RALEIGH -- The head of the national NAACP demanded Tuesday that Ron Margiotta resign as chairman of the Wake County school board for calling people "animals" at a meeting last week where the ruling majority took the first step toward killing the diversity policy.
NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous said Margiotta made "racist comments" when he said, "Here come the animals out of the cages." But Margiotta questioned how his remark could be considered racist when he was speaking in defense of a black critic of the diversity policy who was being jeered by a mostly white crowd.
In a news release, Jealous said: "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. 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."
The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, has called Margiotta "unfit" to be chairman of the school board. But Barber has also drawn complaints for having accused the school board of acting like the Mafia.
Italian-Americans consider references to the Mafia to be an ethnic stereotype. Margiotta and John Tedesco, a new board member who is overseeing a new student assignment plan that wouldn't include the diversity policy, are both of Italian descent.
Barber has also drawn criticism over remarks made at last week's meeting by the Rev. Curtis Gatewood, second vice president of the state NAACP, who said Margiotta was "going to hell" and was a "white racist." Gatewood was nearly arrested for not giving up the lectern.
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.
Margiotta, who has called his statement "out of line," said Tuesday that the NAACP was only inciting the community with its call for him to resign as chairman.
"The only group that considers this to be racist is the NAACP," Margiotta said. "I thought this was behind us now."
Margiotta's low-voiced comment, which came after black congressional candidate Bill Randall was booed for criticizing the diversity policy, passed mostly unnoticed. But a videotape posted on the Internet has gotten wide circulation. Now his comment has received national coverage.
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 meeting, which saw more than three hours of public comments, the school 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.
