This help with Emile's "political career"?
Message 16531007
To:Emile Vidrine who wrote (7959)
From: Tastes Like Chicken
Friday, Oct 19, 2001 4:32 PM
Respond to of 7995
Emile, this is not you, is it??
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.
Vidrine said the NAACP is a racist, anti-Christian organization
that discriminates against white people.
He also said he is doing further research on the city's hiring
practices, but is having problems getting information out of the City
Council office.
Vidrine said he is just trying to get government to do things
right.
"First, I want to keep Jesus Christ in the foreground," he said
. "I believe in justice for everyone. "
Message 16531020
To:Emile Vidrine who wrote (7959)
From: Tastes Like Chicken
Friday, Oct 19, 2001 4:35 PM
View Replies (2) | Respond to of 7996
Too Many Blacks at City Hall!
LOL! Emile, you RASCAL! Who could have guessed you worked for David Duke and ran for office on the
famous and popular "Too Many Blacks" agenda?
LOL!
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.
Vidrine also spoke out against the "moral crisis" facing the U.S.
He said the nation must return to Christianity.
"The impasse between the mayor and City Council is an impasse of
spirituality and morality," Vidrine said. "They could not forgive one
and another for the good of Lafayette.
Parish President Walter Comeaux said unrest in city government has
stalled progress in the city.
"Nothing's moving because of dissension, because of bickering," he
said.
Comeaux said he favors the Camellia Boulevard bridge, Louisiana
Avenue extension and a South College Road bridge over Bayou Vermilion.
Comeaux said parish government has reduced its workforce by 41
percent through layoffs, reflecting the economy of the mid-1980s.
"We all took a beating and we all suffered," he said.
But parish government has increased its productivity.
"We took the high road and we didn't fight," he said.
Parish Councilman Ed Roy said Lafayette government will change in
June with the new city-parish government.
"If we don't change the politics, we haven't changed anything," he
said.
Roy said a high-capacity water system is needed for all of
Lafayette Parish to attract new businesses. And he said the parish
needs a comprehensive development plan to decide issues related to
future growth.
Government should help businesses, he said.
City Councilman Elmo Laborde said he's the youngest of the
candidates, at age 35, but his background as an accountant and lawyer
enables him to understand fiscal and legal issues.
He said as a city councilman he has become familiar with problems
facing the city that are out of the realm of parish government.
Laborde said his even temper allows him to deal with controversy.
"Throughout it all, I've kept my focus on why I was elected," he
said.
Laborde said he's disagreed and agreed with others based on
principles, not personalities.
City Councilman F.V. "Pappy" Landry said he's not accepting any
campaign contributions, freeing him for political obligations.
"My goal is to bring about efficiency and effectiveness of
government," he said.
He said he would only eliminate civil service jobs through
attrition, and he would require city police to cooperate with the
sheriff's office.
Chris Kole Obafunwa was not at the meeting.
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal ruled Thursday that he cannot run
for the office because he lacks U.S. citizenship.
Message 16530986
To:Emile Vidrine who wrote (7955)
From: Tastes Like Chicken
Friday, Oct 19, 2001 4:27 PM
View Replies (1) | Respond to of 7996
Emile, this can't be you, can it? I am shocked!
Ex-Klansman Puts New Racial Politics to Test
The New York Times
June 18, 1990, Monday, Late Edition - Final
Ex-Klansman Puts New Racial Politics to Test
BYLINE: By PETER APPLEBOME, Special to The New York Times
DATELINE: FRANKLIN, La.
BODY:
It's racial politics for the 90's - not Old South race baiting, but a post-civil-rights-era assault on welfare
abuse and programs like affirmative action that his audience sees as helping blacks while hurting
whites.
''I'm not a racist like Jesse Jackson,'' David Duke said recently, peering into the Cajun country
blue-collar crowd of perhaps 200 people at the American Legion hall here. ''I'm proud of my heritage
like Jesse Jackson is proud of his. But I believe the time has come for equal rights for everyone in this
country, even for white people.''
Many in the crowd wear blue and white David Duke T-shirts or baseball caps, and they give their
approval in a low rumble of ''Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke,'' a response that has made the roadshow of the
former Ku Klux Klan leader the talk of Louisiana. A year after his surprise election to the Louisiana
House of Representatives, Mr. Duke has made himself a potent force in state politics, polarizing the
Legislature along racial lines, gathering a fervent statewide following and mounting an unexpectedly
strong bid for the United States Senate seat held by J. Bennett Johnston.
Despite the enthusiastic crowds, analysts say there is little chance he can win the Senate race this fall.
But Mr. Duke, a Republican, is threatening to elbow the party's nominee, State Senator Ben Bagert, out
of the race, and he is angling to force Mr. Johnston, an 18-year incumbent, into an embarrassing runoff.
If he does, some critics say, he will achieve his goal of helping to build a national white supremacist
movement.
''This is not really about Bennett Johnston or Ben Bagert,'' said Dr. Lawrence Powell, a Tulane
University historian. ''It's about politics for the next 10 years.''
Mr. Duke's campaign, which was helped in May when the Louisiana House of Representatives
overwhelmingly approved his bill opposing affirmative action, is partly a product of the frustrations
generated by Louisiana's depressed economy and partly in keeping with the state's tradition of eccentric
politicians, from Huey and Earl Long to Edwin Edwards.
It is aided by the state's unusual system in which all candidates from all parties, whether party nominees
or not, run in the Oct. 6 primary. If no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, the two top finishers face
each other on Election Day. If one gets 50 percent, there is no general election. So far, Mr. Johnston,
Mr. Bagert and Mr. Duke are the only contenders, although a black state legislator, Willie Singleton,
says he might enter the race.
'A Mouth That's Different'
But Mr. Duke's campaign, with its focus on issues like affirmative action, government programs that set
aside a certain number of contracts for minority businesses and what he calls ''the rising welfare
underclass,'' is speaking to white resentments and explosive racial issues that resonate far beyond the
state's borders. He is most popular with younger voters.
''Wherever I go, I find almost universal dislike for set-asides,'' said Gov. Buddy Roemer, a Democrat. ''I
don't share that. But you can't come down here and say that Louisiana has a problem that's different
than anyone else's. We have a mouth that's different, but not a problem.''
Mr. Duke's notoriety stems, for the most part, from his tenure as national grand wizard of the Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan, and he has longstanding ties to far right and racist groups. He had little impact on
the Legislature before the vote on his bill on affirmative action. But his views on race have brought him
extraordinary visibility around the state. Some analysts say the vote was a sign that legislators believe
he speaks for a powerful constituency.
Duke's Campaign
At the heart of the Duke campaign are gatherings like the one in this town of almost 10,000 people,
with its white-columned, 19th century Main Street homes. Here people work in the oil industry, at local
sugar-processing and carbon-black plants and in agriculture and fishing.
The fare at this gathering was Budweiser, Coke and potato chips; the contributions were stuffed in a
plastic cup or exchanged for $10 Duke T-shirts or $3 Duke earrings, and the oratory was intensely
personal and suffused with primal racial images.
When Mr. Duke talked about the death penalty, he placed it in the context of someone murdering his
two daughters. When he talked about economic hardship, he spoke of those in the all-white crowd who
cannot afford to rear children.
On the other hand, the abuses of welfare were summed up by women who receive benefits and have
''one, two, three, four, ten, fifteen, twenty'' children. Minority contracting requirements were symbolized
by a black state legislator's driving a Mercedes and allegedly getting contracts while a white person in a
pickup truck was frozen out.
Even the furor over his affirmative action bill had an oversized target.
''Ladies and gentlemen,'' said Mr. Duke, who has the lanky good looks of a former athlete, ''the only
reason why we have problems is because the black caucus didn't get their way like they usually do. It's
about time they weren't given their way.''
Where Frustrations Blend
In southern Louisiana, where the economy has been depressed since the oil industry doldrums began in
the mid-1980's, economic and racial frustration tend to blend.
''He's against welfare,'' said Pierre Dupuis, a retiree who speaks in the melodic Cajun accent of the
bayou country here. Using a racial slur, Mr. Dupuis complained that tax money goes to black people,
''with their big radios on the street, and they're laughing at us.''
But more common than slurs against blacks is a sense that white people are being victimized by
affirmative action and the minority contracting programs. It is the centerpiece of Mr. Duke's speech and
perhaps his most effective issue with voters.
''We don't have the same rights as black people,'' said Jay Louviere, a 29-year-old lumberyard worker.
''Duke's the only one standing up for white people.''
But critics say that the issue has more basis in emotion than economics, that programs like affirmative
action evoke particular resentment from white people facing their own economic problems.
Furor Over Affirmative Action
''I don't think there are 500 people in Louisiana that have either been adversely affected or benefited by
affirmative action,'' said Mr. Edwards, the former Governor. ''But everyone who doesn't have a job or
whose son cannot get into law school believes it's because of affirmative action.''
Real or not, it taps into a powerful vein of anger that can seem the ultimate extension of the politics of
sex and ethnicity.
''I believe there's a climate in this country that has become anti-Euro-American,'' said Emile Vidrine, a
campus minister at the University of Southwestern Louisiana who is spending his summer working as a
volunteer for the Duke campaign. ''I'm not putting anyone else down, but we have to put a stop to this
idea that we can't stand up tall and say the European white man is one of the great races in the world.''
Mr. Duke's campaign exists in a complex relationship with his nearly lifelong involvement with white
supremacist issues and groups. In an interview, he skirted issues he has espoused in the past, like genetic
differences between white people and black people, and said his campaign was simply about equal
rights for all.
''There are many liberals today who were radical leftists in their younger days,'' he said. ''I'm a
conservative who might have been considered a radical rightist in my younger days.''
Links to Extremists
But Mr. Duke, who now heads a group called the National Association for the Advancement of White
People, has maintained many links to other extremist groups. He used the subscriber list of the far-right
publication The Spotlight for fund-raising, ran for President in 1988 as the candidate of the far-right
Populist Party and as recently as a year ago sold Nazi and extremist books out of a building that
includes his legislative office.
The Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, a bitter critic of Mr. Duke, characterizes him as
''an extremist ideologue who uses the pool of new followers as a recruiting ground for a white
supremacist and anti-Semitic movement.''
Much of his campaign depends on his ability to persuade voters that he is not a dangerous extremist,
and critics say his campaign could falter if a fuller picture of his activities reaches voters.
At the same time, many supporters say his past ignites his campaign and separates him from other
conservatives.
''His background is what gives the added emphasis to what he says,'' said Jim McPherson, a New
Orleans lawyer and Duke supporter. ''It says he means business.''
Few Expect Him to Win
Experts say Mr. Duke must get 65 percent of whites' votes to win a race in a state in which black people
make up 27 percent of the electorate. Few think he can do it.
But recent polls show him running second to Mr. Johnston, with the Senator by no means guaranteed
the 50 percent he needs to avoid a runoff. Many analysts think Mr. Duke could get at least 30 percent of
the statewide vote. Most see an extremely fluid race, saying Mr. Johnston's support is relatively soft, Mr.
Duke has fervent supporters but unfavorable ratings from about half the electorate and Mr. Bagert is
little-known and underfinanced. Mr. Johnston says Mr. Bagert should quit the race to reduce the
chances of Mr. Duke's making a runoff. Mr. Bagert replied that as the only unknown quantity in the
race, he is the only candidate with much potential to pick up more support.
To some observers, what is most disturbing about Mr. Duke's campaign is that frustrated and angry
white people seem willing to forget his extremism while embracing his more mainstream views on racial
issues.
''I think a lot of people are enchanted by the message and are disregarding the messenger,'' said State
Representative Odon Bacque Jr., an independent. ''To me it's frightening. I believe if no one takes him
seriously, he can end up winning.''
GRAPHIC: Photo: State Representative David Duke, a Republican who is campaigning for J. Bennett
Johnston's Senate seat in Louisiana, signing a picture after a rally at an American Legion hall recently
in Franklin. (Matt Anderson for The New York Times) (pg. A18) |
