Hillary Clinton is “wrong” to stay silent about a racially-tinged skit she performed on Saturday in which she joked about black people, former NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous, a Bernie Sanders supporter, wrote on Thursday.
“It has been almost a week, and Secretary Clinton has neither denounced the skit nor apologized for her participation in it,” Jealous wrote in a column at Afro. “Moreover, even though the script was vetted in advance, no one in her campaign has been publicly disciplined for approving it.”
During the controversial skit, which was performed during a charity event held in New York City on Saturday, Clinton and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio joked about “CP time,” or “colored people’s time.”
It’s a stereotype that black people “are lazy, slow and always late,” wrote Jealous, who led the NAACP from 2008 to 2013.
“When a Black professional is late to a meeting, it is not uncommon to overhear a white colleague cite that stereotype,” the civil rights activist continued.
Clinton only briefly commented on the controversy, saying during an interview with Cosmopolitan only that de Blasio approved the script. De Blasio, whose wife is black, has refused to apologize for the skit. He said that it was satire and that critics are “missing the point.”
Jealous clearly disagrees.
“Hillary Clinton is wrong to stay silent about her participation in a comedic skit based on an old racial stereotype,” he wrote.
He also compared Clinton’s non-apology to how Sanders handled an incident involving one of his campaign surrogates during a rally in New York on Thursday.
During the rally, Dr. Paul Song urged Sanders supporters to vote against “corporate Democratic whores.” He later apologized for the remarks, and Sanders condemned them.
“Epithets about women should have no place in our political discourse. Neither should racial stereotypes,” Jealous wrote.
“It takes men of all colors to end sexism. It takes White people of all genders to end racism,” he added.
“Bernie Sanders knows this. Hillary Clinton needs to be crystal clear with voters that she gets it, too.”
Clinton and Sanders debate in Brooklyn, N.Y. Thursday night.
