NAACP president calls on Robinson to suspend campaign

The head of the NAACP is calling on North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) to suspend his gubernatorial campaign after a report unveiled racist comments he allegedly made on a porn site’s message board.

“Anyone who identifies themselves as a Black Nazi or who would resurrect the concept of institutionalized slavery has no place in elected office particularly as governor,” Derrick Johnson, CEO and president of the NAACP, told MSNBC’s José Díaz-Balart on Friday. 

CNN’s report on Thursday detailed a wide range of comments Robinson allegedly made on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago, including calling himself a “black NAZI” and wishing for slavery to be reinstated. 

“Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few,” Robinson allegedly wrote.

Johnson said Robinson’s alleged comments were not only “mean-spirited” but “foolish.”

“The institution of slavery was not only inhumane, it should be something we never revisit again,” Johnson said. “The concept of Nazism too — attack and kill millions of people based on their religious belief — should be something that we learn from, never to repeat, not to celebrate. Unfortunately, the public square is being used to resurrect concepts and campaigns and policy that would demean, and in many ways, kill people that should not be a part of where we are in this society.”

In a video posted on the social platform X shortly before CNN published its report, Robinson denied the allegations, adding that he will remain in the race for governor. 

Though the NAACP is nonpartisan, Johnson said, the organization is not blind. 

“We’re political as hell in the sense that we care and concern for individuals. We care and concern for African Americans, for women’s rights, for those who have been marginalized, for working poor people across racial lines,” Johnson said. “Anyone who belittles human beings to try to marginalize communities, they should not have a place in politics. They should not have a place, in our, in society because we must grow past that. We want to see an America that looks more diverse, inclusive and prosperous, and not America based on a 1930s apartheid system.”