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Racist speech has consequences, and they came swiftly for a Genesee County Land Bank Authority manager recorded secretly by political activists.
"Philip Stair, who resigned from his position as sales manager Monday, was recorded saying Flint's problems were caused by "ni***** [who] don't pay their bills," Ron Fonger reports for The Flint Journal.
Stair quit a day after a progressive website with the unsubtle name Truth Against the Machine posted an article about a conversation Chelsea Lyons and an unnamed woman had with Stair last month at a Flint bar. The lengthy report, viewed more than 242,000 times in the first two days, includes a six-second recording (below) with the N-word and a partial transcript (also below) from the colorful discussion.
Fonger, an award-winning journalist who has reported since mid-2015 on his city's tainted water mess, quotes from Stair's resignation statement:
"I feel that I cannot carry out nor be effective in my position at the Land Bank with the social media [recording] of my private opinion on the Flint water crisis and the insensitive language used.
"I am deeply sorry for what I said and those I offended. I do not know how I can face my friends and co-workers."
Lyons said she targeted Stair as part of a look at widespread property foreclosures in and around Flint. Nearly 12,000 city parcels are county-owned because owners didn't pay property taxes or liens.
"I had no idea he was going to say the things that he said," she tells Fonger. "That was not exactly what I was going for." The activist-reporter doesn't say how she identified herself of who Stair thought the two women were.
The Land Bank Authority, a nonprofit organization, "was created in 2004 to respond to a tax-foreclosure cycle in Genesee County," its site says. The "mission is to restore value to the community by acquiring, developing and selling vacant and abandoned properties in cooperation with stakeholders who value responsible land ownership."
Chelsea Lyons: "That was not exactly what I was going for." (Facebook photo)
In the surreptitious 20-minute May recording, which is legal in Michigan as long as one participant is aware, Stair -- who's white -- says: "Flint has the same problems as Detroit -- fucking ni***** don't pay their bills. Believe me, I deal with them."
Stair also says many Flint house tenants are "derelict mother fuckers and "fucking deadbeats" who drag down some neighborhoods. "They fuck the houses up and then leave, and we tear them down."
About 56 percent of Flint's 99,000 residents are African American.
The land authority's leader, Michele Wildman, apologized on behalf of the agency Monday, Fonger reports:
The executive director said the agency may hire a consultant and add training for staff to ensure the office is treating residents with respect. She also said she never suspected Stair harbored the feelings she heard him speak on the audio recording.
"If I had ever been aware he would have used a racial slur, I would have dealt with it immediately," she said.
The website's sensational report drew this reaction Sunday night from Flint's congressman:
This behavior is awful and indefensible. Phil Stair should be fired or resign immediately. https://t.co/A7R6QjzlEP
— Rep. Dan Kildee (@RepDanKildee) June 5, 2017
In New York City, Daily News columnist Shaun King writes about the situation and comments:
It's ridiculous that we basically have to catch and record a man like Phil Stair actually using the N-word before people believe just how prevalent bigotry like his truly is.
Are we actually expected to believe that this is the first time he's ever spoken like that? Are we supposed to assume that he waited until he was middle-aged to start casually referring to African-Americans this way? . . .
A full investigation into Phil Stair should be launched. Every decision he ever made in Flint should revisited. Every email and text message he ever sent should be searched.
Monday morning's resignation letter, via The Flint Journal.
For now, here's more bar talk from the now-departed public employee, transcribed by Truth Against the Machine:
Lyons: “Is the east side the bad side [of Flint]?”
Stair: “Yeah. Well, I call the south side, where we were, that’s the new east side 'cause we [land bank] tore most of it down. All them derelict motherfuckers have moved down to the south side. They’re destroying that.”
Lyons: “Who is?”
Stair: “Fuckin’ deadbeats who, when they tear the houses down, they gotta go somewhere, they go on the south side. It just shifts -- it just shifts the shit. The people are still the people. They fucked the houses up, then they leave and when we tear em down, they just go somewhere else and just fuck those houses up.
I bought my house for $23,000 in 1981, and they sold that house right there for $4,000 about four years ago. So, 30 years it didn’t [appreciate]. But it doesn’t owe me anything.”Lyons: “So, like, did this used to be, like, a white neighborhood?”
Stair: “It’s still white. Well, this street isn’t so much, but overall, it’s still pretty white.”
Below is a six-second snippet from the 20-minute recording, posted here.
