need $5 million to live there.

    “We don’t need more immigrants” = “We hate foreigners”. Dumbest interpretation ever.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  39. im·mi·grant
    /ˈiməɡrənt/

    noun
    a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.

    Dustin (6d7686)

  40. rcocean @39 “We don’t need more immigrants”

    Who are you quoting?

    Davethulhu (bc6fa6)

  41. Is common tactic among left and right. Attribute fake statement to person you are attacking or defending. Then defend or attack fake statement. People who have not heard real statement believe fake statement is real one. If nothing else, it make confusion and make people want forget whole thing. Is called “lying”, I think.

    nk (dbc370)

  42. Its a small town, after seeing the thunderdome landscape where tlaib hails from, they have right to have reservations.

    Narciso (942c04)

  43. Cramer’s answer was bigoted and stupid, as was the moderator’s question she was responding to.

    Munroe (1e9517)

  44. Marysville’s 9,700-person population

    The population in 1960 was 4,065.

    Sammy Finkelman (c95a5a)

  45. This should be worth an update:

    The candidate for Marysville City Council whose racist comments garnered widespread attention across the country late last week and over the weekend has formally withdrawn from the race.
    Mayor Dan Damman said Cramer had submitted a letter withdrawing Monday — three days after he called for her to do so. City Manager Randy Fernandez said she had first come into city hall to verbally withdraw but was asked to put it in writing.
    Cramer, 67, did not respond to an email and voicemail requesting comment Monday, and no one was home that afternoon. Her formal one-sentence letter to the city did not include any reasoning behind her withdrawal.

    Good news, but unfortunately she’s still on the November 5th ballot, so I’m telling you there’s a chance.

    Paul Montagu (a2342d)


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