Pete Buttigieg slammed for using black women as 'props' at Iowa rally: 'It's a f*ck you to black America'
Actor Jeffrey Wright took to Twitter to criticize democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg for his alleged placement of black supporters during an Iowa caucus rally.
As reported by Breitbart, Buttigieg's televised speech showed the first row of supporters behind him which consisted of only African American people who occupied the center of the screen. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has been polling very low amongst Black supporters and Wright seems to be saying that the placement of supporters at the rally was very strategic.
Wright wrote on Twitter, "Stacking black folks behind your candidate at the speech is basically ‘F*ck you, black America, you’re an idiot. Iowa’s the new black or what’s going on back there?" Wright was not the only one to voice his criticism.
CNN political commentator Keith Boykin also noted that all of the African American supporters seemed to be "strategically positioned" behind him.
"Out of the 100 or so supporters standing behind Pete Buttigieg right now, every single one of the black people seems to be strategically positioned directly behind Pete so they'll all be in the camera shot," Boykin had written on Twitter. A woman named Essenam Lamewona also took to social media to share that she was one amongst the supporters in the front row at the event.
She claimed that she was asked three times to move away from her friends so she could be placed in the picture with Buttigieg. On early Tuesday, she took to Twitter to share, "That’s me in the front on the right of Buttigieg! I was asked 3x to move away from my friends in order to be placed in pictures #tokenism."
Hollywood executive Franklin Leonard also expressed his skepticism over the "staged" placement of women who were at the rally. He took to Twitter to write, "My compliments to whoever had the discipline to stage, by my count, six young black women supporters directly behind @PeteButtigieg for his #IowaCaucuses speech tonight."
