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Colorado Republican State Sen. Vicki Marble put her racism on full display when she claimed at a public hearing that poverty is caused by black people eating too much fried chicken.

Here are the details from Fox31 in Denver:

Democratic lawmakers couldn’t believe their ears as they listened to Sen. Vicki Marble, R-Fort Collins, deliver a long soliloquy explaining that more blacks and Hispanics live in poverty, in part, because of fried chicken. The comments came during a meeting of the Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force Wednesday at the Capitol as lawmakers on the committee were presented with a number of statistics highlighting racial disparities in the poverty rate. “When you look at life expectancy, there are problems in the black race: sickle-cell anemia is something that comes up, diabetes is something that’s prevalent in the genetic makeup and you just can’t help it,” Marble said. “Although I’ve got to say, I’ve never had better BBQ and better chicken and ate better in my life than when you go down south and you — I love it.”

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The lawmaker also said that Mexicans only eat vegetables in Mexico, but stop eating healthy when they come here.

Democrat Rep. Rhonda Fields responded to Marble on the record, “The title for this committee is the Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force; and one of the things I will not tolerate is racist and insensitive comments about African Americans, the color of their skin. You mentioned what we eat — I was highly offended by your remarks. I will not engage in a dialogue where I’m in the company where you are using the stereotype references about African Americans and chicken and food and all kinds of things. I will just not tolerate that.”

Last night, Marble released a statement claiming that her racist remarks were taken out of context, and not meant to disparage any community.

How could anyone think that blaming poverty on blacks eating too much fried chicken isn’t racist and offensive? Sen. Marble knew that was she was saying was racist, but she didn’t care. The Republican Party now contains some elected officials officials who view racism as good politics.

The culture of racism for political gain began at the top of the party with the race based attacks on President Obama, has trickled down to elected state and local Republicans across the country. We recently saw the same kind of behavior when Maine Gov. Paul LePage claimed that President Obama hates white people. The difference between LePage and Marble’s remarks is that the Maine governor at least made his remarks to a gathering of Republicans. Marble made her comments during a public hearing in front of African Americans on the public record.

Contrary to what the Supreme Court said when they gutted the Voting Rights Act, racism is alive, well, and full blown part of Republican politics. America is seeing proof of it every single day.