A Republican congressional candidate has been kicked off Twitter over a racist post about actress and soon-to-be royalty Meghan Markle.
On Friday, Wisconsin politician Paul Nehlen tweeted a photoshopped image of Markle with the face of Cheddar Man — a dark-skinned man researchers say resembles what early Britons used to look like.
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He tweeted the photo of Prince Harry and Markle with the caption: “Honey, does this tie make my face look pale?”
The image prompted fury from Twitter users, with many saying they reported Nehlen’s account.
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Nehlen, who according to The Washington Post has previously described himself as “pro-white” and who has posted anti-semitic comments online, explained that he tweeted the photo of Markle to take a stand against the recently published research.
The politician called the research a “hoax,” saying it is being used as “justification” for the “mass dispossession of whites.”
Researchers from the University College London explained earlier this month that DNA testing on Britain’s oldest, nearly complete human skeleton — dubbed Cheddar Man — revealed he had dark skin, blue eyes and dark curly hair. The findings suggest lighter skin pigmentation now seen as typical of northern Europeans is far more recent than previously thought.
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“A deliberately inflammatory article (that I’d argue is pure junk science) was published indicating Brits, and by extension, Americans, came from this Cheddar Man character,” he wrote on Facebook Sunday.
He later published a statement online, slamming Twitter for taking down his page.
“This is the epitome of interfering with a federal election,” he wrote. “These are unprecedented, brazen acts of censorship by a corporate monopoly that controls a primary channel of public communication.”
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The GOP candidate’s tweet prompted reaction from several Twitter users, including Markle’s former “Suits” co-star.
“You’re a sad and sick man with no sense of shame or class. Get a life,” actor Patrick J. Adams wrote on Twitter.
— With files from Reuters
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