Lamar County Conservative President issued a rebuttal to Lamar County Democratic Party for not accepting Chairman Gary O’Connor’s offered resignation saying if “a non-Democrat, white individual” made the same racial remarks, “the media and local Democrats would pounce on their chance to label him a racist.”
Late Tuesday afternoon, Lamar County Democratic Party issued a statement saying the organization “chose not to accept Mr. O’Connor’s resignation.”
LCC President Robert Black said the organization feels it must protect O’Connor, “because they have worked tirelessly to promote the Democratic Party, ironically the founding party of the KKK, as the party protecting the Black community against racism.”
“The Democratic Chair of Lamar County let his judgement slip with a racial slur and a failed initial apology that made national headlines,” Black said. “Instead of that white individual facing the same backlash as other non-Democratic individuals have faced, we see the local Democratic Party coming to his defense and refusing his resignation.”
On Apr. 29, O’Connor shared Washington Post’s article “What the back-and-forth over America being a ‘racist country’ is actually about,’” in which he wrote on social media, “I had hoped that Scott might show some common sense, but it seems clear that he is little more than an oreo with no real principles.”
Black said if he had been the one to make the same error as O’Connor, “I would also have faced demands to resign as leader of Lamar County Conservatives.
“My employer would have been pressured to terminate me,” Black said. “I would have been harassed until I left town. If the LCC refused to accept my resignation, citing my history of good will and desire to be a good Christian man, the left would have become furious and elevated the situation. Those coming to my support would be demonized, and there would be an all-out racial battle taking place in Lamar County until the Left could become satisfied with the outcome.”
Black said Paris has “unjustifiably been labeled a racist community,” which, he continued, is a “lie fueled by a select group of people that refuse to allow our community to heal.”
Black said many efforts have been made in an attempt to break down existing racial barriers with the Paris community.
“… but instead of both sides building on that effort, reason is found to react negatively,” he said. “In our local community, a small group of individuals desire a continued flame of racism instead of an olive branch. We would rather accent the flaws of our ancestors rather than become the generation that broke the divide.”
According to the Lamar County Democratic Party, O’Connor released a written public letter of apology to Senator Tim Scott.
“Is the Democratic Chair human and able to make errors in judgement that should potentially be forgivable? Absolutely,” Black said. “However, that same treatment should pertain to every individual and not just a select group of approved people.”
Quoting the Texas GOP’s Preamble, Black said, “Affirming our belief in God, we still hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
