Dalton Republican state Rep. Kasey Carpenter is facing criticism after a photo of him dressed in blackface has been circulating on social media.
The grainy photo shows Carpenter posing alongside his wife at a party with his white skin painted brown.
Carpenter said the photo was taken at a Chattanooga bar about 12 years ago when he was in his 30s. He said it was a costume party where guests dressed like power couples, and they chose to dress like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, who were married at the time.
In a phone call Monday, Carpenter called the getup a mistake and said he is not racist.
“I think most of my constituents know, both white and my minority constituents, know where my heart is and know that I’m a man of all people,” he said. “Clearly it was a mistake, but it was nothing done with bad intentions or some subversive messaging.”
“I guess an election year is a good time to drop a racially sensitive photo of somebody,” he added.
Carpenter is set to face Cleve Manis, who works in construction, in the GOP primary May 19. The winner will face Democrat Quentin Postell, a college student, in the November general election.
“Instead of focusing on what you’ve done to help minorities, they want to post a one-off shot of something from 12, 14 years ago that – we can argue whether or not it was blackface – I would argue I was Kanye West. It was a person, I wasn’t representing a race or some kind of historical insensitive subject.”
Carpenter has been a proponent of legislation to offer in-state tuition to Georgia college students who came to the U.S. as children illegally and are protected by the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program or DREAM Act. About 38% of Whitfield County residents are Hispanic.
For other examples of legislation he has sponsored that would help minorities, Carpenter listed the Safe at Home Act, a tenant protection bill that passed in 2024; a stalled homelessness prevention bill and a bill that would have prevented an artist’s song lyrics from being used in criminal trials.
House Speaker Jon Burns’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, a Columbus Democrat, offered sharp criticism.
“Maya Angelou tells us, ‘when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time,’ and this blackface photograph is just the latest example of how Kasey Carpenter’s own actions, and votes, make clear he does not represent all Georgians in the 4th District,” Hugley said.
The sensitivity surrounding blackface stems from Jim Crow-era minstrel shows used to mock, belittle and demean Black people and their struggles, and the practice is widely seen as offensive and racist.
Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs called on Carpenter to issue an unambiguous apology.
“We have never come to a place in society where skin color has not mattered,” he said. “One of the greatest Georgians said that he hoped we could get there, but considering the outright attack on diversity, equity and inclusion, the erasure of African American history, the attempts to roll back voting rights show that we are not there by a long shot. So my hope would be he would just make a very short statement. ‘I’m sorry for doing something that is racially insensitive,’ period, full stop.”