Wednesday, November 12, 2008
News Atlanta's 11 Least Influential People: No. 6
Posted by Andisheh Nouraee @andishehnouraee on Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 2:43 PM
Atlanta’s 11 Least Influential People is Creative Loafing's annual tribute to the Joe and Josephine Averages of the world who try, but don't necessarily succeed.
Winners 11 through six will be revealed, one-per-day, until Wednesday, November 12, when the 11 Least Influential issue hits newsstands.
No. 6 — Pat Lanzo
Can't convince people he's not racist.
Pat Lanzo insists he’s not a racist.
"I believe people are equal,” he says, “As long as they earn their keep as well as me.”
Nevertheless, the proprietor of The Peach bar and restaurant in Paulding County says that people often mistakenly assume he’s a racist.
The main reason, he says, are the signs he posts outside his restaurant. “Damn Yankees May Have Taken Our Niggers But Not Our Guns,” said one. “Obama Gives Us Hope Dreams and Maybe A New Holiday — Thats My Nigger” read another.
“The minute someone says the N-word, you’re labeled racist,” he explains.
But his signs aren’t the only reason some people think Lanzo is racist.
For years Lanzo hosted a neo-Nazi music festival at The Peach. He also displays in his bar a mannequin dressed in Ku Klux Klan garb.
Is Lanzo's klannequin a gesture of support for the violence perpetrated by the Klan against black people?
“I don’t support violence,” he says. “[The KKK] is part of history. The original form of the Klan was to run Yankees out of the South.”
Lanzo says he welcomes all people at The Peach.
“I have blacks that come into my restaurant that treat me as equal,” he say proudly, adding, “I’ve had to throw more white niggers out of my restaurant than black ones.”
He does not, he says, have any hate in his heart
“If I was gonna hate anybody, I’d hate my ex-wife.”
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