RALEIGH -- The leadership of the national NAACP is accusing Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta of racism and demanding that he resign his chairmanship for having called people “animals” at last week’s contentious board meeting.
In a press release today, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous said Margiotta showed racial insensitivity in his remarks. Margiotta had said “here come the animals out of the cages” after a mostly white crowd had booed a black critic of the diversity policy.
“The racial insensitivity exhibited by Mr. Margiotta underscores the lack of consideration for the interests, needs, and concerns of Blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities in North Carolina,” Jealous said in the press release. “We support the North Carolina NAACP in their call for justice and sensitivity in Wake County, and believe the resignation of Mr. Margiotta is a necessary step in that direction.”
Margiotta has said his statement was “out of line” but was not racial. He said today the NAACP is the only one who is seeing any racial overtones in the remark. He said they need to go beyond the remark to focus on helping the students of Wake County.
"It wasn't made in a racial manner," Margiotta said of his statement. "it was made in defense of an African American speaker who was being jeered by a mostly white group of attendees."
The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, has called Margiotta “unfit” to be chairman of the school board. Barber has also drawn complaints for having accused the school board of acting like the Mafia.
Barber used Margiotta’s animals statement in a complaint filed Friday with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to accuse the new school board majority of being racists.
The new school board majority is carrying out a campaign pledge calling for an end to the diversity policy in favor of neighborhood schools.
At last week’s heated board meeting, which saw more than three hours of public comments, the board gave initial approval by a 5-4 vote to a resolution that would end the diversity policy in favor of sending students to schools in their community.
A final vote on the resolution is scheduled for March 23.
