Much ado about nothing: NAACP sees racism where it doesn't exist

Goldsboro Police Chief Mike West has come under fire from the local chapter of the NAACP because of what that organization deems to be a racist posting on his personal Facebook page.

A friend photoshopped West's face and Donald Trump's hair together and the chief wrote that he was trying to make the police department great again, borrowing the words from Trump's signature phrase.

The NAACP has called for West to be suspended and punished. City officials have said they have no such plans and that West has the right to express his political opinion.

We think the NAACP is going out of its way to make this into a racial issue. If anyone is looking at the situation through a racially tinted lens, it is the NAACP.

There is nothing inherently racist about the posting. You simply cannot legitimately say that Trump's phrase, or West's parody of it, constitute a racial statement. The connection just isn't there. NAACP leaders say the phrase is a veiled version of "make America white again." If that is what is in their minds, they put it there. There is nothing in the words themselves that leads logically to that interpretation.

Chief West has apologized for the photo and taken it down, saying he did not realize that it would offend anyone. We believe him. It didn't offend anyone except a handful of people who see the world through racist eyes.

Published in Editorials on January 28, 2017 11:27 PM