Calif. GOP denounces racist graphic

The California Republican party has denounced a racist graphic distributed in a newsletter by a local GOP women's group in the San Bernadino area. The graphic is apparently making its way around the internet and depicts Barack Obama's face on a mock food stamp coupon surrounded by watermelon, fried chicken and ribs.

The first to complain was an African-American member of the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Sheila Raines, who told the The Press Enterprise newspaper, "This is what keeps African-Americans from joining the Republican Party. I'm really hurt. I cried for 45 minutes."

The club's president, Diane Fedele, who distributed the image, claimed, "I didn't see it the way that it's being taken. I never connected. It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else." She also told the Enterprise she wasn't trying to link 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!"

I'd be tempted to dismiss the incident as a know-nothing local party hack picking up and circulating isolated racist trash, but this garbage echoes stuff that commenters attempt to post on this blog with alarming frequency. There are a lot of scared, scary racial paranoids out there.

Thanks to Talking Points Memo for the tip.

UPDATE:10/21 Apparently this graphic was the work of a liberal blogger who thought he was satirizing right-wing atitudes toward Obama. The Press Enterprise has the story and quotes from the blogger, identified only as "Tim".