White supremacists have been involved in this election to a troubling and disgusting extent. President-elect Donald Trump has support from the KKK newspaper, former KKK leader David Duke, the American Nazi Party, and more. The Ku Klux Klan is even planning a victory rally for Trump in North Carolina. As Trump transitions into the Oval Office, white nationalists are thrilled about the people surrounding Trump. But while racism has empowered the careers of Trump and Steve Bannon, racism is ending the careers of others: A jail official in Tennessee has resigned over a series of racist Facebook posts, including one that said the KKK is more American that President Obama.
According to the Washington Post, David Barber was the deputy director of the Shelby County Corrections Center in Memphis, which is one of the largest detention facilities in the region, with a staff of about 1,000 people and a capacity of 2,600 inmates each day. He had held that position for the past 17 years until he resigned earlier this week due to his racist Facebook posts.
In one post, Barber shared an article from the sketchy far-right website The Free Patriot showing a picture of President Obama next to a man in a KKK hood. Barber added his own comment: "The KKK is more American than the illegal president."
According to the Memphis Flyer, Barber shared another outrageous post from The Free Patriot denouncing the Obama family for claiming that they've been discriminated against because of their race. When Barber shared the post, he suggested killing President Obama, "Arrest convict hang and confiscate all assets."
In another offensive post, Barber wrote that he hopes the president, who's described as "obummer," and Michelle Obama, who's insulted as a cow, will be killed "as queers" by Muslims: "If TRUMP wins and obummer cannot start martial law he will run to his new mansion in thaArab world to hide. Hopefully the Muslims will eliminate him and mooshelle as queers."
According to the Commercial Appeal, Barber wrote in another post, "I am concerned that media using mixed race couple's in ads as normal is one way liberal's are trying to eliminate the white race."
On Tuesday, Barber resigned "after discussing the offensive nature of the comments and the impact they would have on the corrections center," according to a Shelby County Corrections Center statement.
Barber isn't the only official to resign because of racist comments. A mayor in West Virginia recently resigned after he called Michelle an "ape in heels." Last month, a Pennsylvania mayor resigned after repeatedly sharing racist and misogynistic Facebook posts about the Obamas and the Clintons.
Since Trump won the presidency, more and more bigots are openly expressing their hateful bigotry. While Trump has never done a good job addressing racism and bigotry, he did recently tell his supporters to "stop it."
Hopefully they'll listen.
