ATLANTA — The leader of the Buckhead City movement is apologizing for retweeting a post from a widely recognized white nationalist group blaming crime in Atlanta and other cities on African Americans.
Bill White insists he didn’t know what the organization VDARE stood for and admits he failed to closely examine that original tweet before retweeting it.
“I sincerely apologize to anyone that was offended by my mistake,” White said Tuesday. “I don’t think I’m perfect. I’m a human being. I’ve been told by my husband I’m too old to be on social media. I was going too fast, saw a great article which I think was substantive, and I went to retweet that. It happened to be retweeted by another group that I have no idea who they are.”
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White went on to say he has since deleted the tweet and condemns VDARE for its beliefs.
“I have since unfollowed them,” White said. “I thought their comment was horrible, vile, nasty. There was an insinuation that crime was up in Atlanta because Atlanta is 82% African American. It’s disgusting.”
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White and others formed the Buckhead City movement to break away the northern neighborhood from the City of Atlanta. They insist crime, not racial politics, is fueling their movement.
But some critics, like former Georgia NAACP President James Woodall, believe the movement is fueled by racism.
“It is concerning that this continues to be something that we knew all along to be, the implied kind of motivation is identifying African Americans in our community and our city, in our state as criminal in nature.”
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The Georgia General Assembly will take up the issue of Buckhead cityhood during their session which begins next week.
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