Some of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s worst verbal attacks have targeted Black women

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has a well-known history of vitriolic, abhorrent attacks on a wide range of different people, including multiple verbal attacks against influential women – but a recent article by The 19th looked at one group in particular that he reserves a special kind of hostility toward.

That particular group is Black women in positions of power. Many of his social media postings over the last decade have subjected these women to misogynistic, racist, homophobic and transphobic attacks.

For The 19th’s story, they spoke with experts and advocates who said that Robinson’s candidacy and his gubernatorial nomination “reflect both the incentives within the Republican Party to appeal to the extreme with inflammatory language and stances — and how major tech platforms have enabled the spread of hateful content disproportionately harming Black women.”

Esosa Osa, founder and CEO of a nonprofit focused on Black voters’ civic engagement and combatting disinformation said Robinson’s rise comes from a “historical lack of curiosity about the Black voter” and described him as a “tsunami of anti-Black disinformation.”

“I think that the current media landscape is set up to amplify division, amplify hate and amplify biases,” Osa said. “And it says a lot about your efforts to court Black voters when these are the types of candidates that rise to the top.”

Some of Robinson’s social media attacks on Black women include the following comments:

• He posted a meme referring to Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida as a “lying, liberal, bottom feeding, pond scum” and “dressing like a rejected drag queen from Brokeback Mountain.”
• He called former First Lady Michelle Obama an “angry anti-American communist Black lady” and has referred to her as “a man.”
• He said Beyoncé “teaches our young women how to be hyper-sexual whores” and called her a “skank.”
• He posted a photo of Halle Berry, Mariah Carey and Issa Rae at the Golden Globes and said they were wearing “breast bearing whore dresses.”

None of this is surprising to those who know the type of person Robinson is. These kinds of attacks should be expected, according to Robinson’s own words.

In comments he made during a July 2020 church sermon, he said, “You better believe I am” a “male chauvinist pig” and “full of machismo.” 

“God put that in me to be a man. There’s not anything feminine standing before you.”