Pasadena mayor to Hispanic councilman: "Speak up, boy" [View all]
Source: Houston Chronicle
PASADENA - Pasadena Mayor Johnny Isbell, who is white, addressed Councilman Cody Ray Wheeler, who is Hispanic, as "boy" at a public council meeting Monday morning.
The exchange, during debate over a tax collection contract, crystallized an election season in which representatives of the predominantly Hispanic north side, who feel long neglected by city government, are pushing for change. Isbell's comment was especially jaw-dropping in the context of a federal voting rights lawsuit in which one judge has found that the mayor-backed change to voting districts in 2015 discriminated against Hispanics.
Isbell was rushing to take a vote on the contract when Wheeler interjected: "I haven't had an opportunity to speak yet." "Well, you better speak up, boy," Isbell replied.
It was no mere slip of the tongue to Pat Gonzales, who said she and other Hispanics had been insulted by the mayor on numerous occasions. She harkened back to a 2014 council meeting when she said Isbell forced a north-side constituent to deliver a grievance about flooding in broken English rather than let her translate for him. Councilman Ornaldo Ybarra recalled the episode, too. The "boy" comment "was him being racist, being bold and being cocky," Gonzales said. "And he doesn't care." She is among the plaintiffs in the voting rights lawsuit.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Pasadena-mayor-to-Hispanic-councilman-Speak-up-11031609.php
"the mayor-backed change to voting districts in 2015 discriminated against Hispanics"
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