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This Feb. 14, 2017, screen shot shows a Facebook post apparently made by state Sen. Doug Ericksen featuring a cartoon reminiscent of Norman Rockwell’s famous civil rights era work, “The Problem We All Live With.” Cartoonist Glenn McCoy replaced 6-year-old desegregation hero Ruby Bridges with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Ericksen has since deleted the post, which read “In 1960 Democrats were outraged that a black girl entered a while school. In 2017 Democrats are outraged that a conservative woman would enter a public school. Democrats are full of rage.”
This Feb. 14, 2017, screen shot shows a Facebook post apparently made by state Sen. Doug Ericksen featuring a cartoon reminiscent of Norman Rockwell’s famous civil rights era work, “The Problem We All Live
Norman Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With” depicts 6-year-old civil rights hero Ruby Bridges as she entered an all-white school in 1960. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Norman Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With” depicts 6-year-old civil rights hero Ruby Bridges as she entered an all-white school in 1960. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
A legislator and Donald Trump’s state co-chair has set off controversy by posting an editorial cartoon that likens billionaire U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to a 6-year-old girl desegregating a New Orleans school in 1960.
State Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, initially used the cartoon to bait Democrats, but later changed references to “some people.” By Wednesday afternoon he appeared to have removed the post all together.
The artist Norman Rockwell drew the 1960 Saturday Evening Post cover, showing Ruby Bridges, escorted by plainclothes police, integrating the William Franz Public School in New Orleans. Scrawled on the wall behind the little girl was the nation’s most hateful racial epithet.
Conservative Belleville News Democrat editorial cartoonist Glenn McCoy did a 2017 update for the Illinois newspaper, showing Secretary DeVos being escorted into a Washington, D.C., school, with a projectile splattered against the wall. McCoy changed the “‘N’ word” to “CONSERVATIVE.”
DeVos has encountered protests at two D.C. schools when she has gone visiting. A member of the family that founded Amway, and a Republican mega-donor, she is an outspoken advocate of school vouchers and charter schools, and was opposed by many public school advocates.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ was confronted by a bunch of angry protesters during her first visit to a Washington DC public school. Several dozen activists gathered outside Jefferson Middle School, which is predominantly African-American, chanting "stand up, fight back." Two protesters tried to block her way and one man was arrested. DeVos, a wealthy Republican operative, who donated thousands of dollars to some of the Republicans that confirmed her as education secretary.
Ericksen is already under fire for holding down two posts. He has been absent from Olympia much of the session, while serving as the Trump transition team’s communications director at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has done little communicating of late.
He was taking a lot more incoming on Wednesday, and deleting and blocking posts on his Facebook site.
Ericksen posted the McCoy cartoon with the comment:
“In 1960 Democrats were outraged when a six yer old girl entered a white school. In 2017, Democrats are outraged that a conservative woman would enter a public school. Democrats are full of rage.”
The Ericksen Facebook page has changed throughout the day Wednesday. More than 250 critical comments — e.g. “It is so disappointing that my representative would post something so racially insensitive” — have vanished from the page.
Ericksen has also amended his post, saying:
“Note: My original post said Democrats and I have changed that to some people. Using the word Democrats was too much of a generalization. However, the people who are outraged in these two situations do tend to identify as Democrats.”
Ericksen is a Republican but he should know local Democrats. He grew up in Bellingham, where Western Washington University (then Western Washington State College) was an early center of civil rights activity.
Such civil rights leaders as Fannie Lou Hamer of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, James Farmer of CORE, and the singer Odetta spoke at the campus, and were hosted by local Democratic activists.
Carolyn Nielsen, a journalism professor at Western, noted that the DeVos cartoon has been a hot button issue.
“Nationally, it has been a big topic of controversy,” she said.
“A lot of rhetoric in the 2016 campaign focused on false equivalence,” Nielsen continued. “Comparing a billionaire Cabinet secretary to a six-year-old going to school is certainly false equivalency.”
Nationally, the Democrats of 1960 were divided on civil rights. Washington Sens. Warren Magnuson and Henry Jackson, as well as Hubert Humphrey and John Kennedy, supported the cause. Louisiana Sens. Allen Ellender and Russell Long defended segregation.
Lisa Van Doren, a Bellingham activist, said the Ericksen post has had a galvanizing effect. “Many of his constituents found the cartoon offensive, and it showed an ongoing disregard for constituents who disagree with him.”
He can afford to. In the state’s post-2010 Census redistricting, Republicans succeeded in making Ericksen’s 42nd District fare more Republican. Precincts in Democratic Bellingham were excised, leaving Ericksen representing conservative bastions of Whatcom County.
Ericksen welcomed candidate Trump to a big rally last May at the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds in Lynden.
Seattlepi.com has reached out to Ericksen and will publish his response when it is received.
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