Paul Ryan Mocked for Selfie with More Than 100 House Interns–with Barely a Minority in Sight
Charlie Moore and Hannah Parry, Daily Mail, July 18, 2016
Paul Ryan’s recent selfie with more than a hundred Capitol Hill interns has swept the internet–but not for the reason he was hoping.
The GOP speaker posted a picture on Instagram captioned: ‘I think this sets a record for the most number of interns in a single selfie.’
But the photo has sparked outrage because the House hopefuls are overwhelmingly white. In fact, just three people of color can be seen in the entire picture of more than 100 interns.
The photograph has been widely mocked online for its ’embarrassing’ lack of diversity with commenters even comparing it to a Where’s Waldo? puzzle.
One Twitter user wrote: ‘That picture of Paul Ryan with the GOP interns is so white that I had to put on sunglasses to look directly at it.’
Instagram user rikkiforrest simply asked ‘why is everyone WHITE?’ while another wrote ‘Good lord! That is embarrassing–NO diversity !!!wow!’
Other social media users compared the photo to a scene from Where’s Waldo?
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Republican intern Emily Larsen, 19, of Boise, Idaho, defended the seminar saying it that money, not race, was the reason that there were almost no minorities at the event.
‘Neither the GOP or the Democratic offices are intentionally seeking to fill their internship spots with white college students,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘These are just the students that overwhelmingly apply. They apply because they are statistically in a better financial situation to invest thousands of dollars into the expenses associated with an unpaid internship.
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