Update: the post was removed from the Winnebago County Republican Party page after Madison365 initially published this story, but remains up on chairman Ed Hudak’s Facebook page.
The Winnebago County Republican Party sparked controversy on Facebook Monday when its official Facebook page shared a meme listing the “warning signs of white supremacy” as “full time employment, literacy, professional or technical degree, regular church/temple attendance, auto insurance, good credit rating (and) no criminal record.”
The post first appeared Sunday on the Facebook page of Winnebago County Republican Party chair Ed Hudak, and on the county party’s official page Monday morning. Someone identifying himself as Ed responded to a Facebook message on behalf of the party’s Facebook page, but declined to confirm whether it was Hudak. He also declined to answer further questions about the post.
Several hundred comments had been left as of midday, most of them disagreeing strongly with the sentiment of the meme, many from self-identified Republicans.
In a Facebook comment, former Brown County Republican Party Chair Mark Becker called the post “disgusting” and wrote, “How horribly astray this party has gone is absolutely shameful.”
The account of the Winnebago County GOP defended the post in several comments, saying the meme represents “critical race theory” which it said “has invaded our universities and is invading our schools.”
Critical race theory is an academic framework the originated in legal scholarship and has since expanded to academic research in education, sociology and other fields. It grew in the 1970s from critical theory, an approach to social philosophy which argues that social problems are influenced and created more by societal structures and cultural assumptions than by individual and psychological factors. Critical race theory holds that those structures often benefit members of the dominant race and create disadvantages for other races. It is not taught in K-12 schools and does not posit that full-time employment or church attendance are “warning signs” of white supremacy.
According to data from the Pew Forum, Black and Latino people are more likely than white people to attend religious services regularly.
Madison365 reached out to other members of the Winnebago County Republican Party executive committee, the Winnebago County Democratic Party, and the Republican Party of Wisconsin, but none responded to email or phone inquiries. This story will be updated if they offer any comment.
