Michigan county official defends slur, says he's not racist

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. An official in a mostly white county in northern Michigan who used a racial slur prior to a public meeting to describe African Americans in Detroit repeated the word Friday in an interview with The Associated Press in which he maintained that he is not a racist.

Tom Eckerle, a member of the Leelanau County Road Commission, spent much of the interview attacking Black Lives Matter, saying a mention of the decentralized movement against racial injustice and police brutality is what set him off ahead of a Tuesday meeting.

I’m not a racist, Eckerle told the AP. Black Lives Matter is racist. If I believed in Black Lives Matter, I would be racist. … Black Lives Matter has no heart. And that is as offensive to me as the N-word, he added, then used the full racial slur.

If I could get a few people that, when they see a Black Lives Matter sign up, to think the N-word, I have accomplished what I’m after, he added.

Eckerle, 75, has drawn criticism and calls to resign from his commission post since the Leelanau Enterprise reported his original comments, which weren’t officially recorded because the meeting had not started.

According to the newspaper, a colleague asked Eckerle why he wasn’t wearing a mask. Eckerle replied, Well this whole thing is because of them (racial slur) down in Detroit.

Road Commission Chair Bob Joyce told Eckerle that he couldnt say that, the newspaper reported, to which Eckerle responded: I can say anything I want. Black Lives Matter has everything to do with taking the country away from us.

Joyce later rebuked Eckerle a second time.

Asked by the AP whether he had used the slur, Eckerle replied, I did say that and I will not go away from it.

But he insisted it had nothing to do with me wearing a mask and nothing to do with coronavirus.

He said it arose during a conversation involving Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer “and her liberal ideas” and with keeping children out of school because of the pandemic. They need to be back in school, said Eckerle, a Republican.

At some point, he said, the subject of Black Lives Matter came up. That’s what got me over the end, he said.

He also complained about removal of Confederate statues, calls to cut police funding and cities being held hostage.

Eckerle, a farmer, was elected to a six-year term on the road commission in 2018. The panel oversees snow removal and other maintenance and repair work in the rural county about 270 miles (436 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. The county has about 21,700 residents, about 90% of whom are white. Blacks make up less than 1% of the population.

State Rep. Jack OMalley, a Republican whose district includes Leelanau County, said in a Facebook post that he had spoken with Eckerle, who rejected O’Malley’s request that he resign.

This type of racial slur is flat-out unacceptable and ignorant,” O’Malley said in a statement.

Asked by the AP whether he intended to resign, Eckerle said, That’s my business.

O’Malley said he could be removed through a citizen recall, or the county board of commissioners could ask Whitmer to fire him.

Marshall Collins Jr., 44, a Black resident of Leelanau County, said Eckerle should be removed from office by any means necessary.

“When people say there isn’t racism any more, the proof is in the pudding. Its right here in front of us and we choose to ignore it, Collins said.

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