A Michigan city council candidate merited shock and ire when she said she wants to keep a local town as white as possible. Jean Cramer made headlines over the weekend when she was posed a question by a moderator on diversifying Marysville, which is reportedly 95% white.
“My suggestion, recommendation: Keep Marysville a white community as much as possible,” Cramer said.
Her statement was recorded by WPHM radio in which gasps can be heard from those in attendance and fellow candidates. However, the reactions didn’t stop Cramer from doubling down on her statement.
“Seriously, in other words, no foreign-born, no foreign people because of what, in our past, we’ve experienced it’s better to have … simply American-born. Put it that way and no foreigners. No.”
The 67-year-old was asked by a Port Huron Times Herald reporter to respond to criticisms from Mayor Kathy Hayman who has biracial grandchildren and a black son-in-law. Cramer, however, didn’t back down and went as far as to call Hayman’s family “wrong.”
“How can I put this? What Kathy Hayman doesn’t know is that her family is in the wrong,” she said. “(A) husband and wife need to be the same race. Same thing with kids. That’s how it’s been from the beginning of, how can I say, when God created the heaven and the earth. He created Adam and Eve at the same time. But as far as me being against blacks, no I’m not,” Cramer said.
It took Hayman a bit to get her bearings, but she later responded to Cramer insensitive comments.
“My son-in-law is a black man and I have biracial grandchildren,” Hayman continued. “And I take this very personally what you’ve said, and I know that there’s nothing I can say that’s going to change your mind. … We just need to have more kindness — that’s it.”
Another candidate, Mike Deising, was just as flabbergasted as the mayor and other candidates.
“Just checking the calendar here and making sure it’s still 2019,” Deising said. “Yeah, I thought we covered civil rights about 50 years ago.”