A prominent suburban Detroit leader has apologized for saying he'd rather join the Ku Klux Klan than a group of CEOs who are striving to improve Detroit.
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said in a statement he chooses "sharp words" and purposely engages in hyperbole to get his points across. He noted that the words he chose "offended a lot of people."
Patterson in a letter recently accused CEOs group of snatching business from Oakland County to benefit Detroit.
Asked Thursday by a reporter if he'd consider joining the CEOs group, Patterson, who is white, said he'd "rather join the Klan," a white supremacist group.
After the apology, the Detroit branch of the NAACP said the region doesn't need divisiveness between the suburbs and Detroit, which is majority black.