FCC Chairman Ajit Pai spoke to The Daily Caller’s Vince Coglianese about the racial backlash he has received over net neutrality.

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Pai told The Daily Caller, “I knew we would get some backlash, both because we live in a politically toxic time in which, if you’re a ‘Spinal Tap’ fan, everything seems to be dialed up to eleven, but also on this particular issue, that people are very passionate.”

“What I hoped, perhaps naively so, is that my family would be left out of it. My wife and kids don’t have a role in this debate. They aren’t a part of it, they don’t want to be a part of it, and they shouldn’t be drawn into it.”

Pai said that he specifically suffered racial abuse for his stance on net neutrality.

“I would also hope that people, and not just the anonymous folks, but some of the publicly named people, publicly prominent people, who’ve said, ‘Oh, well yeah, he’s not a real Indian-American because, you know, he’s taking this position, you know, the Indian-American community disavows him.’ And, it’s just the kind of ridiculous commentary that, if the tables were turned, I think they would quite confidently call it racist,” he said. (RELATED: People Across The Internet Are Unleashing Extremely Vile, Racist Attacks Against The FCC Chairman)

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