Robinson is perhaps most well known for his own inflammatory social media presence. On platforms like YouTube and his popular Facebook page, he engaged in conspiracy theories as well as posted anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and homophobic messages before being elected to office last year. Asked about that on Tuesday, he said that was when he was a private citizen, not yet elected to office.
Politicians and Political Cartoons
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A Dennis Draughon editorial cartoon is taking some heat.
From the right-of-center The Hill:
North Carolina’s first Black lieutenant governor held a press conference on Tuesday to express outrage over a political cartoon that linked him and other members of the State Board of Education to the Ku Klux Klan for their opposition to allowing teachers to speak about systemic racism in the United States.
The lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, is a Republican and a member of the board. He said it was wrong for the media outlet, WRAL.com, to post the cartoon.
“On the second day of Black History Month, the first Black lieutenant governor of North Carolina has been portrayed as [racist],” he said. “That you would portray a Black man, just because he’s in the GOP, as a Klansman … the hypocrisy is mind-numbing, folks.”
© Capitol Braodcasting and Dennis DraughonThe right-leaning Washington Examiner has a screenshot of a tweet claiming the cartoon is depicting Lt. Governor Robinson.
More from the right-leaning Washington Examiner coverage:
The cartoon, posted online by WRAL-TV, shows an elephant, the symbol of the Republican Party, wearing a Klan robe and posing as a member of the school board, which Robinson is a part of.
Democrats and Republicans in the state have been clashing over school curriculum, and Robinson recently irked liberals in the state when he said that “systemic racism” does not exist within the United States system of government and shouldn’t be pushed in schools.
Closer to home the left-leaning Raleigh News & Observer (a McClatchy newspaper) carries the story
(via the Greensboro News And Record):
And there’s a difference between inflammatory opinions posted by a private citizen, or by a politician or large media company, he said.
Broadcaster WRAL has released a statement:
Statement from Seth Effron, Opinion Editor for Capitol Broadcasting Company:
“Editorial cartoons are creative and provocative, using hyperbole and satire. No one believes Republicans on the State Board of Education are members of the Ku Klux Klan. The editorial cartoon by Dennis Draughon is meant to point out that these members of the State Board are trying to wipe out from the social studies curriculum the record of racism which includes the Klan and the segregationist practices that were imposed in our state and nation’s history.”
From the self-proclaimed non-partisan North State Journal:
WRAL, the Raleigh TV station owned by left-wing donor James Goodmon, is facing instense criticism following its latest editoral cartoon…
At some point later Tuesday, the cartoonist, Draughon, locked his Twitter account from public view.
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