Mayor back tracks from 'tar baby' remark

MARIETTA - Marietta Mayor Bill Dunaway has apologized after a black member of the City Council complained about a remark containing a reference to a ``tar baby.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> ``It was inappropriate. It was disrespectful. It was demeaning,&#39;&#39; said Anthony Coleman, the lone black member of the seven-member council. <br> <br> Discussing a problem at a meeting this week, Dunaway advised the council to ``do like a tar baby and say nothing.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The mayor, who is white, said he was referring to the Uncle Remus tale in which Brer Rabbit is infuriated by the silence of a doll made of tar and then becomes stuck by pounding on it. <br> <br> Dunaway said he thought it was a ``sticky situation&#39;&#39; the city faced and wanted to remind the council that sometimes the best course is to keep quiet. <br> <br> ``I understand that no one in the black community was raised on the Uncle Remus stories, and they consider them offensive. But I consider them moral tales: The tar baby. &#39;Don&#39;t throw me into the briar patch,&#39;&#39;&#39; the mayor said. <br> <br> Coleman, who was raised during the 1960s in segregated Cobb County, said the remark was offensive to him because ``when I think about the tar baby, I think about the person with the dark face, the big lips.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Dunaway said he has apologized to Coleman and is apologizing to the other members individually. He plans to apologize to the group at its next meeting Monday, he said. <br> <br> ``I never should have made the statement. I did. I goofed,&#39;&#39; Dunaway said.