Louisiana State Rep. Danny McCormick, a Republican, posted an image of an anti-Semitic mural to his social media accounts on Sept. 1.
The Advocate, which is Louisiana’s largest daily newspaper, reported that McCormick’s image was of a 2012 mural showing several white men who have hooked noses playing Monopoly; the Monopoly board sits on top of the backs of numerous nude Black and brown men. The mural’s caption reads: “All we have to do is stand up and their little game is over.” McCormick had posted the image with the sentence, “Public opinion controls politics.” He had deleted the post during the afternoon of Sept. 2.
Louisiana state rep @McCormick4LA, who recently compared people who don't wear masks to Jews in Nazi Germany, posted this to Facebook today #lalege #lagov pic.twitter.com/osSj98VIvJ
— Sam Karlin (@samkarlin) September 2, 2020
Anti-Defamation League South-Central Regional Director Aaron Ahlquist condemned McCormick’s posting of the image in a statement to The Advocate.
“The sharing of this illustration comes on the heels of another deeply disturbing antisemitic reference the representative made recently and we call upon him to use his elected office constructively, rather than as a platform to make hateful statements that target vulnerable communities and further the divide in our community,” Ahlquist said. “Representative McCormick must make clear he rejects these views. Now.”
One of McCormick’s Republican colleagues, State Rep. Mark Wright, similarly tweeted, “Anti-Semitic imagery and language have no place in Louisiana politics. I hope my House colleague did this unintentionally, but it needs to be taken down and repudiated.”
McCormick’s office did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment.
McCormick previously had been criticized for comparing mask mandates to the Holocaust in a July video, where he demolished a mask with a chainsaw and a blowtorch.
“People who don’t wear masks will be soon painted as the enemy just as they did to Jews in Nazi Germany,” he said in the video. “Now is the time to push back before it’s too late. We can preserve America.”
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards denounced McCormick’s comparison of mask mandates to the Holocaust as “nonsense and sad. It misses the boat on all fronts.”
The ADL, along with several other Louisiana Jewish organizations, sent letters to Bel Edwards and state GOP leadership urging them to stand against such Holocaust comparisons.
“Legitimate criticism can be made without invoking the Holocaust or Nazi Germany, and we implore you as the leaders of your respective parties to stand with us in this regard, recognizing the pain and offense that these references cause the Jewish community, and communicate that they will not be tolerated in Louisiana’s political discourse,” the letter stated, according to The Advocate.
The image that McCormick had shared on social media was the same image that rapper Ice Cube tweeted in June with the caption, “F— the new normal until they fix the old normal!” Ice Cube has since deleted the tweet.
According to The Algemeiner, the image was painted on a wall in east London in 2012 and was subsequently removed; former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn opposed the mural’s removal at the time. Corbyn apologized for his opposition to the mural’s removal in 2018, when his past remarks on the matter were unearthed.
