A Michigan lawmaker, who is white, has been stripped of his staff and committee assignment after reposting a graphic appearing to show support for a racist ideology on X, formerly Twitter.
On Feb. 6, Republican Rep. Josh Schriver, who serves Michigan’s 66th House District, reposted an X post from the senior editor of a conservative political news site that showed a world map dominated by small black figures representing humans across every continent and featuring only a few white figures. Schriver shared on X a decreasing chart emoji along with the reposted map.
The words at the bottom of the map in the shared post read, “The great replacement!” as a reference to a conspiracy theory belief embraced by white nationalists that white people face a threat of extinction at the hands of nonwhite groups, the American Jewish Committee defines.
Atlanta Black Star has reached out to Schriver for comment.
Speaker of the House Joe Tate, a Black Democrat, said Schriver “has deeply and personally offended the Michigan House of Representatives” in a statement referring to the social media post as “blatantly racist.”
Tate’s statement said, “It is difficult for me to understand why he would hold these beliefs as a representative of a diverse group of Michigan residents.
“Furthermore, the fact that Rep. Schriver would espouse a deplorable and false theory and contend it is worthy of consideration puts his ignorance on full display,” Tate’s statement continued. “But ignorance is no excuse for proliferating obvious hate.”
Tate made the decision Monday to withhold the $132,000 office allotment for Schriver, the Longview News-Journal reported, and his staff will be reassigned.
“I will not allow the Michigan House of Representatives to be a forum for the proliferation of racist, hateful and bigoted speech,” Tate said in a statement on Monday.
“Schriver will be removed from the House Natural Resources,…
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