A "wicked" quote...misquoted.
Certain parties are making hay out of a quote by NC's Lt. Governor
Certain parties are making hay out of a “wicked” quote by NC's first Black Lt. Governor Mark Robinson. But the quote is misquoted.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, gubernatorial candidate NC Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, called out the quote made by Robinson during remarks at a church event.
Stein claimed Robinson called teachers, specifically, “wicked.”
Robinson fired right back.
Stein's X comment links to an article on a site called "The Messenger" which claims to be "founded to champion balanced journalism in an era of bias, subjectivity and misinformation, with a mandate to deliver the news — not shape it — and a clear vision of earning our readers’ trust and rekindling their passion for media."
Columbia Journal Review says the quiet part out loud in their May 2023 write-up of The Messenger, which, in a nutshell, boils down to a click-bait model with millions in funding from "secret" donors that progressive media personalities don't think it's partisan enough.
Here is how The Messenger presented the quote by Robinson:
“We're going to work like heck in Raleigh to make sure these schools get straightened out, but until they do, I'm gonna tell you what you need to do: If they won't do right, you need to come out from among them, make your own school,” Robinson said in a July speech. “Do not turn your children over to these wicked people. Do not.”
This quote, which came near the very end of the event, is actually not correct.
It runs together two sets of comments that were not said in succession.
Here's what Robinson actually said:
“We're going to work like heck in Raleigh to make sure these schools get straightened out, but until they do, I'm gonna tell you what you need to do: If they won't do right, you need to come out from among them, make your own school."
"Make it at the church house, make it at your house, make it at your clubhouse, make it at the VFW. Do it wherever you can. Do not turn your children over to these wicked people,” Robinson said. “Do not…While we work to get these schools back in shape. We don't want to see one child lost."
Robinson then said, "So I encourage you to take advantage of the freedom that our legislature has now given folks to decide where your children are educated. Let's come together to protect these children, folks. The fight is on. It's ready to go, all you gotta do is come join the army."
The full quote, in order, matters. The context also matters.
More To The Story
Robinson’s remarks cited by Stein as quoted by The Messenger were given at the end of a speech he gave in front of the Winkler's Grove Baptist Church in July.
The overall speech was about giving thanks to those who fought to bring us our freedoms and how people should fight to defend those freedoms.
Robinson talked about being in a college classroom and the professor misrepresenting the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Robinson asked the professor if he had actually read the book and the answer was "no."
“They love to talk about the fact that, oh you know, the United States is what it is because of white privilege,” Robinson said. “What do you mean? Like the privilege to go off and die in combat? I don't understand what this privilege is.”
He went on to say, “The privilege to dig for thirty years in a coal mine? The privilege to work in a textile mill? The privilege to work in a furniture factory? The privilege to work in the United States Military? The privilege to serve as a police officer? That's the privilege you mean?”
“These foolish concepts on the Left of why this country is here... It's mind-numbing,” said Robinson.
Without naming the person, Robinson then took aim at a fellow State Board of Education member.
“I serve on the State Board of Education with somebody who has all the privileges you could want. He has a Ph.D. and a wonderful title and cushy job,” Robinson said. “The man won't even stand up and say the Pledge of Allegiance to this country.”
“What a hypocrite! What a filthy hypocrite!” thundered Robinson. “How dare you not have the courage to open your mouth and give thanks to those who came before you?”
Later in his speech, Robinson turned to the topic of “books containing pornography for 5th graders.”
He called out politicians afraid to say anything about those books, but that he's not afraid, adding that people ought to be afraid that we live in a society “where some people think it's ok to give pornography to children.”
"As far as I'm concerned, that's the decline of Western civilization,” Robinson said. “And I do not believe that if we continue to do it that God is going to tolerate it long."
Robinson also touched on abortion and sports allowing men to compete in women's competitions and that there are "only two genders."
Following Robinson’s remarks, the church’s Senior Pastor Paul Deal was wrapping up the event and had a quick back-and-forth with Robinson in which Deal said their congregation wanted to be more involved in combating indoctrination in schools.
Deal told those in attendance how Robinson is a patriot who speaks the truth before describing how the surrounding counties (Catawba, Caldwell, and Burke) are experiencing "school board wars" because of "all the ungodly pornography that is in our schools."
"In our county schools, we have children identifying as animals....as cats and dogs," Deal said. He said teachers are allowing kids to march around the classroom waving the LGBT flag in Burke County and asked Robinson to pray for them as they get ready to "do battle."
Deal said he was asked why this is happening in the schools and he said, Jesus said as it was in the days of Noah and as it was in the days of Lott, so shall it be when I return. He explained those were the days of sodomy when homosexuality was running rampant, saying that if you study Sodom and Gomorrah, "you will find they were indoctrinating the children."
"If you look at the root words - the Hebrew words - you will find out they were converting the children... the children had even been converted,” Deal said.
Deal went on to say they had been preaching for years that Jesus would be coming back soon but never had they preached in a society like ours today where they were indoctrinating our children and teaching children that they might be something other than what God ordained them to be.
Robinson said he's felt encouraged to see people standing up for the kids, like moms and dads. He reiterated part of his earlier remarks about looking in the mirror and strengthening your spine because "we are fighting a cabal of people who are determined not just to keep their control, they are out in the streets saying it - "we are coming for your children."
Reference to a gay pride parade where marchers literally chanted, "We're here, we're queer, we're coming for your children."
"The only thing I say to that is 'you come right ahead'," Robinson replied."What did that man say in that movie? "I'm your huckleberry." You think you're gonna come for my grandkids? You come right along because you're going to have a fight on your hands."
He urged people to go to their school board meetings and to think about what folks did to make that possible.
"Folks, we are in for a fight. It's time for us to saddle up and get ready."
He talked about the importance of churches and pastors and how people have to start helping each other. He said they would "work like hell in Raleigh" to straighten the schools out but that people have to come out from among them and "make their own school."
Watch the full event below: