A social media post from Wyoming GOP Vice Chair David Holland is catching some negative attention from people who believe it was racist and promotes negative stereotypes against Black people.
The post to his Facebook page shows a picture of President-elect Donald Trump speaking to former President Barack Obama at last week’s funeral for Jimmy Carter. A caption above the photo reads: “Do you realize, by the time I’m sworn in I’m going to be a felon that worked at McDonald’s? I’m blacker than you.”
The post has since been removed, but Cowboy State Daily grabbed a screen shot of it.
Wyoming Democratic Party Chair Joe Barbuto slammed the post Tuesday.
“Is this why the Wyoming GOP has been so desperate to eliminate DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) initiatives — so their leaders could openly engage in casual racism?” Barbuto questioned. “Wyoming deserves better than this hateful garbage.”
Sheridan resident Gail Symons, a lifelong Republican who ran for the state House this year, said she was also disappointed with Holland’s post, calling it “a cheap shot.”
“This is overtly racist, and I don’t believe Dave Holland is a racist,” Symons said. “It feeds into a whole lot of people who are.”
Holland Says It’s A Joke
Holland, a Moorcroft resident, is in his third term as vice chair of the Wyoming GOP, the No. 2 role in the state party.
He delivers a prayer before each Republican State Central Committee meeting and also usually does a standup comedy routine of sorts that he intermixes with commentary on politics of the day.
When it comes to Wyoming Republican Party leaders, Holland has generally been one of the least controversial and coasted to reelection in 2023.
He defended his post to Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday night, saying it isn’t racist and that people need to be less sensitive.
“I think it’s a joke, I’m not racist,” he said.
He also explained that he saw the post as satire on the mystery about what Trump and Obama were speaking about at the funeral that led to Obama laughing.
“Obviously, if anybody had any sense of humor they would have understood it,” Holland said. “People are beyond (sensitive).”
State Of The World
This is the second time a person or organization with membership in the Wyoming Republican Party has come under fire in the last year for making an allegedly racist social media post.
Last October, the Sheridan County Republican Party drew heat for a photo it posted with a racial slur and a number of stereotypes comparing Trump to Black people. The slur was crossed out from the post that the Sheridan GOP shared.
The party chair apologized for the post and said he took it down within 35 minutes of it being posted.
Symons believes modern culture has become far too comfortable with people making offensive remarks about each other, which she believes has been emboldened by social media, television and media executives who are allowing more hateful speech on their platforms and fostering “the worst of human nature.”
“We’re going to see more and more of this, particularly on social media, when all the governors are taken away,” she said. “David Holland is better than this. The Wyoming Republican Party is better than this, Americans are better than this.”
Holland disagrees and believes people have become far too concerned with being politically correct.
“The people upset don’t have anything else to do with their little lives,” he said.
Holland told Cowboy State Daily last November he’ll run for reelection this spring only if he’s nominated to do so by a member of the party.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
