The recent accusation that Anna Ginsburg, a longtime Democratic party mover, peace advocate and civil rights activist, was overheard making a racist comment is hard for the EYE to believe. There is nothing in Ginsburg’s past to suggest she harbors any racist thoughts. To the contrary, most of her life work points in the opposite direction. Anna knocked on doors in the 22nd Ward in the campaigns of Kenneth Jones and she worked tirelessly in the elections of former Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. and the former Comptroller Virvus Jones.
It is not out of character for Anna to say, “Mayor Slay is firing all of the blacks,” and that probably would get her in trouble with an extremely sensitive Slay administration, which the EYE has criticized for operating what looks like a one-way revolving door in the retention of African Americans in the mayor’s second term. What is hard to believe is that she would then add the racist remark, “And it’s a good thing.” Perhaps someone else in City Hall said that? Perhaps that person was channelling the zeitgeist of the administration?