Voters in Florida received a racist robocall targeting gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum on Tuesday.
The call, distributed by Iowa-based white supremacist group The Road to Power, features someone mocking Gillum using minstrel dialect:
“Well hello there. I is the Negro Andrew Gillum,” the recording says, “and I be asking you to make me governor of this here state of Florida.”
Minstrel music—apparently from the popular, but racist, radio and TV show Amos ‘n’ Andy—plays in the background. A monkey screeches, too, referring to the fact that racists have dehumanized Black people by comparing them to apes for centuries.
According to Huffington Post, the call also suggests that Gillum’s solution for healthcare will be to give people chicken feet, and that Jewish people are certain to vote for Gillum because they’re “the ones that been putting Negroes in charge over the white folk, just like they done after the Civil War.”
This last point refers to Reconstruction, still a controversial topic in the South.
The Road to Power also targeted Californians with an anti-Semitic robocall in May. The call supported Senate candidate Patrick Little, an avowed white nationalist and claimed that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is actually an Israeli citizen. The Road to Power is also behind racist robocalls surrounding Mollie Tibbetts’ murder, allegedly at the hands of Christhian Bahena Rivera, who is an undocumented immigrant, according to law enforcement.
Both Gillum and Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), Gillum’s opponent in the race, have denounced the calls.
“These disgusting, abhorrent robocalls represent a continuation of the ugliest, most divisive campaign in Florida’s history,” said Geoff Burgan, a spokesman for Gillum’s campaign. “We would hope that these calls, and the dangerous people who are behind them, are not given any more attention than they already have been.”
“Our campaign has absolutely nothing to do with this robocall and joins those in condemning it,” said Stephen Lawson, a spokesperson for the DeSantis campaign. “In fact, we would encourage the Gillum campaign to join us in rooting out and exposing once and for all those who are behind this disgusting call.”
Gillum was targeted by similar calls in Florida’s Democratic primary.
After he won, DeSantis advised Florida voters not to “monkey this up” by voting for Gillum.
H/T Huffington Post
