David Shuster is tweeting that a woman was thrown out of the GOP Convention for tossing nuts at an African-American CNN camerawoman, saying, “this is how we feed animals.”
CNN posted a written statement saying, “CNN can confirm there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon. CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment.”
Republicans are seeing themselves facing an uphill battle in attracting the African-American vote. A recent poll shows them with 0% support among the African-American community. Several minority speakers have spoken or are scheduled to speak at the GOP convention, but incidents like this can’t help with the perception that the Republican party is anything but inclusive.
More significant than the blatant racism shown by that attendee is the more subtle, institutionalized racism that is part of the Republican strategy. The Republicans in charge of voting may or may not have personal issues with African-Americans, but they stand to lose if Black people vote. Call it voter fraud prevention, call it voter ID drives, call it whatever you want, it’s all an effort to prevent African-American people from voting and the GOP admits it.
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I wonder if they threw peanuts at African-American Republican Mia Love, mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah?