Alabama State Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, has been in the news a lot lately for his bigoted comments on everything from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to interracial adoption, but nothing can compare to what Holmes said on the radio last week when presented with the opportunity to clarify his position on marriage.
“Now, I’m for interracial marriage,” Holmes said after a long diatribe claiming most white Alabamians are not. “I’m for same-sex marriage. I’m the one that introduced the bill to have same-sex marriage. I don’t care who marry who. If a man meet a little mule and he wanna get married to the little mule, as long as he and the little mule get along all right, that’s fine with me. It doesn’t bother me any kind of way.”
AUDIO: (Holmes’ comments begin around the 2-minute mark)
Holmes stunning comments come on the heels of a two-month run during which the long-time state representative has seemingly sought to propel himself into the national spotlight as one of the left’s preeminent race baiters.
Holmes started by going to the microphone on the floor of the Alabama House to call Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas an “Uncle Tom” and to criticize him for marrying a white woman.
A few days later, Sean Hannity sent David Webb, a Fox News correspondent, to Alabama to ask Rep. Holmes if he stood by his description of Justice Thomas as an “Uncle Tom.”
(Above: Rep. Holmes talks about his racist comments on HANNITY)
“Yes I do,” Holmes replied without hesitation. “I think Justice Thomas on the United States Supreme Court is an Uncle Tom. A black man allowed himself to be used to carry the message of a white man, which is against the interests of black people in America. In my opinion that’s an Unlce Tom. In my opinion, Clarence Thomas is a very prolific Uncle Tom.”
Webb then asked Holmes to respond to a recent controversy in which the North Carolina NAACP president called black Republican US Senator Tim Scott a ventriloquist’s “dummy.” Holmes seemed to agree with the NAACP official’s characterization of Sen. Scott, and said it was about Scott not being a role model for the next generation of black leaders.
“If you get to be a United States senator, and every position you take is the position that the white folks tell you to take, what incentive is that going to be for young blacks?” Holmes asked.
Webb told Hannity that it was clear Holmes was not very familiar with the positions taken by Sen. Scott on specific issues, but he decided to ask Holmes how he knows Sen. Scott always takes the positions that the “white folks” tell him to take.
“Because every report I have read, he goes by what the white people been telling him,” Holmes replied. “If a white holding those positions votes against the interests of black people, we call them racist. If a black is in a position and votes against the interests of black people, we call him an Uncle Tom.”
Webb, a black conservative activist and commentator, called Holmes’ statements “hypocritical” and “disingenuous,” among other things.
A few weeks later during a debate in the Alabama House of Representatives about a pro-life bill, Holmes went to the mic again, the time to claim that white pro-lifers in the Legislature would be in favor of aborting a child if their own daughters or granddaughters got pregnant by a black man.
“Ninety-nine percent of the all of the white people in here are going to raise their hand that they are against abortion,” Holmes said. “On the other hand, 99 percent of the whites who are sitting in here now, if their daughter got pregnant by a black man, they are going to make their daughter have an abortion.”
AUDIO:
Holmes also offered $100,000 to anyone who could show him “a bunch of whites” who had adopted black babies in Alabama.
A group of families who had adopted children of a different race launched a Facebook page called “Faces of Families in Alabama” to prove Holmes wrong, and boy did they ever.
Mixed-race families from all over the state sent in pictures and over 13,000 people “liked” the page in a bout a week-and-a-half.
Last week, Faces of Families held a rally on the steps of the Alabama State House to prove Holmes wrong once and for all. Multi-racial adoptive families from all across Alabama showed up, but even though Holmes had been invited to attend, he was nowhere to be found.
In spite of the avalanche of evidence presented over the last several weeks, Holmes has still not changed his position.
”The majority of the white people in the state of Alabama are against adopting black children,” he once again told a local television station.
Beverly Owings, an adoptive mom who has a 13-year-old bi-racial daughter, said Holmes “should have to put his money where his mouth is,” but added that the Faces of Families rally was “not about money, but about changing Holmes opinion. And about getting out the word about how many children are available for adoption in Alabama.”
Mrs. Owings and her husband were guests on WVAS, a local radio station, last week to talk about the entire sequence of events when Rep. Holmes decided to call in to the show to defend his position.
“Do you think the white people of Alabama would let me adopt a white baby?” he asked. “Do you think the white folks in Alabama, the white authorities will permit Alvin Holmes to adopt a white baby in Alabama? Now just answer that yes or no.”
Owings responded to Holmes’ question with a “yes.” Holmes broke out into laughter. “I will tell you,” Owings continued, “after what we went through in the adoption process, if I had made the negative, racist statements that you have made, then no, they would not have allowed me to adopt a biracial child.”
Holmes dismissed the rally the inter-racial adoptive families organized, saying, “You can get a little handful of folks to any kind of rally … you can have a rally for Mussolini.”
What do you think about Rep. Holmes’ comments? Let us know in the comments or by tweeting @YHPolitics.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
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