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In Putnam County, Robert “Bobby” Palazzo, age 70, who was running for a seat on the Carmel Board of Education has reportedly dropped out of the race after the inflammatory posts were leaked to the public, including several targeting former President Barack Obama.
“Obama want a banana?” one post from January 2010 read above a photo of the former president.
Another simply stated, “Obama kill yourself please.”
Other posts targeted Hillary Clinton, Tiger Woods, and the Williams sisters, among others, between approximately 2009 and 2018.
Screenshots of the offensive posts that were made public on Facebook can be found here.
Melissa Jay-Orser, a member of the Carmel community who shared many of the screenshots of the offensive posts, said in a message that a “school board trustee has an obligation to all members of our school community, our black students and staff, our Jewish students and staff, our Muslim students and staff, our LGBTQ students and staff, our Latino students and staff, (and) our immigrant students and staff.”
“Carmel community I cannot sit back silently while we have a racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic transphobic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant promoter of suicide hateful man named Bobby Palazzo running for Carmel school board,” she posted on Facebook while sharing the screenshots.
“I have a duty to tell the community what type of person Bobby Palazzo is and protect our students and staff in any way I can. There is no place for this type of hate in our community. “
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