Alabama lawmaker sends shocking RACIST rant to gun-rights constituent, and copies every member of the state legislature



A black member of the Alabama legislature uncorked a racist tirade in an email this week to a constituent who urged him not to embrace new gun control laws - copying his incendiary language to every member of the state legislature.



Joseph Mitchell, a Democrat who has represented parts of the city of Mobile since 1994 and ran for re-election unopposed in 2010 and 2006, castigated a voter named Eddie Maxwell, a Jefferson County man whom he correctly presumed was white.



'Hey man,' Mitchell wrote. 'Your folk never used all this sheit [sic] to protect my folk from your slave-holding, murdering, adulterous, baby-raping, incestuous, snaggle-toothed, backward-a**ed, inbreed [sic], imported criminal-minded kin folk.'

Lashing out: State Rep. Joe Mitchell, D-Mobile, pictured, lashed out in an email to a man who asked him and other lawmakers not to pass any laws that would restrict gun ownership

The email he was responding to asked him, and the other members of the Alabama legislature, to keep state gun laws in step with the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees citizens access to firearms.



'Do not violate your oath of office by introducing additional gun control bills,' Maxwell urged Mitchell, or by allowing those already enacted to remain in the body of our laws.'

The exchange, which occurred during a stretch of two weeks ending on February 13, was first reported by Yellow Hammer Politics , an Alabama-based conservative political blog. Mobile's Press-Register published the complete, unedited email chain Wednesday morning.



Mitchell's reply also suggested that he favored arming black Alabamians before enforcing new gun-control measures, in case they needed to defend themselves from racist white southerners.

Accused: Eddie Maxwell, pictured, replied back to Mitchell by defending himself as not racist and offended by his accusation, especially coming from someone in office

'You can keep sending me stuff like you have however,' he wrote, 'because it helps me explain to my constituents why they should protect that 2nd amendment thing AFTER we [blacks] finish stocking up on spare parts, munitions and the like.'

'Bring it,' he concluded. 'As one of my friends in the Alabama Senate suggested – "BRING IT!!!!"'



Maxwell, a retired coal miner, objected to amending the state constitution with new gun laws 'when the change is forbidden by the people.'

'You have sworn to support our constitution,' his initial email read. 'Do not violate your oath of office by introducing additional gun control bills or by allowing those already enacted to remain in the body of our laws.'



After reading Mitchell's race-laden reply, Maxwell sent another follow-up email.



'That's not the type of reply I expect to receive from a state legislator,' he wrote.



'I'm not a racist and I find your reply to be especially offensive considering the position you hold.'



All eyes: Mitchell continued to argue with the gun activist who also accused him of being racist in emails sent back and forth while continually CC'd to fellow lawmakers

'My parents and grandparents taught me to love God and my fellow man as myself. My father was threatened by members of his church back in 1954 for inviting a black family to attend the church he pastored.



'My father-in-law was threatened when he hired a young negro man to work in his shop back in 1968 in a community where several neighbors were members of the Ku Klux Klan. He didn’t allow those threats to keep him from treating people of all races equally.'



Racial siding: Mitchell, pictured, said in one email that he favored arming black Alabamians before enforcing new gun-control measures, in case they needed to defend themselves from racist white southerners

'Racism,' Maxwell concluded, 'is not exclusive to my own people. I learned that before 1955. It is just as ugly now as it was then, regardless of the race of the person who is consumed by it.'



Mitchell kept the thread going, continuing to copy all his legislative colleagues and insisting that it's impossible for a black man to be a racist.



'Historically, violence on Black folk was committed by White folk,' he insisted. 'It's a fact but is it "racist?" It is "racial."'



'A person without the power to exercise a threat cannot be a racist because he or she will be eliminated. A person who can, by merely stepping back on the sidewalk ore [sic] being quiet can support racism and benefit from the ‘first hired,’ affirmative action, preferential treatment fostered by systemic racism and bigotry.'



Mitchell ended his email with the taunting sign-off: 'Lock and load'



Neither MailOnline nor the Press-Register got responses when they reached out to Mitchell's office for comment.



But Maxwell told the Press-Register that he had no regrets about challenging his elected representative.



'It just makes me more determined that we the people need to stay involved," he told the paper in a telephone interview. 'It's up to us as citizens to watch our government.'



Maxwell also told the Press-Register that two other members of the state legislature have reached out to him to register their shock about their colleague's language.



This member hears you loud and clear,' he said Democratic state Rep. Patricia Todd of Birmingham wrote. 'I just received this chain of emails and wanted to let you know that I am with you on the gun issue and am saddened by the tone of my colleague's email. All of us have suffered from the racism of the past and I thank you for your civic and thoughtful response.'

