Yes, Virginia, Islamophobia Is Racism

This article, written by Nathan Lean, appeared on The Huffington Post on August 03,2012

Back in 2007, before Mitt Romney's dreams for clinching the 2008 GOP presidential nomination sputtered to a dismal end, he spoke to The Christian Science Monitor about the makeup of his hypothetical cabinet. "Based on the numbers of African Americans [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified," he said. "But of course, I would imagine that blacks could serve at lower levels of my administration."

Actually, that's not what he said at all. But if you cringed or grimaced or cried "Racist!" after reading that remark, so too should you also be disgusted by what Romney did indeed say. Replace the words "African Americans" with "American Muslims" and "blacks" with "Muslims" and there you have the former Massachusetts governor's actual words:

"Based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration."

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*Photo Credit: Jimmy Emerson