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An Alabama lawmaker believes everyone “has some type of racist in them.”
GOP Rep. Jerry Carl, who currently represents Alabama's 1st Congressional District, made the remark on Wednesday (January 24) during a debate with fellow Republican Barry Moore, who represents the 2nd Congressional District, according to The Hill. The two are vying for the GOP nomination for the 1st Congressional District after the state's maps were redrawn last year.
When asked about GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley's claim that the U.S. has "never been a racist country," a statement she made earlier this month, Carl said: "Everyone has some racist in them of some type."
“I used to work a lot with ministers … and I had some very private conversations. Everyone has some type of racist in them," he continued. "My mother through Pearl Harbor — she couldn’t stand the Japanese, she couldn’t stand it. And it used to just eat her from the inside out.”
Carl later condemned Alabama's new congressional map that added a second predominately-Black district, suggesting that the maps shouldn't be based on race.
“I grew up in the 60s. I know what race, racial madness is. We’ve spent so much time getting away from it, and now we’ve got an election system [that] is dragging us right back in,” Carl said. “And Barry doesn’t want to be here. Jerry doesn’t want to be here. It should be where it was … should be the original districts and let us serve the people we’re serving.”
Carl released a statement on Thursday (January 25), clarifying his comments.
“What I said is there’s been racism in America, and we need to do everything we can to eradicate it and stand united regardless of skin color. The far left wants to divide us on race with ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter, and Barry Moore does it by voting to keep [critical race theory] in our military,” he said in a statement. “This district was drawn along racial lines, and I disagree with that because we need to look at people for who they are regardless of their skin color. Barry Moore compared opposing races to ants who have been thrown together, but we need to stand united as Americans to do what’s best for our country regardless of our race."
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