‘Never Thought Anything of It:’ Georgia Lawmaker Says He Didn’t Know Blackface Photo Was Offensive, Was Targeted By Former Classmate

Another Georgia lawmaker fighting for re-election is apologizing after a photo of him appearing to be wearing blackface resurfaced on social media.

State Rep. Kasey Carpenter (R-Dalton), wanting to consolidate the controversy, reshared the picture on Facebook Saturday. The image shows Carpenter in blackface impersonating Kanye West.

The Atlanta Black Star spoke with Carpenter on the phone on Wednesday.

“I think most of my constituents know where my heart is and know that I’m a man of all people,” the Georgia lawmaker said. “I never wanted to offend anybody.”

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Carpenter claims a former classmate of his obtained the photo over a decade ago.

“He’s accused me of being in the KKK, like all kinds of crazy stuff,” he said. “I’ve worked on DACA bills and tenants’ rights, racists don’t do that.”

The Georgia lawmaker previously carried legislation for five years to help DACA kids pay in-state tuition at college.

Carpenter is set to face Cleve Manis, who works in construction, in the GOP primary on May 19. The winner will face Democrat Quentin Postell, a college student, in the November general election.

“I guess an election year is a good time to drop a racially sensitive photo of somebody,” he added.

Despite the apology, some residents in Dalton say it is not enough.

“Really disappointed in your response, Kasey,” Kirby Raney commented on Carpenter’s post.

“If you were Black, you would take this seriously,” Lebron Stewart added. “You don’t understand. You wouldn’t understand. Cool apology though.”

Other commenters condemned Carpenter’s supporters, saying they were “forgiving blackface.”

“In this thread: White people forgiving blackface as if their opinions on POC issues matter,” Michelle Booker wrote. “People who aren’t affected by this will obviously tell you it’s okay. Do better.”

According to The National Museum of African American History and Culture, blackface has been considered something that “poor and working-class whites who felt ‘squeezed politically, economically, and socially from the top, but also from the bottom, invented minstrelsy” as a way of expressing the oppression that marked being members of the majority, but outside of the white norm.

Blackface and the codifying of blackness—language, movement, deportment, and character—as caricature persists through mass media and in public performances today.

“We never talked about blackface in school; it was never a part of the conversation,” Carpenter told the Atlanta Black Star. “I used to run around with all the Black boys; we all did. We never thought anything of it.”

Carpenter is not the only Georgia republican candidate under fire for past racist allegations.

Georgia film studio founder and now congressional candidate Ryan Milsap is accused of sending a series of racist and anti-Semitic texts.

Milsap is set to face state Rep. Houston Gaines in the May 19 Republican primary to represent Georgia’s 10th Congressional District.

The Atlanta Black Star asked Carpenter if he thinks any other Georgia Republicans could have their dirty laundry aired online.

“Probably. If I’m a target, it’s going to happen to them,” he said. “I just hope they didn’t do anything stupid 12 or 14 years ago.”

In a statement to WABE, Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs called on Carpenter to issue an unambiguous apology.

“We have never come to a place in society where skin color has not mattered,” he said. “One of the greatest Georgians said that he hoped we could get there, but considering the outright attack on diversity, the equity, and inclusion, the erasure of African American history, the attempts to roll back voting rights, shows that we are not there by a long shot. So my hope would be he would just make a very short statement. ‘I’m sorry for doing something that is racially insensitive,’ period, full stop.”

The Atlanta Black Star asked Carpenter whether he planned to make any such statement.

“Absolutely, I don’t have a problem with making one,” he said.

The Georgia politician did not say when or where he would make the apology.