Funny Emile turns into a chicken when asked to talk about his racial opinions on SI.
FYI:
Message 16531020
The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.)
September 23, 1995 Saturday METRO EDITION
Vidrine: Too many blacks at city hall
BYLINE: BRUCE SCHULTZ, ACADIANA BUREAU
LAFAYETTE - Emile Vidrine, candidate for city-parish president,
told realtors Friday that too many black people are working in city
hall, depriving Caucasians off those jobs.
He said 31 percent of the employees in city hall are black,
compared to the minority population in the city which is less than 20
percent.
"Folks, that's un-Christian and unjust," he told the Lafayette
Board of Realtors. Vidrine, a Republican, ran for mayor in 1992 and he came in last
with 603 votes, less than 2 percent of the total.
He said an affirmative action program at city hall gives an
advantage to black people, and that keeps white people out of those
jobs.
"We are discriminating against white people, and it has to stop,"
he said.
But officials in city hall deny any affirmative action quotas are
used in hiring.
Message 16531007
The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.)
September 26, 1995 Tuesday METRO EDITION
NAACP officials accuse candidate of race-baiting
BYLINE: ANGELA SIMONEAUX, ACADIANA BUREAU
LAFAYETTE - A candidate for Lafayette city-parish president is
engaging in race-baiting, and his opponents should call him on it,
representatives of the local NAACP said Monday.
At a Friday forum, Republican candidate Emile Vidrine told a civic
group that there are too many African-American people working at City
Hall.
He said the percentage of black city workers is higher than the
percentage of black city residents, and that is "unchristian. " On Monday, several officers of the local chapter of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People accused Vidrine of
playing "the race card. "
"It is not typical for the NAACP to get involved in an election
campaign, but when a candidate engages in racist conduct we must
address this divisive tactic," said President Aaron Walker.
Vidrine said he worked for rights for black people during the
1960s, and believes in Christian justice for everyone.
Walker said he thinks Vidrine is trying to "solidify his base of
closet racists and right-wing moralists," but the NAACP doesn't want
him using African-American city employees as his scapegoats.
"The NAACP is calling on each mayor-president candidate to rebuke
Mr. Vidrine's attack on the African-Americans who are employed by the
city and parish of Lafayette," Walker said.
"The failure of other candidates to rebuke Mr. Vidrine's racist
ideology will show the African-American community that they embrace
those views also. "
Walker said Vidrine's information is wrong anyway.
The city doesn't have an affirmative action policy and has no
quotas, he said.
Additionally, Vidrine is wrong about the percentage of Lafayette's
population that is African-American, he said.
Vidrine, who held his own press conference Monday, said the NAACP
is wrong about the numbers.
But the discrepancy may have arisen because Vidrine is using
registered voters, and the NAACP is using the census.
Vidrine said he is looking at registered voters because they are
the "working people. "
He said the NAACP's figures are "totally wrong. "
City Personnel Director Ken Mouton confirmed there is no
affirmative action policy or quota system.
The City Council has adopted an ordinance that prohibits
discrimination against any person, he said.
Mouton also said he has no control over who applies for city jobs.
The best-qualified person is hired, regardless of what color or sex
the person is, he said.
As of Monday, there were 18,520 African-Americans registered to
vote in Lafayette Parish, Walker said.
That number of voters could decide who will be city-parish
president, because the white community is divided, he said.
But race was not an issue until Vidrine made it one, Walker said.
"He is bringing race into this, not us," Walker said.
"He says we're top-heavy on blacks. Does that mean, if he's
elected, he'll start firing people based on their race instead of
their qualifications? "
Vidrine said he wouldn't do that, because "you have to keep a
Christian perspective. "
He said he's working on a policy to correct the problem, but
basically he would try to balance the numbers by hiring more white
people.
"If three equally qualified people applied for a job and one was
white and three were black, I'd hire the white person until the
numbers were right," Vidrine said. |
