Supporters of the police department and Greene have pointed to her identity as a Black woman as evidence that their support for criminal charges against Black politicians and civil rights leaders aren’t driven by racism. After The Virginian-Pilot published a comprehensive story on the charges against Lucas that placed the recent turmoil in historical context, members of an anti-Lucas Facebook group targeted the reporters who authored the story. “This has nothing to do with race, it’s about breaking the law!!!!!!!!!” wrote one commenter. “They always play the race card,” wrote another.
Dubois said he didn’t understand why people were “throwing the race card out there,” and said his move to file charges against Lucas-Burke had “nothing to do with race.”
“The race card I really don’t understand, because the police chief’s Black, the city manager’s Black, half the city council’s Black, half the city is Black, so I don’t understand throwing the race card out there at all,” Dubois said.
Dubois said he thought speakers at the press conference last week where Lucas-Burke called for the police chief’s firing had put too much focus on race.
“If I didn’t know any better, if I just woke up out of a coma and I watched that press conference, I would think we were living in a time that was 300 years ago,” Dubois said. “They made it sound like Black people had no rights whatsoever.”
“Yes, there is racism in the world, but it’s nowhere near as bad as people make it to be,” he said. “The race card is played way too much.”