In a town hall meeting on January 7, Maine Governor Paul LePage was asked what the state is doing to address its crisis of heroin addiction.

He replied with a racist call to beef up enforcement:

"The traffickers these aren't people who take drugs. These are guys by the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty. These type of guys that come from Connecticut and New York. They come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave. Which is the real sad thing, because then we have another issue that we have to deal with down the road."

This is not the first time LePage has said something offensive. As Governor, LePage has broad authority and influence in public policy.

His weakly coded language exposes his bias and likely targets (men of color in general, black men specifically) in his war on drugs. We need to make it clear that racism is unacceptable and won't be tolerated.

Sign the petition: Governor Paul LePage's comments are racist and unacceptable.