Maine's Governor and Republican Chief Executive Paul LePage made headlines on Friday by telling the NAACP to "kiss my butt" on the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Since then, he has retracted his comments.
LePage declined to attend events honoring Dr. King, saying he had plans. "I'm not going to be held hostage by any special interests. And if they want, they can look at my family picture. My son happens to be black. So they can do whatever they'd like about it."
Though the Caucasian governor has an adopted Jamaican son, the NAACP stated LaPage was racially insensitive. Responding to these comments, he said, "Tell 'em to kiss my butt. If they want to play the race card, come to dinner and my son will talk to them."
Rachel Ross, the director of NAACP, did not excuse LePage's remarks. "I don't care who he's got in his family," she replied.
"The makeup of his family isn't the issue and it never was the issue. For him to say we're playing the race card shows a real lack of awareness of the very important issues we're working to address. Our kids deserve better. Maine deserves better. His son deserves better."
Instead of continuing the quarrel, LePage ended up attending a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day breakfast and even joining in on an African dance. The nation, following Obama's speech about Tucson, is making strides to make his hope for "greater civility" come to fruition.
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