Michal Landor
The mom of the city aide who lost her job after making incendiary comments about President Obama and race on Facebook Wednesday said her kids were raised to respect everyone.
"We're not racist, and that's it," said Lee Landor's mom, Michal.
"She's young and maybe a little naive. What she said was something everyone was talking about, and it just got out of hand."
Lee Landor, 24, quit as deputy press secretary to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer this week after word got out about her scathing comments regarding the arrest of Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Obama's reaction to it.
"O-dumb-a, the situation 'got out of hand' because Gates is a RACIST, not because the officer was DOING HIS JOB," Landor wrote on her page late Friday morning. She also said she was sick of seeing whites portrayed as "evil racists."
Landor has defended herself, saying she is not prejudiced, that she voted for Obama and that her comments were taken out of context.
Michal Landor noted she herself was born in Morocco, where her family lived until persecution pushed the family to move to Israel.
"They boycotted my father's business and he went bankrupt, and they tried to kill my brothers," she said.
The mother said she raised her kids "to accept everybody and anybody, and you don't judge by race or color."
As for the Facebook comments, "She didn't think someone would take it out of there and make a big thing. You get fired for something you say," Michal Landor said.
Stringer says he considers the matter closed.
"People have the right to express themselves, but I also have an office to run," he said, calling Landor's postings "inappropriate."
"We have a lot of work to do, [and] I think we acted swiftly and dealt with the issue immediately," he said.
