Tim Walz has been accused of peddling racial stereotypes after telling Kamala Harris he cannot handle anything hotter than a ‘white guy taco’.
The Democrat’s VP pick made the startling claim in a ten-minute chat between the pair posted to Harris’s YouTube channel.
WHAT WAS SAID
‘Here’s the deal,’ the told Minnesota Governor told her. ‘They said to be careful and let her know this, that black pepper is the top of the spice level in Minnesota, you know?’
The Vice-President peeled away laughing from the exchange, but the deprecatory remarks left a nasty taste in some viewers’ mouths.
‘This isn’t cute,’ tweeted David Marcus of Fox News. ‘Walz is being used as a clown to mock white people.’
Harris may not have yet sat down for a press interview in the 26 days since Joe Biden dropped out of the race, but even her chat with Walz set some teeth on edge.
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HOW IT STARTED
The pair were talking desultorily about food when the camera cut to a photo of the legendary black singer Aretha Franklin, and Walz was heard to mutter ‘I have white guy tacos’.
‘What does that mean? Like mayonnaise and tuna?’ Harris replied.
‘Pretty much ground beef and cheese,’ Walz confessed.
‘That’s okay. Do you put any flavor in it?’ his boss asked reassuringly.
‘Uh, no,’ he replied looking glum.
The personal chemistry which reportedly won Walz the pick over Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro sparked an unpleasant reaction in many watchers.
‘It’s like a minstrel show lampooning white, Midwest stereotypes,’ tweeted DC radio host Larry O’Connor.
