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Tanner Sends Letter To Berry Apologizing For Racist Email
So you'll remember that on Tuesday, a DOJ report found that John Tanner, the former chief of the department's voting rights section, had told a colleague over email in 2004 that he liked his coffee "Mary Frances Berry style -- black and bitter." Berry, an African-American, was at the time the chair of the US Commission on Civil Rights.
Now Tanner is trying to make amends. Moments ago he forwarded to TPMmuckraker a letter of apology he sent to Berry dated January 13.
Tanner -- who has a history of questionable racial remarks and appears still to be working on voting issues on DOJ's payroll -- explains that he only used the phrase because he had recently heard an African-American customer at a coffee shop order coffee "black and sweet -- like me."
Still, he says, it was "a very poor choice of words," "flippant" and "ill-considered."
Then -- in kind of a stretch -- he further explains: "The term bitter, of course, meant no sugar in the coffee, and was not meant as a reflection on you or your attitude towards a challenging situation."
And Tanner adds: "I am well aware of your many significant contributions to our country's racial equality and justice."
See the full letter here.
Josh
Zachary
Ah yes. The classic non-apology apology.
Totally classless. The clueless media will somehow mark this as a sign of contrition, when it's really a sign of stubbornness.
He should resign or be fired with cause.
January 15, 2009 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
He must think we were born yesterday. He only offered up the apology AFTER he was exposed. He should be apologizing to Berry, she was who he made the slur to, and African-Americans. He needs to be fires ASAP
January 15, 2009 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
BAHAWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What a maroon. How can he expect anybody to seriously buy what he's trying to sell here. We all know what he meant and he knows what he meant with the remark. As did the clown who forwarded around the office.
January 15, 2009 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh Christ. Jesus, Tanner, can you please let the reputation of the Bush-era Justice Department go without adding further tarnishment?
Here's how you word these things, John.
******
Prof. Mary Frances Berry
[Snip]
Dear Professor Berry,
A recent report of the Justice Department Inspector General contained a quote from an e-mail I wrote several years ago in which I stated that I would like to receive my coffee "Mary Frances Berry style -- black and bitter."
There was no excuse for the comment. It was profoundly stupid of me to make such a comment in an e-mail to a colleague, but, more importantly, it was profoundly ignorant of me ever to have had that thought in the first place. Jokes based on race find a home on a particularly low rung of the ladder of humor, and they say more about the teller than they do the subject.
There is simply no excuse for what I wrote or thought, and I wanted to write to you to personally express my sincere apology and regret for having done such a thing. I can only imagine how hard it must be for you to hear yourself as the topic of what can only be described as a tasteless, unfunny, and pathetic attempt at humor. I am mortified that you should have to endure the hurt it undoubtedly causes.
Having been caught, I am shamed, but I want you to know that this letter is not an effort to rehabilitate my own career or standing. I richly deserve whatever criticism and ridicule I receive for my thoughtless act. I am writing instead to offer you my apology.
I have no excuse for my comment. I have no justification for making it. And I have nothing but the greatest sense of regret for having made it, and nothing but sorrow for having caused you this pain.
I wish you well in the future, and I hope that my inexcusable act does not tarnish your reputation, which deserved neither my scorn nor my derision.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Tanner
***
That's how you apologize when you've been an asshole.
January 15, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I prefer the short version: "I'm sorry I'm a stupid asshole. I wish I wasn't but I am. Stupid. Asshole. Me. Sorry."
January 15, 2009 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love that concise apology! I could've used it myself several times...
January 15, 2009 3:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lars sez:
"Jokes based on race find a home on a particularly low rung of the ladder of humor."
Gee. What about Richard Pryor, Dick Gregory, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Flip Wilson, Godfrey Cambridge, Bill Cosby, Redd Foxx, Moms Mabley, DL Hughley, the Wayans Brothers, and on and on and on...? Or How about Don Rickles, or Steve (I was born a poor blkack child) Martin, or George Carlin?
Race humor can be hilarious. This guy's biggest problem was that he's just not funny. He's got much bigger problems now.
January 15, 2009 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
A brief experiment: "I like my cars Shaquille O'Neal style: big and orange."
If you said that to several people, how many of them wouldn't think to ask in what way Shaq is orange? Not many, because everyone's pretty well versed in the structure of analogies and jokes. What would be your response? "Oh, I just meant that I like orange cars." Would that make sense to anyone?
John Tanner is a liar. I'm surprised that he didn't also say that "black" referred to the coffee having no milk, cream or other non-dairy additive.
January 15, 2009 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a schmuck, schlmiel and scheisskopf!! The man gives new meaning to the concept of pendejismo (lit., the state of being a pubic hair, trans., the state of being a rectum)
January 15, 2009 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I saved a Paul Kiel TPM Muck posting from 10/12/07, "Bush's Legacy on Voting Rights: A Story from Ohio" regarding a June '05 letter from Tanner assuring Ohio election officials that the DOJ found no evidence of intentional Af Am voter disenfranchisement during the 2004 election. This is contrary to an investigation by John Conyers and was reported in Wa Po. It appears the racism exhibited in Tanner's comments seeped into his work at the DOJ. Perhaps some of his investigations should be re-examined to see if he violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act to cover for GOP misdeeds during the 2004 election.
As someone who personally witnessed the misallocation of voting machines in Franklin County, OH, I would like to see justice brought for these actions. It's more than racist rhetoric. It is criminal actions in misrepresenting blatant suppression of African Americans from voting. I hope Tanner faces justice for his actions.
January 15, 2009 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would like to know what he has been doing in Alabama. Has he been working, on taxpayer time, with Republicans to develop a Republican plan for redistricting after the 2010 census?
January 15, 2009 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
That has to be one of the worst non-apologies I've ever read. Why did he even bother?
January 15, 2009 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm very very sorry...
(that I got caught.)
I will never say anything racist again...
(if I think I might get caught.)
I respect you...
(Go f**k yourself.)
January 15, 2009 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a fuckin white-trash butt-fucking cracker republican hillbilly.
Oh....somebody heard that?......I'm sorry. I said white-trash because I heard somebody ask me to take out the trash. My bad. I promise I won't ever say white-trash again.
January 15, 2009 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
If he had just written, "I am sorry for any pain I may have caused you." It would at least sounded somewhat sincere. This is just bigot bullsh*t. Why can't these ignorant people join society? Personally I wouldn't let them. If Tanner hasn't resigned, when he does it shouldn't be accepted and he should be fired. This should follow him where ever and when ever. Right, he was involved in civil rights activities. Trying to prevent them just as he did in the civil rights division of DOJ and as he is now. What a waste of a human being.
January 15, 2009 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
The comment was not primarily meant as an insult to one person. Really it was a joke being shared among the wolves running the hen house--a congratulatory pat on the back just for being wolves. It's 'Giddy Official Racism'. It's really much worse than an insult by one individual to another. Its an indication of what the culture was like in the office.
January 15, 2009 3:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
The "current" administration has thrown justice so far afield that the future DOJ could need a full four years properly investigate and prosecutes already done deeds. If we were to catch Bin Laden tomorrow, he might have to wait until 2014 just to get arraigned???
January 15, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
How cleverly these morons apologize..."gee, I'm sorry if you were offended..." but not sorry they said it in the first place.
January 15, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is reminiscent to my 4 year old nephew apologising for stealing a cookie. He doesn't know what he is sorry for but knows he should do so. An apology will not suffice at any rate. The long-term damage has been done in terms of tainted investigations (moreover non-investigations), policies, and hirings performed on his watch...a rolling back the clock on strides made in the name of civil rights...career legal positions now held by pro-right christian college grads with a clearly partism agenda. This is the real Bush legacy; a timebomb to gut the civil rights aspect of the DOJ from within
January 15, 2009 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shorter John Tanner:
"I'm sorry you found out like most of the remaining Republicans in this country I'm a cracker and a bigot."
I'm just surprised he didn't enclose a copy of "Barack the Magic Negro". I guess we should consider that progress for these parasites.
January 15, 2009 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Poor baby.
January 15, 2009 6:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Looks like Tanner still has a lot to learn about making apologies.
-AF
Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
January 15, 2009 8:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmph. If Tanner worked for SCLC, he was probably an FBI informant.
January 15, 2009 9:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly what I was thinking!
January 16, 2009 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
unclesmedley: your take is interesting. Yes, racial humor is great, as is other types of humor that focuses on diferences among people. Ever read Truly Tasteless Jokes (vol. 1-10) by Blanche Knott? Very funny.
Your comment, however, ignores the obvious- Tanner is a bigot and that is not funny.
January 16, 2009 10:28 AM | Reply | Permalink