Joe St. Columbia and Marilyn Davenport -- Cousins By Ideology?

Helena-West Helena -- EmailGate has engulfed this community for the last several weeks. Joe St. Columbia, local public official known for his penchant for racial insensitivity, started a firestorm when he delivered a false email claiming that $13 million in city funds were missing and summing the story up with "This is what happens when you put Monkeys in to run the Zoo."

Joe St. Columbia

When confronted, St. Columbia did everything but the right thing: APOLOGIZE, ACT CONTRITE AND PROMISE NOT TO REPEAT. Instead, St. Columbia dug in his heels and prepared himself for battle. St. Columbia has been quoted as saying "I won't let them run me off." He continued, "I will never resign and the people of my ward support everything I am doing." St. Columbia told a Memphis, TN television reporter, "If they (African-Americans) don't like it (his emails) then that's their problem."

St. Columbia has his share of defenders including a young lady, who may be unhappy with life, who has a penchant for calling St. Columbia opposers "IDIOTS." On St. Columbia's behalf, the city council room was filled on Tuesday, April 19th with many residents being from Ward Two (2). To his supporters' surprise, it seemed, Marvin Jarrett produced, in color, two (2) additional BIGOTED emails sent by St. Columbia. The audience was stilled and chilled upon seeing those emails which degraded black women and berated black people.

St. Columbia opened his mouth and seemed to have been about to apologize. But, he remembered who he was and became more defiant claiming he had "nothing more to say." Oddly enough, he had not said anything worthy of repetition at that point. His words caused the audience to reflect upon the lyrics "Nothing from nothing leaves nothing."

Marilyn Davenport:

Scott Moxley wrote this:

"For those of you who've been vacationing on the other side of the planet, Orange County endured another embarrassment in recent days when a Republican Party official distributed an email with an image depicting President Barack Obama and his parents as chimpanzees, and then, at least temporarily, angrily defended the stunt as non-racist."

Scott continues like this:

OC Republican Central Committee member Marilyn Davenport, who sent to fellow conservatives on April 15 the Obama-is-a-chimp image along with the words, "Now you know why no birth certificate." She thought the picture was hilarious in light of New York billionaire Donald Trump's recent musings on the issue of the president's birthplace.

After being tipped about the email, I contacted Davenport, an elderly grandmother who lives inFullerton and counts Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater as her heroes. She honestly did not consider her act as racist, as best I can tell. But it didn't help that among her defenses was a demand for the "coward" who leaked the story to come forward and her suggestion she couldn't be racist because she has black friends.

See the Scott Moxley Story by clicking this Link.

Davenport said she was not racist because she has black friends. St. Columbia said that he is not racist because he has black friends. Davenport's email was about a Chimpanzee. St. Columbia's email was about a monkey. Davenport is an elderly white woman. St. Columbia is an elderly white man. Davenport was making fun of President Barack Obama. St. Columbia was making fun of Mayor Arnell Willis aka "The Mayuh." Arguably, perhaps, these make them cousins in their ideology.

The single distinction is that Davenport had the home-training to cause her to apologize. Joe, on the other hand, has yet to apologize.

Here are the photos to help you understand the context of these stories.

St. Columbia Photo:

Davenport Photo:

Davenport's email claims that this photo shows why President Obama's birth certificate can't be found