Black Councilman Told to Work in Cotton Field

A racially-charged exchange at a small city council meeting in Georgia has grabbed the attention of the national media and the NAACP. In the caught-on-tape exchange, Warner Robins Councilman Daron Lee, who is black, complains, “I was disrespected on Monday. I’m getting tired of you all, talking to me any kind of way. I’m not working in a cotton field.” Councilman John Williams, who is white, replies, “You should be.”

Lee stormed out of the meeting. “He smiles in your face and makes racial remarks. I am pretty much used to it by now,” he told a CNN affiliate. But Williams says the remark was innocent. “I worked in the cotton field,” he protested. “It is not a racial remark at all. He makes everything racial.” The local NAACP has called on the two to “learn to respect each other, and stop all the name calling,” saying that if they can’t “maybe someone needs to resign.” (More Daron Lee stories.)