Advertisement

Iowa Republican Party Posts Graphic Mocking Racism

The Iowa Republican Party posted a flowchart defining racism on its Facebook page Friday evening, pictured above. The post, captured by The Daily Beast’s Ben Jacobs, capped off a rocky one-year anniversary since the Republican Party announced it would redouble efforts to appeal to minority voters.

The flowchart instructed the reader to determine racism as whether the person saying it is white and whether you like him. It includes the note, “If you think this flowchart isn’t funny, then this flowchart is racist.”

According to the Daily Beast, the Iowa GOP quickly removed its posting from Facebook that night, and in its place now is an apology from Chairman A.J. Spiker. “Earlier tonight, a contractor of the Iowa GOP made a post referencing a discussion on race that the GOP believes was in bad taste and inappropriate,” it says. “We apologize to those whom were offended, have removed the post and are ensuring it does not happen again.”

This week, the Republican National Committee gathered for a strategy meeting before the 2014 midterm elections, nearly one year after its so-called autopsy report declared the GOP would “grow the Party and improve Republican campaigns” by appealing to African-Americans and Hispanics demographics.

Advertisement

But the GOP continues to be its own worst enemy. The Republican National Committee also congratulated Rosa Parks last month for ending racism in America, while prominent Republicans have insisted the justice system is colorblind. Yet another example is Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who has compared immigrants to violent criminals and drug mules to make the GOP’s case for holding up long-awaited immigration reform.

Update:

The Iowa GOP has fired the contractor responsible for the Facebook post. Contractor Shane Vander Hart apologized in a statement:

It was an attempt at humor which perhaps would have been ok for my personal page, but not for the Republican Party of Iowa. My intent was to make light of how the race card is played in American politics. It was an error in judgment, one I deeply regret, and take full responsibility for. I apologize to those whom I offended, as well as, to Iowa Republicans. This is not the message we need to send. It is distracting to our mission of electing Republicans. I also would like to publicly apologize to A.J. Spiker for the problems this has caused him.