A pair of Sussex County Councilmen are facing a backlash after comments they made regarding the NAACP at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Sam Wilson and Vance Phillips offered the commentary during a discussion over contributing $100 dollars each from their discretionary grant money accounts to the Lower Sussex NAACP Youth Council, similar to grants awarded to the group previously.
Each declined this time with Wilson suggesting the group was discriminatory for singling out a specific ethnicity to receive financial support.
"Take my name off, I’m not gonna give anything unless you describe what that says," Wilson said. "What’s NAACP stand for? Sounds like discrimination to me."
Phillips quickly offered support for Wilson's position during the discussion.
"I'm with Mr. Wilson. This is an organization that is obviously directed at certain race," said Phillips. "It strikes me a inappropriate in this day of racial equality and I'll pull mine from that as well."
Delaware Democratic and Republican party leadership each condemned the remarks Wednesday.
Sussex County Democratic Committee Chairman Mitch Crane called the remarks “stupid” and “racist,” and said he is “embarrassed” for his county.
"It’s one thing to be a racist, to be insensitive, it’s another thing to be stupid enough to actually voice the words that were voiced," said Crane.
Crane added that Councilman Wilson’s comments fit a pattern of previous statements.
"I’ve heard Councilman Wilson speak on other issues before, from climate change to gay rights to all sorts of things, when he asked the question of what the NAACP stands for, perhaps he really did not know what the organization was," said Crane. "I don’t put it past him to be that ignorant."
Delaware GOP party chair Charlie Copeland released a statement Wednesday saying that while there is room for debate within the GOP, “there is no room for the forces of intolerance and discrimination. Period.”
He also noted that an honest discussion about race Delaware is “long overdue and Delaware needs bipartisan solutions to race related issues.
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