By Micha Green, AFRO Washington, D.C. Editor, mgreen@afro.com
Lawmakers and advocacy organizations are condemning and calling for the resignation of Maryland’s Harford County Delegate Mary Ann Lisanti (D) after she reportedly used a racial slur in regards to Prince George’s County at an after-hours gathering at a cigar bar in Annapolis.
Lisanti allegedly flippantly told another White lawmaker that when she campaigned in Prince George’s County on behalf of another candidate, he was reaching out in a, “ni***r district.” According to NBC News, she told The Washington Post earlier this month that she did not remember using the word, yet was sure, “everyone has used it.” Since her first defense of the racial slur, justifying the word as a term in quotidian vocabulary, Lisanti apologized for her blunder in a statement.
“I deeply apologize to the citizens of my district, people of Maryland, all of my colleagues in the Maryland General Assembly and everyone reading this for my word choice several weeks ago,” Lisanti said. “I am sickened that a word that is not in my vocabulary came out of my mouth. It does not represent my belief system, my life’s work or what is in my heart.”
Despite her apology, Lisanti was stripped of her chairwoman positions on House subcommittee and joint committee on unemployment insurance.
“While I believe her apology was heartfelt, the damage among her colleagues and the public has been done,” House Speaker Michael Busch wrote in a statement. “I met with her this morning and expressed my extreme disappointment and concern over her irresponsible and hurtful actions. I informed her that she would no longer chair the Unemployment Insurance Subcommittee, as I believe that leaders in the House need to be able to bring people together- not tear them apart.”
According to Busch’s statement, Lisanti has agreed to do “sensitivity training,” in hopes of her developing, “a greater understanding of the impact that she has had on her fellow legislators and the entire House of Delegates.”
“Like anyone who has made a mistake, she has the opportunity for redemption – but it is her responsibility to do so and earn back the trust of her colleagues,” Busch wrote.
However, organizations such as the ACLU are not interested in giving Lisanti a chance to redeem her verbal faux pas.
“We join Marylanders from across the state who are calling for Del. Mary Ann Lisanti to resign immediately. The ACLU is committed not only to defending people’s rights but also to calling out and upending systems that perpetuate white supremacy in our institutions, like the General Assembly. We should never accept blatant racism from anyone, much less our elected leaders,” ACLU of Maryland Executive Director Dana Vickers Shelley wrote in a statement.
Shelley challenged Lisanti’s defense of everybody using the n-word.
“No, Del. Lisanti, not everyone uses that word. It’s the most pernicious, vile, and hateful word of all. That word is part of a legacy of intentional violence and oppression perpetrated by white people for centuries, especially here in Maryland,” Shelley added.
The Maryland ACLU executive director explained that Lisanti’s usage and superficial defense of the use of the n-word proved her lack of ability to serve as a leader.
“Del. Lisanti not only said the racial slur publicly, denigrating the majority Black constituents of her colleagues from Prince George’s County, but also does not seem to think it is unusual to use the slur. This raises grave concerns about her ability to honorably represent Black residents of Harford County, and all residents across the State who care about fairness and racial equity,” she wrote.
“Del. Lisanti, you must step down.”
Maryland Congressman Anthony Brown (D), who represents Prince George’s and Anne Arundel Counties and served as former Prince George’s lieutenant governor, also released a statement calling for Lisanti’s resignation.
“Ms. Lisanti’s use of a racial slur and her inability to fully grasp the offensiveness of the word has demonstrated that she clearly cannot represent the voters in Harford County who put her in office,” he wrote.
Brown explained that Lisanti’s use of the n-word was debasing and has no place in any vocabulary.
“In 2019, we should not have to explain the seriousness of using this epithet. This hateful word was, and is still callously used in an effort to dehumanize black Americans,” he said, before emphasizing his desire for Lisanti to step down.
“I am honored to represent the people of Prince George’s County, and I am proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland in their call for Delegate Lisanti to resign.
