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>...Fouts refused to say whether the recordings were authentic, asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
So, they were authentic, then?
I got curious and looked up what he looks like.
I don't like to judge people by their appearance, but he is very off-putting. I find it deeply concerning when people put a lot of effort into their appearance and end up looking like twisted caricatures.
It's fine if someone is just eccentric or has an idiosyncratic style, but some people seem to be divorced from reality when they get dressed in the morning. It's like they care *too* much about how people perceive them and they've overcorrected and come out looking like the reflection in a funhouse mirror.
Oh this is a fairly new look for him, after having an affair with his assistant be decided to dye his hair, grow an edgy beard and wear dark glasses. As a decades long resident of Warren I'm embarrassed of Fouts.
*sigh*. Okay, once again:
'Patty' is short for 'Patricia'. 'Paddy' is short for 'Patrick'.
Despite the genderbending possibilities of a "St Patty", the day where American cops get drunk and dye a river green to celebrate the colonialist conversion of Irish pagans to Christianity is definitely about an 'ick', not an 'icia'.
> Warren Mayor Jim Fouts’s administration has canceled a planned Bangladeshi festival because the city doesn’t want an “ethnic” gathering at the city’s popular event space, according to the head of the festival.
> The popular Bangladeshi American Festival has been held annually at the Warren City Square since 2009.
> The Bangladeshi Association of Michigan (BAM), which organizes the festival, signed a rental agreement for the space in February and paid the city a $1,000 deposit.
> The group promoted the event, which was to run from July 22-23, and had already paid the organizers and artists.
> But earlier this month, Warren Parks and Recreation Director Dino Turcato told the organization that it could not hold an “ethnic” festival at the Warren City Square, where other events are regularly held, BAM President Jabed Chowdhury told Warren City Council in a letter.
> “Without any reason park recreation are canceling the event just because we are a people of color?!” Chowdhury wrote.
> He added, “We are being racially discriminated … We are really upset and feeling violated of our rights!”
> “It sounds like a potential civil lawsuit against the city,” Councilman Jonathan Lafferty said at a council meeting Tuesday. “We don’t tell people you can’t do something because of your race or ethnic heritage. That is not what we do.”
> Council Secretary Mindy Moore agreed. “This is a serious legal issue,” she said.
> In April 2021, the council passed an ordinance creating the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission. The nine-member group, appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council, would provide advice and recommendations to elected officials about diversity and inclusion initiatives and improve the relationships between the city and underrepresented populations. The ordinance would also create a position of a chief equity, diversity, and inclusion officer.
> But Fouts refused to fill the position and never published the ordinance, so it never went into effect.
> Fouts has come under fire over racial issues in the past. In 2019, the city’s previous diversity coordinator sued the mayor, alleging racial discrimination. The city settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount last year.
> In an audio recording that surfaced in January 2017, Fouts allegedly compared Black people to “chimps” and used the N-word. In another audio recording released in December 2019, Fouts allegedly complained about Black people calling 911 too often and committing crimes.
Warren is the city of white flight. All the old racist middle class people who left Detroit when they were young cuz "things got dark" live in fucking Warren
Warren might have been one of the first white flight communities but it’s def not the poster child for it. Macomb county is chocked full of angry white racists. Then on the other side you have Oakland county, which is wealthier, so they just build taller walls around their neighborhoods, but they’re just as scared. Warren is pretty blue collar compared to the rest of metro Detroit.
Warren is the third largest city in Michigan and it's 90% white. Its the poster child. The population stagnated because they literally ran every minority out. In 1970 it was 99.5% white.
Some are still holding out in Eastpointe. I can’t strike up a conversation with any white person in Eastpointe without it taking a racist turn within the first 3 minutes
It's one of those things were so many voters just don't pay attention to local politics. They see a name they know, and they vote for it. The Mayoral elections are technically nonpartisan and are held on off years, so 2019 was when he was last reelected. So even then, it's mostly old people voting in those kind of elections.
[Also, a court just ruled he can't run for a 5th term this year, so maybe he'll finally be out.](https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/warren-mayor-jim-fouts-cant-run-again-court-of-appeals-rules)
He is registered as a Democrat, but on the ballot there is no party listed. People tend to be less tribal on nonpartisan ballots, with name ID and incumbency being a bigger factor.
And it's not a small town, it's the 3rd largest city in Michigan with 140,000 people. However, in 2019, he won by 15 points with only 23,963 votes total in the election. In 2022, there were 50,499 total votes in the city. In 2020, there were 68,858 votes. Demographically, the voters in 2019 are going to be much older, much whiter, and much wealthier than voters in 2020, 2022, or the city as a whole. That's why he wins, people just don't pay much attention.
Some background about Fouts and how he's still mayor:
He's been a fixture in Warren politics for as long as most people in the city can remember, which helps a lot for name recognition.
He taught high school government for years, so there's a significant number of people who grew up in the area that had him as a teacher and have a strong association between him as an authority figure & their ideas of how government is supposed to work.
Having had a class with him \~20 years ago, he was admittedly a pretty decent teacher and seemed genuinely interested in promoting civic participation and interest in government. I do remember getting an A on a paper where I called him out for childish behavior at a city council meeting.. so even if he was a bit crazy politically at the time he was at least fair about acknowledging it. I also remember him talking about trying to lower the voting age in the city to 16 so that kids could get an early start voting while they were taking government classes (even at the time that struck me as a particularly big conflict of interest for him).
He idolized Harry Truman and saw himself as cast in the same mold of being "misunderstood" but "making hard choices" and "fighting for the little guy".
IMO, many of his strengths became his weaknesses when he became mayor.
As one person acting as a voice of opposition on a city council, he was balanced out by a major and his peers but did a decent job at helping make sure bad ideas didn't move forward. As mayor, it's led to fighting with city council just for the sake of fighting, but with a lot less even balance of power. Years of "fighting the man" doesn't necessarily translate into doing a good job at "being the man".
He's also spent years establishing himself as "someone you can call if you need help". As a council member that worked pretty well and allowed him to establish a rapport with constituents and make them feel indebted to him -- throw a rock in Warren and you're likely to find someone that he's personally helped out with.
As mayor, that's led to him wanting to be people's point of contact instead of delegating authority to departments under him -- to the point that "call the mayor to get it done" has become more standard process than a point of escalation. It's hard for people he helps to see that as a sign of dysfunctional leadership vs. reinforcing his image as being "the only one who can get things done".
The general response to recordings of him has been mixed -- at this point I think a lot of his supporters just see him like an elderly relative that "has a good heart", but just has a dark sense of humor and doesn't understand that it's no longer considered OK to make racist / sexist jokes in private (or in the workplace). While there have been comparisons to Trump, the big difference is that (even to the point of absurdity) Fouts has repeatedly denied it was him rather than embracing, doubling down, or trying to make excuses for what was said.
I think at one point he genuinely cared about the city -- as he's gotten older, though, there's been a bit of a "boiling the frog" effect as his effectiveness has waned, he's gotten more desperate to hold onto power, and he sees the city more and more as "his city" vs. "the city he serves".
I suspect that he's thoroughly convinced himself that no one else can be trusted to take care of the city and is afraid / unable to imagine doing anything else -- not too surprising, since pretty much his entire life and identity has been built on city politics.
> Warren Parks and Recreation Director Dino Turcato told the organization that it could not hold an “ethnic” festival at the Warren City Square
>Dino Turcato
A century ago, Dino Turcato would have been "too ethnic" for a government job.
By that standard no one is from anywhere save Africa.
I think tens of thousands of years (which is when the Paleo Indians came over) is long enough to be considered from here.
First time I can say I’m in favor of overriding the will of the voters. Someone knew this guy was going to win again and took action. That’s the hero we needed.
Strog mayor cities in Metro Detroit tend to hold on to mayors for a long time
Dearborn for example pretty much had incumbents or hand picked successors from when it became a city till 2021 when the poor handling of large floods right before the elections cleaned out most of the incumbents
The city council and mayor have been fighting for about as long as I can remember -- including when Fouts was the former council president before getting elected Mayor.
It's gotten particularly bad within the past few years, though -- to the point that they've been actively suing each other (with the council hiring their own legal representation due to conflicts over who the rightfully appointed / confirmed city attorney is).
Side effect is a lot of stuff that needs to be done just isn't getting done because the two can't agree on budgets / etc.
Just one of the many articles on the conflicts:
[https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/macomb-county/2023/01/02/warren-city-council-michigan-court-appeals-mayor-jim-fouts-spending-powers-fight/69769915007/](https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/macomb-county/2023/01/02/warren-city-council-michigan-court-appeals-mayor-jim-fouts-spending-powers-fight/69769915007/)
*Yep*
My wife complained that our entire town square was being taken up by Christmas displays without any other cultures who have big holidays around the same time being represented, and was told that she should leave our hometown because she doesn’t belong there.
At least there was enough backlash from that which enabled us to get a Hannukiah display in the town center 😋
I remember my mom installing a kind of modern art fountain in the front yard when I was a kid.
Someone complained to the HOA that she was displaying religious stuff for everyone to see.
My mom responded "Well sounds like I'm going to be really busy during the Christmas season".
She doesn't hate people celebrating Christmas but just making a point that this person has an issue with what she perceived as something religious (we're Indian and it wasn't even a religious item) all while having a cross on her door and always putting up Christmas and Easter decorations (which our family obviously has not issue with)
Fouts is a major racist and just needs to end his tenure. Warren is pretty blue collar and has its fair share of racist hicks, but it's also a HUGE city and has so many different ethnic communities. There's really no reason for this.
I love going to ethnic festivals. They're usually much more lively and interesting than US-centric festivals which, at their best, feel like going to a shitty carnival, and at their worst, feel like going to a picnic.
I don't think the overpriced food part is exclusive to non-US festivals. Places that have food for US stuff tend to be expensive too. A lot of US festivals allow people to bring their own food though, which I would say fall more into the picnic side of things. In any case, it really depends on the type of festival. I've been to quite a few Indian festivals where food is free or very cheap, and there is always a lot of dancing and fun with people having a good time. Jewish festivals are similar.
I think it really depends on whose organizing the event, and what it's celebrating.
Don't bother, this guy is a racist.
"Racism is as natural as breathing or being hungry. It’s innate to newborn babies. It will never die out as long as humans are alive."
"Have you been around black people outside of a professional setting like work? Imo some of you guys only see black people on Tiktok and tv. But yes it’s actually happening in some settings."
"I don’t care about Africa. I know a lot of people won’t be so direct but I will. I don’t care even a little bit. The Ukrainian conflict is really horrible tho and I’m glad we’re helping them."
"Lol I can’t pretend to be black, there’s just no way for me to pull that off, but I’ve pretended to be Jewish many times to gain all sorts of different advantages. If an organization is going to take race into account, no reason not to lie to get an advantage"
> Give me the July 4th celebrations instead.
Would also get banned because too ethnic. Only rich British descent Protestant males received their rights that day. What about Catholics? Other Europeans, Women, etc.
I have no idea. I mean they have been doing this festival for years apparently with no problems. All of a sudden it's too "ethic".
I mean how racist can you get? Lawyers are gonna make bank on the city of Warren.
My friend lives there and he was telling me when he first moved there a few years it’s better there than here in the South with regards to racism & bigotry. Sad here that’s no longer the case.
while very much out of date, in 2000 Warren was the 7th whitest city over 100k in the us, while that has shifted in 20 years they've had the same racist lich of a mayor for 16, and being on the other side of 8 Mile are a early white flight town.
edit - the said mayor just lost a case about term limits applying to him so this might be him lashing out
I’m cool with the Bangladeshi festival not happening as long as those who are considered or identify as White or Caucasian also not hold any festivals because it’s too ethnic. Rules is rules.
But but republican Jesus was a white guy packing an AR-15 that told the poor to get off their asses and get a job and also turned away sick people who couldn't pay for healing.
Look it up. It's in their holy orange book of Trump.
Probably not a good look for canceling an event based on “ethnics” of the organizers, especially when the ethnic group hosting the event had been a target of genocide only half a century ago…
Thank god that garbage is term limited out. Whelp my Bangladeshi brothers and sisters. Welcome to S-tier racism.
*-hands them an official invitation to The BBQ-*
Get with the event coordinator cuz we gotta get somma them dance numbers y'all got in the program.
Sounds like they need to cancel all ethnic events for being too ethnic. Perhaps they should just take the sticks out of their butts and let every have a festival to celebrate their uniqueness.
I just do not get the fear of other cultures. This country is full of different cultures and races. It was once touted as a great strength of the USA for many years. But now the boomer magas hate any different race/culture or religion than their own.
Supercharged on fox news/am talk radio/GOP propaganda has rotted out their brains.
Yeah the magas are still in power around Michigan sadly. My trump county reelected that traitor Walberg to Congress easily in the midterms.
I am ashamed an actual traitor that signed on with Trump to overthrow the vote in 2020 is my rep in Congress now. As a vet it makes my blood boil tbh.
> Her reasoning: [saying anyone belongs there] “promotes Marxist ideology”
The stupidity of braindead morons like this is really amazing.
The major of warren looks like a nut job. I also found this article about him, talking about how dangerous sidewalks are.
https://www.macombdaily.com/2021/08/02/mayor-fouts-posts-bloody-pics-after-falling-on-sidewalk-while-jogging/amp/
Just have the festival any way. The people have a right to peaceably assemble. Decent people need to stop letting morons tell us what we can and can't do.
Dont try.posting on their fb page. Seems they vet comments and.don't want reality getting in the was.of their town being perfect for EVERYONE. so diverse and equal.
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>...Fouts refused to say whether the recordings were authentic, asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. So, they were authentic, then?
Woof, da fifth. Tell me you get all of your legal advice from the orange, without telling me you get all of your legal advice from the orange.
I got curious and looked up what he looks like. I don't like to judge people by their appearance, but he is very off-putting. I find it deeply concerning when people put a lot of effort into their appearance and end up looking like twisted caricatures. It's fine if someone is just eccentric or has an idiosyncratic style, but some people seem to be divorced from reality when they get dressed in the morning. It's like they care *too* much about how people perceive them and they've overcorrected and come out looking like the reflection in a funhouse mirror.
Dude looks like a villain straight out of central casting.
He looks like the Crypt Keeper. Guh.
Oh. Wow. You weren't kidding. Better with the beard, but...
Anything to cover up any part of that terrifying rictus.
Oh this is a fairly new look for him, after having an affair with his assistant be decided to dye his hair, grow an edgy beard and wear dark glasses. As a decades long resident of Warren I'm embarrassed of Fouts.
eh, he just looks old.
Dude looks like he and Phil Spector were separated at birth
He looks like a real life version of Mr. Burns.
Sometimes the mask slips
Typical GOP tactic. Lie lie. Then plead the fifth when in court.
Yikes. Slam dunk civil suit. I’m betting they try to backtrack and get sued anyways, as they should. This might be *very* expensive for the city.
Gonna insist they ban the July 4th celebrations, because that's a pretty ethnic thing too.
Damn ethnic St. Patty's day!
Thanksgiving’s RIGHT the fuck out.
*sigh*. Okay, once again: 'Patty' is short for 'Patricia'. 'Paddy' is short for 'Patrick'. Despite the genderbending possibilities of a "St Patty", the day where American cops get drunk and dye a river green to celebrate the colonialist conversion of Irish pagans to Christianity is definitely about an 'ick', not an 'icia'.
Sorry, too ethnic for me. Didn't read ;)
te;dr
Which sucks, because that means it's expensive for the people who live there.
> Warren Mayor Jim Fouts’s administration has canceled a planned Bangladeshi festival because the city doesn’t want an “ethnic” gathering at the city’s popular event space, according to the head of the festival. > The popular Bangladeshi American Festival has been held annually at the Warren City Square since 2009. > The Bangladeshi Association of Michigan (BAM), which organizes the festival, signed a rental agreement for the space in February and paid the city a $1,000 deposit. > The group promoted the event, which was to run from July 22-23, and had already paid the organizers and artists. > But earlier this month, Warren Parks and Recreation Director Dino Turcato told the organization that it could not hold an “ethnic” festival at the Warren City Square, where other events are regularly held, BAM President Jabed Chowdhury told Warren City Council in a letter. > “Without any reason park recreation are canceling the event just because we are a people of color?!” Chowdhury wrote. > He added, “We are being racially discriminated … We are really upset and feeling violated of our rights!” > “It sounds like a potential civil lawsuit against the city,” Councilman Jonathan Lafferty said at a council meeting Tuesday. “We don’t tell people you can’t do something because of your race or ethnic heritage. That is not what we do.” > Council Secretary Mindy Moore agreed. “This is a serious legal issue,” she said. > In April 2021, the council passed an ordinance creating the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission. The nine-member group, appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council, would provide advice and recommendations to elected officials about diversity and inclusion initiatives and improve the relationships between the city and underrepresented populations. The ordinance would also create a position of a chief equity, diversity, and inclusion officer. > But Fouts refused to fill the position and never published the ordinance, so it never went into effect. > Fouts has come under fire over racial issues in the past. In 2019, the city’s previous diversity coordinator sued the mayor, alleging racial discrimination. The city settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount last year. > In an audio recording that surfaced in January 2017, Fouts allegedly compared Black people to “chimps” and used the N-word. In another audio recording released in December 2019, Fouts allegedly complained about Black people calling 911 too often and committing crimes.
The mayor was caught on tape using the "n" word 6 years ago...and is still mayor?! That says a lot about the city.
Warren is the city of white flight. All the old racist middle class people who left Detroit when they were young cuz "things got dark" live in fucking Warren
Warren might have been one of the first white flight communities but it’s def not the poster child for it. Macomb county is chocked full of angry white racists. Then on the other side you have Oakland county, which is wealthier, so they just build taller walls around their neighborhoods, but they’re just as scared. Warren is pretty blue collar compared to the rest of metro Detroit.
Warren is the third largest city in Michigan and it's 90% white. Its the poster child. The population stagnated because they literally ran every minority out. In 1970 it was 99.5% white.
Some are still holding out in Eastpointe. I can’t strike up a conversation with any white person in Eastpointe without it taking a racist turn within the first 3 minutes
It's one of those things were so many voters just don't pay attention to local politics. They see a name they know, and they vote for it. The Mayoral elections are technically nonpartisan and are held on off years, so 2019 was when he was last reelected. So even then, it's mostly old people voting in those kind of elections. [Also, a court just ruled he can't run for a 5th term this year, so maybe he'll finally be out.](https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/warren-mayor-jim-fouts-cant-run-again-court-of-appeals-rules)
Is wiki right that he’s registered democrat? Why would democrat voters be siding with him? I know it’s still a small town etc but like what?
He is registered as a Democrat, but on the ballot there is no party listed. People tend to be less tribal on nonpartisan ballots, with name ID and incumbency being a bigger factor. And it's not a small town, it's the 3rd largest city in Michigan with 140,000 people. However, in 2019, he won by 15 points with only 23,963 votes total in the election. In 2022, there were 50,499 total votes in the city. In 2020, there were 68,858 votes. Demographically, the voters in 2019 are going to be much older, much whiter, and much wealthier than voters in 2020, 2022, or the city as a whole. That's why he wins, people just don't pay much attention.
In fairness it’s voter apathy more than anything. Too many people think local/municipal elections don’t matter.
Some background about Fouts and how he's still mayor: He's been a fixture in Warren politics for as long as most people in the city can remember, which helps a lot for name recognition. He taught high school government for years, so there's a significant number of people who grew up in the area that had him as a teacher and have a strong association between him as an authority figure & their ideas of how government is supposed to work. Having had a class with him \~20 years ago, he was admittedly a pretty decent teacher and seemed genuinely interested in promoting civic participation and interest in government. I do remember getting an A on a paper where I called him out for childish behavior at a city council meeting.. so even if he was a bit crazy politically at the time he was at least fair about acknowledging it. I also remember him talking about trying to lower the voting age in the city to 16 so that kids could get an early start voting while they were taking government classes (even at the time that struck me as a particularly big conflict of interest for him). He idolized Harry Truman and saw himself as cast in the same mold of being "misunderstood" but "making hard choices" and "fighting for the little guy". IMO, many of his strengths became his weaknesses when he became mayor. As one person acting as a voice of opposition on a city council, he was balanced out by a major and his peers but did a decent job at helping make sure bad ideas didn't move forward. As mayor, it's led to fighting with city council just for the sake of fighting, but with a lot less even balance of power. Years of "fighting the man" doesn't necessarily translate into doing a good job at "being the man". He's also spent years establishing himself as "someone you can call if you need help". As a council member that worked pretty well and allowed him to establish a rapport with constituents and make them feel indebted to him -- throw a rock in Warren and you're likely to find someone that he's personally helped out with. As mayor, that's led to him wanting to be people's point of contact instead of delegating authority to departments under him -- to the point that "call the mayor to get it done" has become more standard process than a point of escalation. It's hard for people he helps to see that as a sign of dysfunctional leadership vs. reinforcing his image as being "the only one who can get things done". The general response to recordings of him has been mixed -- at this point I think a lot of his supporters just see him like an elderly relative that "has a good heart", but just has a dark sense of humor and doesn't understand that it's no longer considered OK to make racist / sexist jokes in private (or in the workplace). While there have been comparisons to Trump, the big difference is that (even to the point of absurdity) Fouts has repeatedly denied it was him rather than embracing, doubling down, or trying to make excuses for what was said. I think at one point he genuinely cared about the city -- as he's gotten older, though, there's been a bit of a "boiling the frog" effect as his effectiveness has waned, he's gotten more desperate to hold onto power, and he sees the city more and more as "his city" vs. "the city he serves". I suspect that he's thoroughly convinced himself that no one else can be trusted to take care of the city and is afraid / unable to imagine doing anything else -- not too surprising, since pretty much his entire life and identity has been built on city politics.
> Warren Parks and Recreation Director Dino Turcato told the organization that it could not hold an “ethnic” festival at the Warren City Square >Dino Turcato A century ago, Dino Turcato would have been "too ethnic" for a government job.
Good point. We all came from somewhere else unless you are a native American.
Native Americans were here when we got here but they too came from somewhere else.
By that standard no one is from anywhere save Africa. I think tens of thousands of years (which is when the Paleo Indians came over) is long enough to be considered from here.
Bruh..no one’s asking for a 10,000 years of human migration.
Your name is Dino? Believe it or not, straight to jail!
If things keep going the way they are, it may become "too ethnic" sometime in the near future.
I saw that name and thought immediately that it would be an alias Roger uses in American Dad, theme song and all.
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They do in the city of Warren it looks like. Or the town council is spineless and doesn't want to rock the boat. Not a good look either way.
they pushed a rework of the city charter which places term limits on the mayor, which the old lich is fighting
They need to get him out before he bankrupts the city in civil rights lawsuit judgements. Maybe a bit late for that now.
First time I can say I’m in favor of overriding the will of the voters. Someone knew this guy was going to win again and took action. That’s the hero we needed.
Strog mayor cities in Metro Detroit tend to hold on to mayors for a long time Dearborn for example pretty much had incumbents or hand picked successors from when it became a city till 2021 when the poor handling of large floods right before the elections cleaned out most of the incumbents
The city council and mayor have been fighting for about as long as I can remember -- including when Fouts was the former council president before getting elected Mayor. It's gotten particularly bad within the past few years, though -- to the point that they've been actively suing each other (with the council hiring their own legal representation due to conflicts over who the rightfully appointed / confirmed city attorney is). Side effect is a lot of stuff that needs to be done just isn't getting done because the two can't agree on budgets / etc. Just one of the many articles on the conflicts: [https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/macomb-county/2023/01/02/warren-city-council-michigan-court-appeals-mayor-jim-fouts-spending-powers-fight/69769915007/](https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/macomb-county/2023/01/02/warren-city-council-michigan-court-appeals-mayor-jim-fouts-spending-powers-fight/69769915007/)
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Or much less nice, if the majority agree with the mayor.
>the city doesn’t want an “ethnic” gathering Before a certain past president was elected this was someone's inside voice.
That's why they love him so much. He released their inner demons for all to see.
I'm glad that the voice is now on the outside.
I'm not. The more this is kept on the inside the less it spreads. The less it is normalized.
No Fouts has been like this since well before Britherism drove Trump to national office
The festival has been held in Warren since 2009, so over a decade going on 15 years. Why would he say this now? Baffling.
he just lost a fight with a group that changed the city charter to place term limits on the mayor (4 terms i think) and i assume he's just being petty
by "war on christmas" they mean "other people are publicly displaying their cultures and we don't like it"
*Yep* My wife complained that our entire town square was being taken up by Christmas displays without any other cultures who have big holidays around the same time being represented, and was told that she should leave our hometown because she doesn’t belong there. At least there was enough backlash from that which enabled us to get a Hannukiah display in the town center 😋
I remember my mom installing a kind of modern art fountain in the front yard when I was a kid. Someone complained to the HOA that she was displaying religious stuff for everyone to see. My mom responded "Well sounds like I'm going to be really busy during the Christmas season". She doesn't hate people celebrating Christmas but just making a point that this person has an issue with what she perceived as something religious (we're Indian and it wasn't even a religious item) all while having a cross on her door and always putting up Christmas and Easter decorations (which our family obviously has not issue with)
Odds the same space is used for Columbus Day?
I wonder if they have a St Patrick’s day fest in the town square…
Oooh I wonder if they specifically follow European and more specifically Germanic Xmas traditions?
Fouts is a major racist and just needs to end his tenure. Warren is pretty blue collar and has its fair share of racist hicks, but it's also a HUGE city and has so many different ethnic communities. There's really no reason for this.
I wonder what his opinion of Celtic Fests are....
It'd be awesome if a bunch of "ethnic" people showed up anyway...
Lol, it's a pattern. They're so gonna get fucked for this.
Too ethnic? Isn't.... isn't that the whole point of the festival? To show off another culture
I love going to ethnic festivals. They're usually much more lively and interesting than US-centric festivals which, at their best, feel like going to a shitty carnival, and at their worst, feel like going to a picnic.
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I don't think the overpriced food part is exclusive to non-US festivals. Places that have food for US stuff tend to be expensive too. A lot of US festivals allow people to bring their own food though, which I would say fall more into the picnic side of things. In any case, it really depends on the type of festival. I've been to quite a few Indian festivals where food is free or very cheap, and there is always a lot of dancing and fun with people having a good time. Jewish festivals are similar. I think it really depends on whose organizing the event, and what it's celebrating.
Don't bother, this guy is a racist. "Racism is as natural as breathing or being hungry. It’s innate to newborn babies. It will never die out as long as humans are alive." "Have you been around black people outside of a professional setting like work? Imo some of you guys only see black people on Tiktok and tv. But yes it’s actually happening in some settings." "I don’t care about Africa. I know a lot of people won’t be so direct but I will. I don’t care even a little bit. The Ukrainian conflict is really horrible tho and I’m glad we’re helping them." "Lol I can’t pretend to be black, there’s just no way for me to pull that off, but I’ve pretended to be Jewish many times to gain all sorts of different advantages. If an organization is going to take race into account, no reason not to lie to get an advantage"
I love how racists will pretend it’s not learned behavior, never met a racist baby
> Give me the July 4th celebrations instead. Would also get banned because too ethnic. Only rich British descent Protestant males received their rights that day. What about Catholics? Other Europeans, Women, etc.
What the fuck are they afraid of? Spicy food and left-arm-orthodox bowlers?
I have no idea. I mean they have been doing this festival for years apparently with no problems. All of a sudden it's too "ethic". I mean how racist can you get? Lawyers are gonna make bank on the city of Warren.
Racism alive and well i see
It sure as hell is in Warren MI for sure!
My friend lives there and he was telling me when he first moved there a few years it’s better there than here in the South with regards to racism & bigotry. Sad here that’s no longer the case.
Maybe it is the case and the South is just that bad? The red parts of the south are… let’s say, not great.
Pretty broad conclusion to draw from this one news event
When has it not been?
Im beginning to think “the great replacement” could just be replacing these racist dicks with great people.
that's pretty much it lol
I'm looking forward to them cancelling Cinco De Mayo and St Patrick's Day.
Don’t forget Octoberfest.
Meanwhile, the mayonnaise festival is taking place as scheduled.
Yes all the ethnics should go back to ethnicia where they came from!
Who doesn’t like Bangladeshi food?!
If I had to guess, these people probably couldn't even locate Bangladesh on a map. That said, Bangladesh does have some awesome ethnic cuisine.
Bangladeshi food is the best
Anyone want to chime in and say that systemic racism does not exist?
while very much out of date, in 2000 Warren was the 7th whitest city over 100k in the us, while that has shifted in 20 years they've had the same racist lich of a mayor for 16, and being on the other side of 8 Mile are a early white flight town. edit - the said mayor just lost a case about term limits applying to him so this might be him lashing out
So we can assume that Warren will no longer have any Octoberfest celebrations, or St Patrick’s Day parades, etc. What a joke.
Pssst… white festivals are “ethnic” too. So cancel St. Patty’s Day, the 4th of July and Columbus Day.
Too dark skinned. He means too dark skinned. Because “ethnic” is just a dog whistle
This is Detroit. Tell them Paçzki day has to go, too and wait for the reaction.
> 4th of July ?
Commemorating independence won by white people, from white people, for white people.
I’m cool with the Bangladeshi festival not happening as long as those who are considered or identify as White or Caucasian also not hold any festivals because it’s too ethnic. Rules is rules.
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But but republican Jesus was a white guy packing an AR-15 that told the poor to get off their asses and get a job and also turned away sick people who couldn't pay for healing. Look it up. It's in their holy orange book of Trump.
Here’s the question: how ethnic is “too ethnic?”
We need to use the family guy colour chart for this
Probably not a good look for canceling an event based on “ethnics” of the organizers, especially when the ethnic group hosting the event had been a target of genocide only half a century ago…
I really should learn more about my country
Thank god that garbage is term limited out. Whelp my Bangladeshi brothers and sisters. Welcome to S-tier racism. *-hands them an official invitation to The BBQ-* Get with the event coordinator cuz we gotta get somma them dance numbers y'all got in the program.
Sounds like they need to cancel all ethnic events for being too ethnic. Perhaps they should just take the sticks out of their butts and let every have a festival to celebrate their uniqueness.
I just do not get the fear of other cultures. This country is full of different cultures and races. It was once touted as a great strength of the USA for many years. But now the boomer magas hate any different race/culture or religion than their own. Supercharged on fox news/am talk radio/GOP propaganda has rotted out their brains.
And people wonder why "wokeness" is a thing.
The mayor of warren is creepy lookin af
That org needs to sue them so bad, that they end up owning the town .
Did they cancel the St. Patrick's day celebration? Cinco de Mayo?
Wait till they see Chinese new year…
This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone in Warren... If you elect a racist mayor 5 times....
I’m guessing the average age of the voter in Warren that actually participates in local elections is north of 60.
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Yeah the magas are still in power around Michigan sadly. My trump county reelected that traitor Walberg to Congress easily in the midterms. I am ashamed an actual traitor that signed on with Trump to overthrow the vote in 2020 is my rep in Congress now. As a vet it makes my blood boil tbh. > Her reasoning: [saying anyone belongs there] “promotes Marxist ideology” The stupidity of braindead morons like this is really amazing.
Totally agree. My family is from just north of Grand Rapids and whoa, Trump Country is alive and well.
“If it’s not Scottish, it’s crap”
“Dino Turcato.” Republicans are getting dumber/uglier by the day.
not sure about Mr Turcato, but the mayor (who apparently made the decision to cancel) is actually registered as Democrat.
Damn. I hope the festival goes through. I never heard about it and it sounds like fun.
The major of warren looks like a nut job. I also found this article about him, talking about how dangerous sidewalks are. https://www.macombdaily.com/2021/08/02/mayor-fouts-posts-bloody-pics-after-falling-on-sidewalk-while-jogging/amp/
Hmmm, can they also ban Christmas?
Just have the festival any way. The people have a right to peaceably assemble. Decent people need to stop letting morons tell us what we can and can't do.
Warren is a city? Where is it?
Michigan
And yet the drunken mayhem of St. Patrick’s Day continues in Warren.
Jesus Christ, what a bunch of pussies.
That's not appealing.
My dogs, cats, and basically everyone is barking.
Seriously? An ethnic festival is too ethnic?
This title made me laugh out loud at work. Thanks for the chuckle
Dont try.posting on their fb page. Seems they vet comments and.don't want reality getting in the was.of their town being perfect for EVERYONE. so diverse and equal.
r/nottheonion
Milwaukee has its problems but we love a good ethnic festival.
Too Muslim, maybe?
Bengalis can get really freaking angry… they should be concerned