This is mostly for friends outside Southeast Texas. Caution: may cause intense nausea.
The headline on this Gawker piece exaggerates only a little. Former Houston City Councilmember Michael Berry has proven himself on multiple occasions to be a racist. Merely saying something racist doesn't make one a racist. Saying it repeatedly, unapologetically, or insisting that it's not racist and then saying something equally racist definitely does. That would be Berry.
Enjoy this listicle by the weekly Houston Press's Jef Rouner about The Ten Most Embarrassing Houstonians, in which Berry comes in at #1.
The fact that KTRH has kept Berry on the air for so long makes the station's management and ownership (Clear Channel/iHeartRadio) racist by association. They keep him on because he gets the ratings, thanks to his regular listeners who lap up his racist rants, and who would turn on KTRH in a heartbeat if it caved in to the PC crowd.
I wouldn't characterize Berry as an "extreme" racist. That adjective implies to me that he's actively advocating eliminationism and direct violence toward People of Color; if he has, I haven't heard it. But his record is bad enough that holding Ted Cruz's victory party at his bar makes Cruz racist by association too. As Rachel Maddow would say, "Senator Cruz, you kinda own this."
Last night I saw, but did not hear, Cruz on TV delivering is Texas Primary victory speech. His wife stood to his right, and Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to his left. (Not Dan Patrick the former "SportsCenter" anchor, but Dan Patrick the former KHOU sports anchor from the '70s).
If you're not hip to Texas politics, Google "Michael Berry Houston radio" and "Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick" (not to mention "Flaming Asshole Ted Nugent") to know what kind of company Cruz keeps.