Racist nostalgia is officially in full swing as zealots across the country seek to 'Make America Great Again' with unapologetic throwbacks to what they deem to be the "good ole' days" of unrepentant bigotry. Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore longingly described it as a time when "families were united — even though we had slavery — they cared for one another…. Our families were strong, our country had a direction.”
The latest offender in this problematic trend is a predominately white assisted living facility near Wilmington, North Carolina. The Bradley Creek Assisted Living facility at Carolina Bay distributed a 2017 Christmas calendar of events to its elderly residents featuring a racially offensive cartoon cover image in the tradition of exploitative slave "mammy" images of Southern antebellum times.
On Wednesday, state and local NAACP officials called for immediate action. Irving Joyner, Chair of the NCNAACP Legal Redress Committee told The Wilmington Journal, “This [calendar] display is offensive to the highest degree and must be condemned.” The NCCU law professor went on to say, “If this [calendar] represents the thinking or mindset of the assisted living facility, the State should close it down, and/or the employees who were responsible for this offensive display should be fired. In this instance, an empty apology is meaningless without some significant punishment being directed to the governing officials of this corporate entity.”
The image, shown on the right side of a display below an official logo of “Bradley Creek at Carolina Bay” depicts an image of a woman with black skin, big pink lips, bulging eyes, and a handkerchief wrapped around her head holding a ladle in her right hand, and a tray in the left. Next to the image is a message that says, “MERRY CHRISTMAS. It takes dough for Christmas presents. And all I have is crust. But wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS? Oh, Honey don’t I just!” Signed, “Thelma.”
Two of the African American employees of the facility reported the image to management, who in turn collected the calendars back from the residents. "I was upset by it,” staffer Marvila Jackson told the Wilmington Journal when she first saw the calendar "in all the residents’ rooms.” Jackson said that she confronted the Activities Director who was responsible for the calendars. “I was like, ‘Why would somebody do this?,’ and she was like, ‘You know my heart,’ and she kept saying that she didn’t mean [any] harm by it.’ Well, how did you think people were going to take it?” Jackson recalled asking rhetorically.
After reporting the incident to management and the local NAACP, Jackson said that she received a phone call from Bradley Creek management telling her that she was “suspended until further notice.” The reason given for her suspension was a “resident complaint” of which she had no prior knowledge. The New Hanover County NAACP has called for immediate recourse.
“The facility was deliberate in their negative actions, and we want action with regards to this incident,” said Deborah Dicks Maxwell, President of the New Hanover County NAACP.
