DHS official resigns after comments linking blacks to ‘laziness’ and ‘promiscuity’

DHS official resigns after comments linking blacks to ‘laziness’ and ‘promiscuity’ came to light

By Eli Rosenberg November 16 at 8:46 PM

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Rev. Jamie Johnson was director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships. (FEMA/Department of Homeland Security)

A political appointee in the Department of Homeland Security abruptly resigned after the disclosure Thursday he previously made derogatory remarks about black people and Muslims on conservative talk radio.

Rev. Jamie Johnson, who was appointed the head of the DHS’s Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships in April, appeared on the program in 2008. The comments resurfaced on Thursday after CNN published a report about them with audio snippets.

The DHS, which had distanced itself from Johnson’s remarks earlier in the day, announced his resignation in the evening.
“His comments made prior to joining the Department of Homeland Security clearly do not reflect the values of DHS and the administration,” said Tyler Q. Houlton, the acting press secretary of the DHS, in a statement.

The news of the comments comes amid a national discussion about race that has grown more heated in recent years. A white supremacist rally at the site of a confederate monument in Charlottesville in August that devolved into violence brought the explosive issue of racial animus to the fore. The DHS’s travel ban, which followed a call by presidential candidate Donald Trump to prevent Muslim immigration, has increased the perception the Trump administration is hostile toward Islam. White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, who appointed Johnson when he was DHS secretary, touched off a firestorm last month when he defended the honor of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and said a “lack of compromise” had caused the Civil War.

[John Kelly calls Robert E. Lee an ‘honorable man’ and says ‘lack of compromise’ caused the Civil War]

Johnson’s incendiary comments about black people came on the show “The Right Balance,” on Accent Radio Network, CNN reported. An unidentified speaker on the show said “a lot of blacks are anti-Semitic” and asked Johnson why.
Johnson extolled the economic successes of American Jews and said “it’s an indictment of America’s black community that has turned America’s major cities into slums because of laziness, drug use and sexual promiscuity,” according to a recording posted by CNN.

Johnson was active in Republican politics in Iowa for years, working for presidential candidates Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Donald Trump in the state, CNN said. He was a regular guest on conservative talk radio shows.

As a guest host on the AM radio program “Mickelson in the Morning,” in Iowa, Johnson spoke harshly of Muslims, saying radical Islam was “faithful Islam.”

“I never call it radical Islam, if anything, it is obedient Islam. It is faithful Islam.” Johnson said, according to audio posted by CNN.

He later said he agreed with the conservative author Dinesh D’Souza that “all that Islam has ever given us is oil and dead bodies over the last millennia and a half.”

In a statement given to CNN before his resignation, Johnson said he regretted the remarks and said they do not represent his personal or professional viewpoint.“I have and will continue to work with leaders and members of all faiths as we jointly look to strengthen our safety and security as an interfaith community,” Johnson said. “Having witnessed leaders from the entire faith spectrum work to empower their communities I now see things much differently.”

[Trump’s Homeland Security pick is caught up in a conflict of interest complaint]

The DHS’s Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships was created in 2006 after hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma to help religious and community organizations respond to emergencies and natural disasters. Its mission is also to “help combat human trafficking and the exploitation of the poor and vulnerable,” according to its website.

According to his biography on the site, Johnson regularly visited disaster areas to help these efforts, and represented the department and FEMA in regular speeches at conferences, churches, schools and civic groups across the country. The bio notes Johnson has worked as a minister and in teaching, consulting and broadcasting.

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In America today, anyone that speaks aloud about what they really think or believe is likely to punished by our socialist system of governance that will not tolerate freedom of opinions and expression. Whether you agree with the feelings of Rev. Jamie Johnson or not, the pretense that his entire merit can be weighed by one or two insensitive comments compared to everything else in his life he has said in done is ridiculous.

Homeland Security Official Who Blamed Slums On 'Lazy Blacks' Quits

Mary Papenfuss
,HuffPost•November 16, 2017

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The Rev. Jamie Johnson says he "unequivocally" no longer agrees with his past statements.
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A Homeland Security official in the Trump administration appointed to cultivate unity among community organizations has quit following publication of earlier comments in which he blamed slums on the “laziness, drug use and sexual promiscuity” of African-Americans.

CNN uncovered the statements the Rev. Jamie Johnson expressed while he was host of a radio program in Iowa and as a guest on other conservative shows. He made the comments about blacks and slums in 2008 on “The Right Balance” on Accent Radio Network, CNN reported.

Johnson also said during his radio appearances from 2008 to 2016 that Islam’s only contribution to the world was oil and “dead bodies,” and that terrorism represented the “true meaning” of Islam. “Jews do not want to cut our heads off; Muslims want to cut our heads off,” he said in 2011.

The Department of Homeland Security announced Johnson’s resignation within hours after the CNN story appeared Thursday.

Johnson was appointed head of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at DHS in April by then-Secretary John Kelly. The center is part of a network including the White House and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Ironically, Johnson was tasked with engaging a “broader cross-section of faith and community-based organizations” in helping to respond more effectively to disasters such as hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, according to the department’s website. The center is also supposed to help combat human trafficking and the “exploitation of the poor and vulnerable.”

Following the CNN story, Johnson told the network that “unequivocally” his past statements “do not represent my views personally or professionally.” He apologized for the “manner in which those thoughts were expressed in the past.”

He added: “Having witnessed leaders from the entire faith spectrum work to empower their communities, I now see things much differently.”

The FEMA website boasted of Johnson’s background in ministry, broadcasting, teaching, consulting, organizational leadership [and] international humanitarian relief.” He worked for several years on GOP political races and issues in Iowa, including on the campaigns of Rick Santorum and Donald Trump, The Washington Post noted.

Before DHS announced he was stepping down, agency spokesman Tyler Houlton said that some of the comments were made “nearly a decade ago,” and that Johnson had apologized for them. Houlton also said that Johnson has “proven himself as a valuable supporter and proponent of the interfaith community’s recovery efforts” after the recent hurricanes.

A DHS statement later announcing Johnson’s resignation said that “his comments made prior to joining the Department of Homeland Security clearly do not reflect the values of DHS and the administration.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/homeland-...032626505.html