The head of the Republican party in Minnesota is apologizing after one of the GOP's district branches tweeted about a "negro problem."
The tweet, sent out by the state's 7th Congressional District GOP on Sunday, was a response to the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party's call to make joblessness and poverty in the black community part of a proposed legislative special session, the Star Tribune reported.
"MN #DFL now propose a 'special session' to deal with their self-created '#negroproblem,'" the tweet said.
It has since been deleted, but images of the tweet are still being circulated on social media.
The DFL -- the state's affiliate of the Democratic Party -- immediately condemned the remarks.
"You don’t have to look far to find ignorant hate speech masquerading as acceptable party messaging," DFL Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement. "However, this is not the first time the Minnesota Republican Party and their affiliates have posted racially insensitive material."
Martin called on state Republican Chairman Keith Downey to apologize. Downey did so via a Twitter account that had been inactive for nearly six months:
The racist tweet was sent out just one day before five Black Lives Matters activists were shot at a protest in Minneapolis over the killing of Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old black man shot in the head by police on Nov. 15.
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