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US Navy 030820-N-9851B-011 Tug boats guide USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) up the Elizabeth River, past Portsmouth landmarksIn 1858, Portsmouth became an independent city in Virginia. It’s home to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Navy Medical Center. The population is slightly over 95,000 people as of 2010. Blacks make up 55% of that population. 

Before Blacks became the majority, Portsmouth’s population was mostly white. Virginia once being the home of the Confederacy, Portsmouth was one of the cities where many Confederate soldiers called home.

In 1861, Portsmouth gave over 1,200 men to the Confederate armed forces to fight in the American Civil War to prevent slavery from being abolished. Despite their efforts, the Confederates lost. The racists –who were left alive– returned back to Portsmouth sulking with their pride shattered knowing they would go down in history as a pack of losers.

Portsmouth Confederate Monument by Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States – Portsmouth, Virginia Uploaded by Albert Herring  CC BY-SA 2.0

In 1876 — eleven years after the Civil War– they erected a 35-foot granite monstrosity also known as a Confederate monument to commemorate the fallen racists and to tower over and taunt the people who they enslaved for generations to come simply because they wanted equality and inclusion. Still consumed with bitterness and hatred, they passed on the only legacy they had left to their posterity– bigotry.

Bigotry and power is an explosive combination especially when it’s given a platform.

Bill Moody – Photo By: Portsmouthva.gov

Portsmouth Councilman William “Bill” Moody is infamous for making derogatory and offensive remarks on social media. According to Vpap.org, Bill Moody’s political affiliation is independent. However, his social media rhetoric is antebellum, far-right, racist and insulting.

He is a diehard Trump supporter who uses social media to voice his pathetic frustrations about social issues, incite hatred and encourage division without any consequences from these platforms.

Moody faced criticism when he took to Twitter to support the controversial statement made by Trump when he suggested that four minority Congresswomen go back to where they came from. A statement that is deemed as a classic white supremacist response. Another typical white supremacist response is to defend it as Moody did.

In this tweet, he seemed to be taunting Democrats and minorities alike with an offensive tweet that added fuel to the race war the Trump administration have been establishing since 2016. Hundreds of people flocked to his Twitter page and rebuked him for his controversial comment.

The next day, he posted another divisive tweet repeating himself, while blaming WAVY 10 News for being unfair.

He received more backlash condemning his views, including from his colleague Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke. Burke brought to light several issues concerning blacks in Portsmouth that she didn’t feel that Moody was handling. “She condemned her colleague’s words and, more broadly, his treatment of issues important to black people in Portsmouth: the removal of a Confederate monument from downtown, a perennial fight between the school division and the city over education funding, and, most recently, the ouster of Police Chief Tonya Chapman, who said she was forced to leave for fighting systemic racism within her ranks.”

James Boyd – Photo By: 13NewsNow.com

James Boyd, president of the Portsmouth NAACP clapped back at Moody. “The term, go back where you came from, is not just a statement it’s not about being discontented with the country. It is a derogatory and an offensive statement that African Americans, black folks, have been dealing with for generations it speaks to hate and it speaks to bigotry,” Boyd replied.

Moody’s offensive and racially insensitive comments make you wonder why is he a city official in a city that’s population is predominantly black. That’s more evidence of white supremacist behavior which is placing themselves in leadership positions over ethnic groups, similar to slave masters.

He continues to maintain that he is not a racist. However, he agrees with racist statements, defends racist people, keeps silent about issues that affect blacks and police brutality.  The Trump administration who has depicted various ethnic groups as the nation’s problem since the 2016 presidential campaign has Moody’s full support. And why shouldn’t he? Under the Trump administration he is a part of a protected race of people, to hell with everyone else.

When issues that affect black people take center stage, Moody is still trying to push his own agenda. It’s never about what the people want. 

The Portsmouth NAACP and protesters wanted to remove the 127-year old Confederate monument in Portsmouth after the brutal murder of George Floyd, but Moody opposed it saying, “Removing history is something I associate with bad government, communist government, fascist government,” Councilman Bill Moody said during a city council meeting. He said the monuments and museums exist “to remind us to never let this happen again.”

If you noticed, Moody uses the word “I” in the beginning of his statement to project his agenda and keep Portsmouth back in an antebellum era. His policies are proving to be outdated and oppressive. This is what happens when power falls into the wrong hands.

The Confederate monument was erected to commemorate racist soldiers who much rather risked their lives to fight to keep people as property. It was strategically placed in Olde Towne near the courthouse, a place of power for them where they would whip runaway slaves that were caught. 

Moody shares a similar mentality with the Confederate soldiers and generals, they didn’t want Portsmouth to progress either. They just fought to keep things the same much like he does. 

He doesn’t care what people of color want, he’s implementing his own agendas and forcing others to accept it, much like his idol, Trump. People of color don’t need to be reminded everyday of slavery, a period when we were stomped on, raped, beaten, owned and sold and deemed as an inferior race. The huge wealth gap is reminder enough. No ethnic group should be reminded of oppression. Those statues and its placement are there to remind supremacists of an era when they had it all.

Moody’s conduct is reprehensible and unprofessional for a city official. He spews his nauseating rhetoric every chance he gets while hiding behind the 1st Amendment. All he does is hurl insults. He has even went as far as calling a grandmother a b**** that was defending us.

His views are archaic. He can’t seem to understand why certain things are racially insensitive.

There’s so many things wrong with the tweet above. Native Americans do not dress like a character out of an old western movie which constantly depicted them as savages.  It’s also insensitive to keep using them as logos and symbols. Peggy Flanagan Lt. Governor of Minnesota and a citizen of White Earth Nation of Ojibwe whose opinion actually mattered, described the removal of the racist logo “important and needed change.”

He is in denial about the severity of COVID-19 and won’t acknowledge that Trump is to blame for all the deaths in the U.S. due to his mishandling of it. 

He’s a councilman and a lawmaker in a predominantly black city and has expressed his disdain for protesters. People of color have been using this form of public expression for decades, especially Martin Luther King, Jr. Moody hides behind the 1st Amendment for many of his offensive comments, but attacks others for their right to protest. In this tweet, he classifies protesting with anarchy, rioting and irresponsibility. 


Moody never posted any pictures of the violent acts that police did to peaceful protesters, or when Trump had a priest and other protesters teargassed in front of a church, to get them removed so he could stand there and use the church as a backdrop for his photo-op.

He was outraged when he saw Mitt Romney come out in solidarity with protesters at the White House.


He’s gullible when it comes to conspiracy theories. He fell harder than a fool in love for this one.

George Soros didn’t send anyone to Minneapolis. St. Paul’s Minnesota Mayor Melvin Carter admitted that he was wrong about “every person”  arrested in violent protests in Minneapolis being from out of state. Carter was misinformed during a police briefing. He had to reverse his statement after a local news outlet analyzed data from the Hennepin County Jail’s roster and discovered that the majority of the people arrested were citizens of Minneapolis and surrounding areas.

However, it was confirmed by the Department of Public Safety that white supremacist groups were plotting to incite violence and encourage people on social media to loot and cause damage to Minneapolis. Isn’t it convenient how Moody left that part out?

He idolizes Trump. Moody supported warmongering Trump sending in the American military to attack Americans.

Beware of a man that idolizes a dictator and can’t see his flaws. He views Trump through rose-colored glasses.

For the grand finale of Bill Moody’s Twitter Rants, take a look at this tweet he retweeted. It happens to be one of the biggest lies Trump has ever told in his lifetime.

FBI data shows that hate crimes skyrocketed the day after Trump was elected.

Moody should’ve been recalled for his derogatory, racist and offensive remarks. His conduct is unprofessional for his position. He is too out of touch and biased to be making laws for a city with a high population of people of color. Moody’s against everything we believe in. Unfortunately, he’s managed to keep getting reelected as a city official in Portsmouth for 22 years. If he made some of those tweets while working at a corporation he would’ve been fired by now. Moody was quick to point his fingers at former Mayor Kenny Wright’s flaws, but refuses to acknowledge his own. It’s bad enough Twitter leaves his derogatory tweets up, but others get suspended for trivial things. His term is ending December 31, 2022. Take a stand. Vote him out of office.

 

Portsmouth Councilman Twitter Rants Are Unprofessional, Offensive & Divisive

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