A New Mexico county tea party leader has sparked controversy by tweeting a meme Wednesday that strongly suggests blacks use the dark legacy of slavery in America for "bitching and moaning about how the world owes them a living."
On the 148th anniversary of the end of slavery, Glynis Racine of the Lincoln County Tea Party Patriots tweeted the following and deleted it shortly thereafter:
The tweet seems to reference Irish enslavement in the 17th and 18th centuries, claiming they were "treated worse than any other race" and seemingly attempting to delegitimize the experience of African-Americans.
Unsurprisingly, others shot back with both outraged and tongue-in-cheek tweets:
ProgressNow also slammed the tweet in a press release.
"In an apparent attempt to contribute to our modern understanding of American history, the tea party leader reminds followers that early American slavery included African and non-African people alike," wrote the group. "But her quest for 'facts' includes her own assertion that all African-Americans are 'bitching and moaning' about how the world owes them a living.”
“Glynis is exactly the type of fear mongering leader Fox News and the conservative movement push to the front of their movement," said Patrick Davis of Progress Now New Mexico. "They shouldn’t be surprised they are having a hard time recruiting blacks, Hispanics or reasonable people of any color to their side.”
Though she deleted the tweet, Racine defended herself, saying it was time to "move on" from slavery.
The Lincoln County Tea Party Patriots and representatives for TeaParty.org, a national tea party site, did not immediately return requests for comment from The Huffington Post.
The tweet comes at a particularly bad time for conservative groups, which were thrust into the unflattering national spotlight during last week's budget deal negotiations.
In a press conference about the budget deal, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) slammed the Republican Party's more conservative sects, calling their unwillingness to compromise with Democrats "ridiculous," and accusing them of "misleading their followers."
As Boehner said, "Frankly, I just think they've lost all credibility."
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