Florida Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Gillum was targeted by a white supremacist group in Idaho who launched a racist robocall attacking him.
This marks the second time neo-Nazis are targeting voters in Florida with recorded calls mocking Gillum. A disclaimer played toward the end of this week’s call said it was it was paid by “The Road To Power,” a group of white supremacists who also sent out a racist robocall against Gillum in August. It was also linked to Scott Rhodes, the creator of the racist group.
In this week’s robocall, an actor affecting an exaggeratedly stereotyped Black dialect mocks Gillum as he says, “Well, hello there. I is the negro Andrew Gillum, and I be asking you to make me governor of this here state of Florida.”
This July 18, 2018, file photo shows Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum speaking during a Democratic gubernatorial debate held at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Cohen Center in Fort Myers, Fla. The man who could become Florida’s first black governor on Sunday, Sept. 2, 2018, called on his opponent to refrain from name-calling and to focus on the issues. Gillum, was asked about comments Republican U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis made after Tuesday’s primary. DeSantis said voters aren’t going to “monkey this up” by electing Gillum. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
The ad continued with sounds of minstrel music and a squealing monkey playing in the background. The music is from the controversial radio and television show “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” a long-running comedy featuring derogatorily stereotypical black characters that began in the 1920s and ran through the 1950s.
“My esteemed opponent, who done called me a monkey, is doing a lot of hollering about how expensive my plans for health care be,” the audio continues. It went onto say that Jews are “the ones that been putting Negroes in charge over the white folk, just like they done after the Civil War.”
Butch Otter, the governor of Idaho, heard the robocall and said bigotry won’t be tolerated.
