More GOP Racism

This disgusting turn of events took place in "liberal" California, well, actually the Inland Empire, which has its fair share of white "conservatives."

A Republican women's group sent out a newsletter to 200 people that included a racially offensive image of Barack Obama.

From the Press Enterprise:

The latest newsletter by an Inland Republican women's group depicts Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama surrounded by a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken, prompting outrage in political circles.

The October newsletter by the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated says if Obama is elected his image will appear on food stamps -- instead of dollar bills like other presidents. The statement is followed by an illustration of "Obama Bucks" -- a phony $10 bill featuring Obama's face on a donkey's body, labeled "United States Food Stamps."

Here's the image:




I'm shocked...SHOCKED... to find racist imagery being used by the Republican party!

You gotta hand it to those Republican ladies, at least this time it's blatant. And they're not resorting to code like "Obama's not like us" or associating him with anti-American terrorists like they do at the McCain/Palin rallies.

Once again, the person sending the offensive image saw "nothing wrong with it." She got the image from an email.

This makes me scared to ask, what kind of emails are Republicans sending to each other?

The group's president, Diane Fedele, said she plans to send an apology letter to her members and to apologize at the club's meeting next week. She said she simply wanted to deride a comment Obama made over the summer about how as an African-American he "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."

"It was strictly an attempt to point out the outrageousness of his statement. I really don't want to go into it any further," Fedele said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I absolutely apologize to anyone who was offended. That clearly wasn't my attempt."

Fedele said she got the illustration in a number of chain e-mails and decided to reprint it for her members in the Trumpeter newsletter because she was offended that Obama would draw attention to his own race. She declined to say who sent her the e-mails with the illustration.

She said she doesn't think in racist terms, pointing out she once supported Republican Alan Keyes, an African-American who previously ran for president.

"I didn't see it the way that it's being taken. I never connected," she said. "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else."

She said she also wasn't trying to make a statement linking Obama and food stamps, although her introductory text to the illustration connects the two: "Obama talks about all those presidents that got their names on bills. If elected, what bill would he be on????? Food Stamps, what else!"

The only reason this has come to light is because of an African-American woman, a member of the group, who blew the whistle.

Sheila Raines, an African-American member of the club, was the first person to complain to Fedele about the newsletter. Raines, of San Bernardino, said she has worked hard to try to convince other minorities to join the Republican Party and now she feels betrayed.

"This is what keeps African-Americans from joining the Republican Party," she said. "I'm really hurt. I cried for 45 minutes."

I really feel Ms Raines' pain. I mean here we are on the verge of electing the first biracial president, and we are still battling the ugliness left by slavery and segregation.

But I would give one bit of advice to Ms. Raines. You know how the saying goes honey, you lie down with dogs...

The GOP really needs to get its act together unless it wants to be known for the next 20 years as the party of the inbred. Can they afford to wait another 15 or 20 years until all the old racists die off or get Alzheimers? We are in a multicultural world, a multicultural century. Will the GOP become completely irrelevant until they have the courage to completely purge the racists from their ranks? Or will they just get older and older... and whiter and whiter?

That's up to the GOP leadership. But strong and decisive action must be taken to clean house... otherwise it's going to be a long, drawn-out, and evidently extremely ugly, decline.