Atlanta’s 11 Least Influential People: No. 6
November 12, 2008 at 9:43 am by Andisheh Nouraee in NewsAtlanta’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.
PAT LANZO: His latest bar sign name-drop's MLK's assassin. (Photo by Joeff Davis)
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.
LANZO AND HIS KLANNEQUIN: “The minute someone says the N-word, you’re labeled racist,” he says. (Photo by Joeff Davis)
“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.”
See all of Atlanta’s 11 Least Influential People of 2008.
November 12th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I mean, the minute you kill someone, you’re labeled a murderer. What a mixed-up world, right Pat?
November 13th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
freedom of speech.
ain’t it great !
November 17th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
[...] 11 Least Influential list. From the unemployed dairy goat, to the bummed out cellist, to the non-racist guy with racist paraphernalia, we celebrate those who lack [...]
November 17th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
[...] 11 Least Influential list. From the unemployed dairy goat, to the bummed out cellist, to the non-racist guy with racist paraphernalia, we celebrate those who lack [...]
November 17th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
This guy Pat is a piece of human garbage. I want to call his restaraunt now and b!tch him out.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Man…Where is Paulding County wnyway, ass-backwards USA?
Where are the Black Panthers when you need them…
Why are you calling this guy Joe Average? Average Americans are tolerant and not afraid of Obama or immigrants who have a different skin color than they do.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Oh I see, Georgia. What a surprise. A state that got its start as a penal colony.
November 17th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Who is calling this guy “Joe Average”?
Oh yeah, typical Georgia? Dude you really don’t know much about white supremacists.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
[...] relevant article, found through bp’s bagofwinds blog, link to the [...]