NEW YORK (RNS) -- More than 40 Catholic leaders and theologians have issued an open letter to Catholic candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, warning them “to stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes on the campaign trail.”
The signers of the open letter, which was released Friday (Jan. 20), cited Gingrich’s repeated criticisms of Barack Obama as a “food stamp president” who encourages government dependency for the poor, especially for African-Americans.
They also criticized Santorum’s statement that he does not want “to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.” Santorum later said he intended to use a word other than “black” but did not say what that word would have been.
At ThursdayÂ’s debate in South Carolina, both Santorum and Gingrich continued to blast the Obama administration for allegedly encouraging the use of food stamps.
Those statements have been criticized for encouraging racially charged associations between blacks and government welfare, and have drawn sharp denunciations from civil rights groups and many pundits.
In their open letter, the Catholic leaders -- many of them associated with progressive and Democratic causes -- say that raising “racist caricatures is irresponsible, immoral and unworthy of political leaders.”
