No one believes that everyone in the GOP is racist, but an official Republican social media account featured a racially tinged, Islamophobic photo of Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) that demeaned his religion and insinuated that he has sex with animals.
Late Monday night, someone in Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District Republican Party took to the group’s Facebook page to share a meme about Ellison, who recently ran to head the Democratic National Committee, and Democrat Rep. Collin Peterson, who represents the district in the U.S. Congress. The picture was up for several hours and was shared on Facebook and Twitter before it was taken down, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The yet-to-be-identified poster superimposed a picture of Ellison from a recent hunting trip with these words:
Collin Peterson has been sliding [sic] up to Minnesota’s Head Muslim Goat Humper, Keith Ellison. Heck, They’re now Hunting Buddies. Does that mean Muslim Refugees coming to Western Minnesota?
The post also cites right-wing writer David Horowitz as saying, “We are at war,” although it does not specify with whom (Turkeys? Islam? Common decency?). It went on to add that Ellison (who is the only practicing Muslim in the U.S. House of Representatives) is a “raving, Louis Farrakhan supporting, anti-Semite, anti-white, racist and fascist American. And our current Rep. Collin Peterson take [sic] this lunatic Turkey Hunting.”
Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Jennifer Carnahan issued a statement saying that she had asked for the “immediate resignation” of the person responsible for the post. Carnahan would not name the person who placed the picture on the group’s Facebook page, but said that person resigned immediately and no longer represents the party.
“Just days after the newly elected GOP Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan proclaimed that people are ‘going to have a really hard time calling us the party of racists and sexists,’ an official Minnesota Republican Party Facebook page featured a racist, hate-filled post about Congressman Keith Ellison,” said Ken Martin, chair of Minnesota’s Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party.
Aside from their poor grammar (they probably blame it on Common Core), Republicans would like us to know that—although their official party platform is xenophobic and anti-immigrant, buoyed by the support of white nationalists and Islamophobes—their party is not a party of hate. And no one is saying that all Republicans are racist ...
But it’s getting harder to find the ones who aren’t.
Read more at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.