Current Ranlo Mayor Lynn Black lost the mayoral race to Corey Creech.
RANLO, N.C. — Current Ranlo Mayor Lynn Black is under fire from the NAACP North Carolina State Conference after remarks made at a town board meeting.
At the Nov. 13 Ranlo town board meeting, Mayor Black discusses his loss to Mayor-Elect Corey Creech, a Black man.
Black says he wished the outcome of the election went differently.
“I was wanting it to be an individual of a superior race,” Black said.
The NAACP North Carolina State Conference put out a statement calling out these words, saying they were “harmful, unacceptable, and well beneath the standards of leadership the people of Ranlo deserve.”
“An elected official has a responsibility to serve the full community, not to promote racist ideology or invoke the false and dangerous concept of racial superiority,” President of NAACP NC Deborah D. Maxwell said. “This rhetoric is divisive and deeply harmful. It has no place in Ranlo, in Gaston County, or anywhere in North Carolina.”
After the comment, Black seems to correct his statement.
“And I’m glad to see that we did get one of the superior race still, and that’s the human race, the only race,” he said. “And I know a lot of people want to go to ethnicities. But, we’re really all of one race, the human race.”
Executive director of NAACP NC Da’Quan Love called for Black’s resignation.
“Mayor Ronnie Black’s comment that ‘he wanted an individual of a superior race’ is not just offensive it is a direct expression of white supremacist ideology,” Love said. “No leader who openly invokes the myth of racial superiority can credibly serve a diverse community. We would like to see the immediate resignation of Mayor Black of Ranlo, NC.”
Black earned about 42% of the vote to Creech’s 58%.
“We look forward to partnering with the new mayor to help build a more inclusive, equitable, and respectful future for Ranlo,” Maxwell said. “This moment calls for leadership grounded in dignity and shared humanity.”
WCNC has reached out to the Ranlo Mayor’s office for a comment.
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