Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate calls Black mayor a 'bag boy'

Virginia gubernatorial candidate Pete Snyder, a Republican, called Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney “bag boy” during an interview on the right-wing Newsmax TV on Thursday. Stoney is Black.

“Terry McAuliffe’s former bag boy, he got elected mayor of Virginia [sic], Mayor Levar Stoney, told the police to stand down,” Snyder said.

Use of the term “boy” in reference to adult Black men has often been employed by racists and white supremacists in America’s past.

Stoney is a prominent elected leader in Virginia, where he has held his current position as mayor of Richmond — a city with a population of more than 230,000 — since 2017. Before that, he served as secretary of the commonwealth of Virginia from 2014 to 2016, the first Black person to hold that position.

Snyder is the former campaign manager for former Republican National Committee Chair Ed Gillespie, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor of Virginia in 2017.

Gillespie’s campaign was notable for its frequent use of openly racist imagery, demagoguing of undocumented immigrants, and praise for pro-slavery Confederate monuments.

Snyder’s campaign has taken on a similar tone with ads invoking “illegal immigration” with images of Latinos.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.