My Favorite Bigot

by James A. Landrith, Jr.
January 1998

My favorite bigot, Mary A.T. Anigbo, principal of the afrocentric Marcus Garvey Public Charter School in Washington, DC was fired from her position this month. How is this relevant to the interracial/multiracial community?

Well, Ms. Anigbo has been convicted of assault on a newspaper reporter and two police officers and theft of same reporter's notebook. Ms. Anigbo is black and the reporter, Susan Ferrechio is white. The reporter went to the school to research a story, because the schools phone was not in service, which prevented her from contacting the staff. She had always written positive and complimentary stories about the school and this one was to be no different. When the reporter arrived at the school she was escorted by a student to Ms. Anigbo's office or classroom. While on the way, she asked the student questions about the school, and jotted some notes down in her notebook. Well, next thing you know, Anigbo is demanding the reporters notebook and several staff and students, at Anigbo's request jump the reporter, hurl racial insults and throw the reporter out of the school while taking her notebook. The same evening, the reporter was escorted back to the school by DC police who were white and black to fetch her notebook. Anigbo and her staff proceeded to assault the police, the reporter and a photographer all over again. This time there was photographic evidence of her bigotry. A real role model for her students, Ms. Anigbo promptly made public statements slurring Jews and made statements to the effect that all whites were racists. She compared her self to Jesus Christ and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. She accused the black police officers of being "Uncle Toms" for upholding the law. Her supporters resembled the KKK in manner in which they directed hatred and bigotry at Jews (why they felt the need to make anti-Semitic remarks and posters is still a mystery). The entire incident became a big scandal in the DC area with prominent black leaders and pseudo-journalists such as Courtland Milloy defending Ms. Anigbo's actions, not denying them, but publicly defending and downplaying the seriousness of these criminal activities. One of her defenders was the Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton, DC Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives and member of the Congressional Black Caucus, another fine organization that chose (with the exception of one Member of Congress) to persecute multiracials for wanting to self-identify as multiracial. Rep Norton is also on the record at a Congressional hearing, exposing her intolerance for self-identifying multiracials. When we look at who we ally ourselves with or who we wish to make backroom deals with, we should also look at their allegiances and intolerances. Ms. Norton chooses to support and defend racism and bigotry, while also persecuting self-identifying multiracials. When the summit-statement-people decided to side with the NAACP, that automatically included the Congressional Black Caucus, who plays a big role in NAACP policy development and whose membership includes the illustrious Norton. Hopefully next time the summit-statement-people will pay better attention to the people they consort with. This time it was a bigot. Who next time?

The URL for the story is attached below: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-01/15/236l-011598-idx.html

Yours in Struggle,

James A. Landrith, Jr.

Editor, The Multiracial Activist

James Landrith is the notorious editor and publisher of The Multiracial Activist and The Abolitionist Examiner, two cyber-rags dedicated to freedom from oppressive racial categorization. Landrith can be reached by email at: editor@multiracial.com or at his personal website/blog.

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