Electing the first black President was always going to shake things up, or, rather dig things up, but I really wasn’t prepared for the in-your-face racism spewing out of Republicans. Subtlety is not their strong point – and neither is technology. If Michael Steele truly wants to “rebuild” the GOP his first order should be to ban all Republicans from blogging, tweeting, and Facebooking since they don’t begin to understand how the technology works.
And here’s our latest (but certainly not our last) example:
On Wednesday, Shay— (vice chairman of the Young Republicans and the leading candidate to be elected its chairman on Saturday) a 38-year old army veteran, mother and event planner from Louisiana who has been endorsed by her governor, Bobby Jindal—was holding court on her Facebook page, initiating a political conversation by posting that “WalMart just signed a death warrant” by “endorsing Obama’s healthcare plan.” At 1:52, a friend named listed as Eric S. Piker, but whose personal page says his actual name is Eric Pike, wrote “It’s the government making us commies… can’t even smoke in my damn car… whats next they going to issue toilet paper once a month… tell us how to wipe our asses…”
Two minutes later, Piker posted again saying “Obama Bin Lauden [sic] is the new terrorist… Muslim is on there side [sic]… need to take this country back from all of these mad coons… and illegals.”
Eight minutes after that, at 2:02, Shay weighed in on Piker’s comments: “You tell em Eric! lol.”
Stay classy, Audra. But in typical fashion the story doesn’t end here. First comes the standard denial, but what actually happened condemns her pleas of innocence far more than her tasteless response. Audra Shay got called out by other Republicans on her facebook page which resulted in – are you sitting down? – her de-friending them.
Cassie Wallender, a national committeewoman from the Washington Young Republican Federation, then wrote: “Someone please help a naïve Seattle girl out, is Eric’s comment a racist slur?” She answered her own question one minute later: “Okay, why is this okay? I just looked it up. ‘It comes from a term baracoons (a cage) where they used to place Africans who were waiting to be sent to America to be slaves.’ THIS IS NOT OKAY AND IT’S NOT FUNNY.”
This was followed soon after by the Chairman of the D.C. Young Republicans, Sean L. Conner, who wrote “I’m really saddened that you would support this type of racial language. ..wow! Thanks Cassie for standing up…”
Shay was silent on this exchange, but soon word started spreading throughout the Young Republican circuit, open to GOP members under 40. Significantly, Shay then “de-friended” Wallender and Conner—in the world of Facebook, that means cutting off relations—after calling her out, but kept Piker as a “friend” (subsequently, it appears their profiles are no longer linked).
“If Audra really did find these remarks to be “outright disgusting,” then why was her response to immediately de-friend those who made statements against Eric’s blatant racism?” Wallender wrote yesterday in a letter to the Young Republican National Committee. “I was blocked for stating that Eric’s racist comment was “NOT OKAY. And it is not funny.” Please take a moment look at the entire screenshot linked above, and ask yourself: which comment would lead you to de-friend someone, mine, or Eric’s?”
How old is she? Twelve? Of course, Shay is just the latest racist scandal plaguing the Republican Party. It really is becoming the norm, and the GOP must bring its fringe in line or jettison them. Let’s review, shall we?
Taken by themselves, the exchanges on Shay’s page might be dismissed as an isolated ugly incident. But there’s a pattern emerging from the fringe of the GOP grassroots. Three weeks ago, former South Carolina State Election Director and Richmond County GOP Chairman Rusty DePass “joked” on his Facebook page that first lady Michelle Obama was descended from a gorilla which had gone missing from a local zoo. Days later, Tennessee state legislative aide Sherri Goforth emailed out an image labeled “Historical Keepsake”—showing august portraits of all the presidents of the United States, ending with a pair of googly-eyes peering out from a black background to symbolize President Obama. When confronted, the aide to State Senator Diane Black said only that she regretted sending the image to the wrong email list and from her government address. She was “reprimanded” by her supervisors but not otherwise punished (a forced furlough at Memphis’s National Civil Rights Museum would have been an inspired penalty). And of course, all this has taken place after Chip Saltzman’s bid to be RNC Chairman was derailed by his decision to mail out a parody CD featuring the song “Barack the Magic Negro.”
Keep in mind, these are not just everyday morons; these are leaders in the GOP. And I haven’t even touched the racism/sexism directed at Sotomayor. Is this really all the Republicans have left? It would appear so since the Republicans (Wallender and Conner) who rightly called her out were then labeled as RINOs. Guess they weren’t “Conservative” enough.
