WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 21: U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama dance during the Public Inaugural Ball at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on January 21, 2013 in Washington, DC. President Obama was sworn in for his second term earlier in the day. Credit: Getty Images
A high school coach and teacher in Alabama has been suspended for 10 days and barred from teaching his psychology class for the rest of the year after he went off on an anti-gay and anti-Michelle Obama rant during class. The audio of the rant made it to the local paper and quickly took off from there.
"...[T]hose lunches - you get 600-calorie lunches - you know who's behind that?" head football coach Bob Grisham of Lauderdale County High School was caught saying during a class last week. "Fat butt Michelle Obama."
He continued: "And look … look at her. She looks like she weighs 185 or 190. She's overweight."
But the rant didn't end there. The local paper the Times Daily has the rest, which included comments about "queers" [emphasis added]:
You'd better be aware of it. And people running around like, oh it'll get better, it'll get better. No, it ain't gone get no better until things change. I can give you example after example of that, but I don't want to use any local names to give you examples. Things won't get better until there's a change in some areas and stuff. And you know what his platform was? Change. We're gone change. We're all … aw it's OK …. for … and … y'all can get pissed off at me or not. You can go tell the principal, you can call the superintendent and tell her. I don't believe in queers, I don't like queers. I don't … I don't hate them as a person but what they do is wrong, it's an abomination against God. I don't like being around queers.
The local school board met in special session on Monday and decided on the punishment, which also includes sensitivity training.
Grisham has defended himself saying he was in a debate situation and misspoke.
Since the comments, Grisham has become the target of criticism.
“We have a history in this country of white people not showing adequate respect for and devaluing the bodies of black women, and this most definitely falls in line with that,” says Ayana Byrd, the co-editor of the book “Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips and Other Parts, told the Washington Post.
You can listen to audio of the rant below:
