Kenny Hardin, Salisbury City Councilman
♦ I need for all my White friends who are legitimately on my Page or who are trolling my page otherwise just to be nosey to listen up.
Over the past several weeks, it has been shared with me that the talk in the Country Club community is that I want the violence that plagues our City to drift over to that area and for “Confederate Avenue to be burned down.” Also I’ve been accused of plotting and planning “to blow Salisbury up,” Finally, I was accused of secretly being behind and encouraging the gun violence here in our town.
Since I’ve heard these fallacies repeated 3-40 times by my White friends whom I’ve appreciated correcting misguided folks in their circle; I want to take this opportunity to put this to rest. That way no one else will have to take me to breakfast or lunch and proclaim that I’m ok once you get to know me.
In a breakfast meeting I was invited to with our City Manager, our Police Chief, our HR Director, William Peoples and Dee Dee Wright back during the Summer, I shared that I had spoken with an angry alleged gang member. The young man passionately exclaimed to me that he and others were so frustrated with this City that they wanted to “burn this motherfucker down and take this shit over there to the Country Club.” I never uttered these words and talked to the young man on channeling his anger in a different direction. So, one of those individuals took that and used it to scare you good people.
In our first candidates forum, another candidate stated that if things are going well, why do we need to blow things up? I responded that things are not going well in our City so we should blow them up. He and I were both referring to processes not terroristic activity. Back in October, while I was with a white friend putting out campaign signs, I was angrily approached by a white gentleman on the street and yelled at angrily accusing me of wanting to bring terrorist violence to our City.
I have been an outspoken vocal critic of all the gun violence. I’ve led community workshops to educate residents in identifying and stopping it. I’ve worked one to one with our Chief on strategies to stop it. My parents home was sprayed with bullets a year ago. So why would I encourage or be happy about gun violence?
So, I’m asking all my White friends to do a public service and stop the rampant misinformation and mischaracterization of me as the stereotypical angry Black boogeyman terrorizing the streets of our City. I’m not a one dimensional caricature character from the racist 1915 movie Birth of a Nation.
I care little about how people perceive me and I will not expend one ounce of energy or time trying to convince anyone of who I am. My work ethic and community involvement speaks for itself.
I hope this goes as viral through the Country Club community and has the same longevity as the misinformation did. I’m being very open with this so no one else will feel compelled to screen shot my page and send it to a TV News station again. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
