A Republican women's club in San Bernardino County sent out a recent newsletter with a photo of Barack Obama surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon and ribs, sparking widespread outrage and rebuke from GOP leaders and Democrats.
The illustration shows the Democratic presidential candidate's head atop a donkey's body on a bogus $10 bill referred to as "Obama Bucks." Inscribed on the money are the words "United States Food Stamps" surrounded by stereotypical African American food.
The October newsletter went out to about 200 members of the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated, based in Upland.
"I apologize to anyone who was offended because that was not my intent," said club President Diane Fedele. "It was poor judgment on my part. It was strictly an attempt to point out the outrageousness of Obama's statement that he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."
The caption reads: "Obama talks about all those presidents that got their names on bills. If elected, what bill would he be on ????? Food Stamps, what else!"
Fedele said the mailer merely parodied the statements Obama made during a debate last summer and wasn't racist.
"If I was racist, I would have looked at it through racist eyes," she said. "I am not racist, which is why it probably didn't register."
Club member Kristina Sandoval agreed.
"None of us are racists," she said.
The use of watermelon, ribs and fried chicken was innocent, she said.
"Everyone eats those foods, it's not a racial thing."
That's not how club member Acquanetta Warren -- a Fontana city councilwoman and an African American -- saw it.
"My daughter who is 16 was standing over my shoulder when I opened the e-mail, and her mouth dropped wide open," Warren said. "I actually turned the screen away and sent her to her room so she wouldn't see. I don't want to talk to anyone; I want a written apology so the public knows that this is not right and this is not representative of the way Republicans think."
She's known Fedele a long time and is shocked by the newsletter.
"When she didn't see a problem with this, I knew something was wrong," said Warren, who is also vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party for the Inland Empire. "This is an isolated, crazy thing. Our chairman is outraged. We just don't do this."
Indeed, Fedele drew a sharp reprimand from Ron Nehring, California Republican Party chairman.
