(Michigan City, IN) - The city council in Michigan City is asking the mayor to resign.  The vote last night was unanimous.  The decision was in response to Mayor Duane Parry using language viewed by many as racist.  The words were left on the voice mail of a black minister after Parry thought he had hung up the phone.

 

Councilwoman Angie Nelson Deutch said she would feel the same way had the words been

directed at any individual.  “It could have been not only black people.  I would have felt the same way had it been against someone of another race, if it had been someone with a gender identity, LGBTQ, if it was somebody who was less able.  Any of those things would still bring us to this position,” she said.

 

Parry said he has already begun cultural and diversity counseling and again apologized, vowing “nothing like this will ever happen again.”  “I’m going to fix what is unacceptable about my behavior,” he said. 

 

Parry also said he will not step down.  “I respect the action of the council.  I will say definitively that I am not going to resign the position of mayor of Michigan City.  Why?   Because I can’t.  I am not a quitter.  I have never quit on anything in my life.  I am going to overcome that and I am not going to start by being a quitter tonight,” he said.

 

Parry, a republican, is in the second year of a four-year term.