*Good grief! What is wrong with the Republicans?
We know they want to attract more African Americans and Latinos to the party but they keep finding ways to screw it up and make the party seem more and more inhospitable to the very people they trying to attract.
The latest example came over the weekend when the GOP used the 58th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ refusal to sit at the back of the bus to make a statement about racism. OK, so far not a bad idea.
But of course it did become a bad idea because someone or somebody in the Republican National Committee hierarchy decided to Tweet that because of Parks’ action in 1955, racism in the US has ended. What?! Not too surprisingly, they retracted the statement about 4 hours later.
“Today we remember Rosa Parks’ bold stand and her role in ending racism,” the Republicans tweeted, posting a picture of Parks emblazoned with her famous quote: “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”
As you can imagine, the GOP’s praise of Parks rang hollow, as many on social media called out the party for naively believing racism was over.
“I’m sure I have been racially profiled recently. Are you sure?” one person questioned in a colorful thread of comments connected to the initial tweet, with another adding, “bunch of white dudes say racism is over.”
After the backlash and negative publicity, the GOP posted a clarifying statement: “Previous tweet should have read “Today we remember Rosa Parks’ bold stand and her role in fighting to end racism.”
As Think Progress points out: “Racism, of course, hasn’t ended and may have actually increased since the election of President Obama in 2008.”
In fact, some research shows that “racism cost the president more than five million votes in 2008 and 2012″ and a 2012 survey from the Associated Press found that “51 percent of Americans explicitly express anti-black prejudice, up from 48 percent in 2008.” The survey concluded that 79 percent of Republicans are likely to express outright racial prejudice, compared to 32 percent of Democrats.
Once again, the Republicans/GOP get it wrong.
SOURCE: EURweb.com
Article and Picture Courtesy of EUR Web
GOP Using Rosa Parks to Claim Racism is Over was originally published on wzakcleveland.com
