N.C. legislator touts 'White men and Christianity' in e-mail

P E O P L E & E V E N T S

A North Carolina legislator who sponsored a bill promoting the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools came under fire in August after he sent a racist e-mail to his colleagues touting the achievements of "White men & Christianity."

Rep. Don Davis (R-Harnett County), forwarded the message to all of his colleagues in the legislature after receiving it from an internet site called "God's Order Affirmed in Love." The message read in part, "Two things made this country great: White men & Christianity. Every problem that has arrisen (sic) can be traced back to our departure from God's Law and the disenfranchisement of White men."

Another part of the message criticized Catholicism, accusing it of deviating from the Bible.

Faced with an outcry from other lawmakers, Davis at first refused to back down. "There's a lot of it that's truth, the way I see it," Davis said. "Who came to this country first - the white man, didn't he? That's who made this country great."

Asked by a reporter if the message was racist, Davis snapped, "Listen, there's nothing racist about it. And don't give me that mess."

Republican Party leaders ordered Davis to apologize, and he did - sort of. "I humbly want to apologize if the e-mail forwarded from my office on Monday night was offensive or disrespectful to any one in this General Assembly, state or nation," Davis wrote. He claimed he had forwarded the message only "to show the type of messages that come across the Internet" and said the message "was not intended to be indicative of my personal views."

Davis also said he hadn't read the entire message and forwarded it only because it appeared to support his position on posting the Ten Commandments in schools.

A few weeks later, however, Davis issued another racist e-mail. This one attacked Hispanics, asserting, "These Mexicans and all these other Hispanics have not done one thing for this country except suck us dry. Every day I see them in our grocery stores using food stamps, and guess who's paying the taxes for that." Davis said the message had been sent to him by someone in the city of Fuquay-Varina and that he was just passing it on.

"I apologize for nothing," he told the Associated Press. "The First Amendment...gives me just as much right to express myself as they have."

The Raleigh News and Observer called Davis a "follower of the flat earth faction" and noted that in 1998 he unsuccessfully tried to block North Carolina from receiving federal education funds.

The newspaper noted that in 1997, the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research, using data compiled from fellow lawmakers, lobbyists and members of the press corps, rated Davis 118th out of 120 in terms of effectiveness. In 1999, he was dead last.

Copyright Americans United for Separation of Church and State Oct 2001
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