Inflammatory comments posted by business leader
TCC Susan Block Letter JAN. 11, 2021 — The Toledo Community Coalition decided at its January meeting (Jan. 11, 2021) to confront the racist, hate-filled social media posts of a leading Toledo business and cultural leader following the attack on the United States Capitol Building on Jan. 6.
Susan Allan Block, a former director of Block Communications Inc. and wife of Block Communications Chair Allan Block, posted inflammatory comments on Facebook supporting the attack. Her post came hours after Trump loyalists, white supremacists, and other hate groups stormed the Capitol, beating to death a Capitol police officer and injuring more than a dozen other law-enforcement officers. One of the rioters was shot and killed by police.
“NO PEACE! NO UNITY! NO LEGITIMACY TO A STOLEN ELECTION!” Ms. Block, an ardent Trump supporter wrote. “THER(sic) ARE 70 MILLION TRUMP SUPPORTERS WHO WILL NOT FALL IN LINE. THERE WILL BE NO “HEALING”. WE WILL DRAG THIS ILLEGITIMATE PRESIDENT, HIS WHORE VP & ALL OF THE DEMOCRATS THROUGH THE SAME SHIT THEY DRAGGED PRESIDENT TRUMP & HIS SUPPORTERS THROUGH FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS!”
The Reverend Otis Gordon, co-chair of TCC, told fellow coalition members that Ms. Block’s comments “reverberated throughout the community” and must be addressed.
Block Communications – owned by the Block family — owns The Blade newspaper and Buckeye Broadband in Toledo, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper, a cable television system in Mississippi, and several television stations across the country.
Pastor Gordon said Ms. Block’s comments were particularly hurtful to the coalition and Toledo’s minority community because The Blade in the past decade partnered with the Toledo Community Coalition to sponsor a series of anti-racism community forums attended by thousands of Toledoans.
Block Communications legal team released a statement after Ms. Block’s comments went viral saying her post “does not represent the views of the company as Susan Allan Block is not an employee or shareholder.”
Ms. Block, a member of the Ohio Arts Council since 2016, resigned her seat on the board of the council following stories about her Facebook post were published in a wide range of newspapers and news websites across the country, including in the Washington Post.
Before her resignation, the office of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine released the following statement: “Susan Block’s comments are highly offensive and do not represent the views of this administration.”
Lisa McDuffie, CEO of the YWCA of Greater Toledo and a TCC member, said at the coalition’s meeting that she had recently been sent additional social-media postings Ms. Block made last year during protests concerning the killing of George Floyd.
“She (Ms. Block) called Black Lives Matter protesters ‘animals’,” Ms. McDuffie said.
In a story in the Columbus Dispatch published Jan. 8, the newspaper reported it had captured, before she deleted her Twitter account on Jan. 7, a post Ms. Block made on Twitter last year opposed to Black Lives Matters protesters.
Ms. Block tweeted on May 31, in response to Governor DeWine’s comments about Black Lives Matters protesters’ First Amendment rights: “What is happening is nothing less than domestic terrorism! How dare (you) condone these animals!”
The Dispatch also reported about a post she made June 15 criticizing New York State legislation granting immigrants driver’s licenses: “This will make it very easy for illegals to VOTE! What next, will they give them gun permits too?”
The Dispatch article quoted David Butler, a Columbus artist and teacher, who is black, saying he had a visceral reaction to Block’s comments about Vice President Harris. “Why is (she) able to spew hate and harmful language towards black women? Does she need to sit on a board of an institution that could possibly give more black women artists money?”
Ohio Arts Council Executive Director Donna S. Collins obviously agrees with Butler. After Block’s resignation from the Arts Council board, she told reporters:
“Our agency does not condone or endorse these inflammatory opinions in any way, and will continue to work in alignment with our shared values of diversity, equity, and inclusivity.”
The Toledo Community Coalition will issue a statement to Toledo news media and elected officials soon.
