Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, like all of us, knows this pandemic is far from over. Over the past few weeks Mayor Bottoms has been at the forefront of trying to keep the people in the city of Atlanta safe. Unfortunately, when you live in a Republican run state, these common sense measures are met with hateful scorn.
Wednesday evening, Mayor Bottoms shared this screenshot on Twitter:
Mayor Bottoms's Twitter followers were quick to show their solidarity:
When Reopen Georgia was asked about this, a rep told CBS 46 News: "I've moderated thousands of messages a day for the past week on our group and not seen one racist comment. We do not have a Georgia.gov email address, either. This comment is mostly likely from a troll trying to tar our group, but even if not, the person absolutely does not speak on our behalf. The leadership team universally condemns racism and hate speech. We actively work to limit even divisive political speech, as ours is a diverse movement that encompasses Georgians of every type. I hope Mayor Bottoms will take heart in knowing that in the past few minutes since a group member shared the post, condemning it and demanding to know who did it, even though it's late at night and few are active, dozens of our members have already, universally, condemned the racist message that she received. We respectfully request that the mayor let her twitter followers know that we disavow this hideous racist message sent to her fraudulently in our name."
Mayor Bottoms, we here at Gaye support you entirely, and we find it egregiously unacceptable that someone would go to such disgusting lengths to try and get you to do what they want rather than what's best for everyone. You handled this situation with grace and class, and we appreciate leadership like yours during this time.
#Gaye fam, go off in the comments. Stay safe and look out for one another!