Jim Crow Buffalo

Truth is stranger than fiction is the old quote. Sometimes truth is just plain stupider too.

Case and point: Joe Mascia.

As has been reported all over the Buffalo media he was recorded on a road trip to Albany using the N-word to describe Buffalo City politicians that he either does not like or have a high opinion of.

I'm going to type the next part verbatim from the Sunday May 29 2016 Buffalo News. Please be seated and have your jaw resting on something. I do not want to be held liable or responsible for an avalanche of broken jaws.

Section C Page 1-2

Title: Mascia blasts mayor as a 'coward' and 'elitist.'

Paragraph 6: " Mascia's comments, Cohen said, were directed only at people with whom he had political disputes, and are therefore, political speech."

For the record: Steven M Cohen is Mascia's attorney in this case. He may want to get more.

To borrow a line from Sheldon Cooper in an early episode of The Big Bang Theory “In what universe?”

I'm sure that somewhere in the former Confederacy (and the states of Idaho & Montana where there seems to be a high concentration of white supremacists) there are people that are agreeing with him wholeheartedly. And I know (sadly and unfortunately) a few people here in WNY that hold racist opinions that would agree that the use of the N-word is “protected political speech.”

I sincerely doubt that any court in the land is going to agree with Mascia and his legal team.

I dislike and disagree with Governor Andrew Cuomo. I do not use a derogatory ethnic slur to describe my attitude towards him. I refer to him as “Status” Cuomo – a play on the Latin phrase “status quo” that implies that nothing has changed in NY. Our taxes are still being used to protect and subsidize the 1% while we get nothing out of it. Nothing dangerous there.

I call and refer to President Obama as “O-Bummer” because for all his hype about hope all he has done is extend the policies of former President (sic) George W Bush and continue policies that protect and project the power of the 1%. Nothing racist there.

I can go on with all the nicknames that I have used and have heard comedians and other commentators use to describe politicians over the years. (Anyone remember Ronald Ray-Gun & his “Star Wars” defense program?)

There was no need for Mascia to use a racial epithet to describe Mayor Byron Brown and the other African-American politicians that he has disagreements with. He could have called the Mayor “Lyin' Byron” and then talked about all the promises that the Mayor has made about public housing and failed to delver. I'm sure there are other examples as well.

The key point here is that there is no need for the use of the N-word to describe the Mayor – a politician that I disagree with on many policy issues – or any of the other African-American representatives in the Buffalo city government.

This is Buffalo in the 21^st Century, not post Civil War Jim Crow South.

Then again, given the way this might get dragged out in the courts, it might be Joe-Crow Buffalo.

Joe Mascia needs to do the respectable action and apologize for the slur he made. He also needs to allow the people of the Marine Drive Apartments to elect someone without the baggage that he brought upon himself with his unfortunate choice of words.

And for the record: I do not like it when African-Americans use the N-Word and dislike its (too prolific) use in rap song either. Some things just need to be let go of and buried. Those uses of that word are just helping to keep the racist monster alive.