‘This is even worse.’ NC GOP slammed for racist ‘pimp’ tweet about Rev. William Barber
A Thursday tweet by the North Carolina Republican Party is under fire for calling the Rev. William Barber II a “poverty pimp.”
Barber was traveling to Durham Thursday in the first of three stops on a tour with Sen. Bernie Sanders, dubbed the “Rally to Raise the Wage” campaign, and meant to call for raising the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour.
The tweet read: “Socialist Bernie Sanders is teaming up with poverty pimp William Barber to hold a rally with NC Democrats in Durham today. While @NCDemParty embraces Sanders’ push to make us more like his beloved USSR, Republicans work to protect the good old timeless values of the USA.”
Barber responded on Twitter Thursday night, telling his followers to “never fall to the diversion.”
“Keep the focus on the issue of living wages that impacts 2 million low wage workers of every race in NC. We’re fighting for all of them. Forward together!” he wrote.
House Minority Leader Robert Reives, a Goldston Democrat, was infuriated.
“There are only a few terms they could have picked that would have been more demeaning,” he told The N&O in an interview.
“It’s incredibly diminishing of his work. It’s amazing they could reduce all his work to one of the most diminishing terms that could be used for Black men in this country’s history,” he said. “I would say this is even worse than Jeff McNeely’s comments.”
He was referring to a comment made May 17 by state Rep. Jeff McNeely, a Republican from Stony Point. While speaking on the House floor, McNeely, who is white, asked Democratic state Rep. Abe Jones, who is Black, if he would have succeeded at Harvard University had he not been “an athlete or a minority.” Last week, McNeely resigned from his House leadership position due to his comments.
Reives told The News & Observer Thursday to “emphasize how angry I am,” he described the usage of the word “pimp” as “pointed and racist.”
A call and email to NCGOP spokesperson Jeff Moore were not returned Thursday afternoon. The tweet remained online Friday afternoon, despite calls to remove it.
Democrats react to tweet about Barber
Other Democrats reacted directly to the tweet on Twitter.
Barber and Sanders were joined in Durham by Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam. In a reaction to the NCGOP tweet, Allam tagged a “Racism Watchdog” Twitter account and included a GIF of a dog barking.
Jonah Garson, the first vice chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, called it a “dog whistle” and “racist BS.”
State Sen. Michael Garrett wrote that the tweet was “beneath the dignity of our state’s public discourse.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, the NCGOP,” state Sen. Lisa Grafstein wrote in a quote of the @NCGOP tweet.
Ford Porter, communications director for Gov. Roy Cooper, also reacted.
“Yikes. Even by NCGOP standards,” he tweeted.
Barber’s background
Barber is a longtime North Carolina pastor and activist. His two organizations — the Poor People’s Campaign and Repairers of the Breach — advocate for social and economic justice across the country.
After about 10 years as president of the North Carolina NAACP, Barber rose to national fame for promoting the tenets of his Moral Monday Movement: a series of peaceful protests that urged lawmakers to reject what Barber called regressive and extremist policies.
In 2022, after decades leading Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, Barber retired from his pastoral post to launch the new Center for Public Theology and Public Policy Yale Divinity School.
Barber graduated from North Carolina Central University in 1985 with a degree in political science and later got his master’s degree from Duke Divinity School before earning a doctorate in ministry from Drew University’s theological school in Madison, New Jersey.
