US school board candidate once called black people 'animals'

A school board candidate in New Jersey has withdrawn his candidacy after a slew of shockingly racist social media posts he made between 2013 and 2016 were unearthed.

Richard Jankowski used Facebook to unleash a torrent of racist comments. His ire had been aimed at a number of high profile African-Americans, including the former president Barack Obama and NFL player LeBron James, after he came out in support of affirmative action.

In one of his many public posts, which were discovered by the New Jersey Globe, he wrote:

You g***n animals in Missouri make me sick. Another black criminal gets killed after assaulting a white cop and you pieces of sh*t want justice? You are not Americans, you are animals who disgust me.

In a separate post a number of months later, he was inciting violence against black protesters:

So now I watch videos of the 'protesters' throwing trash cans and any other items at any white person they see... time to start firing bullets into these f***king monkeys and send them to their graves.

In 2013 he encouraged his followers to "go to YouTube and search The Lynching... very interesting video you will find [sic]". The New Jersey Globe reports that he may have been referring to a video about the shooting of Trayvon Martin by the right-wing PJ Media.

Jankowski has made insulting and insensitive comments about black gay people, people with mental disabilities, kneeling NFL players, NASCAR driver Tony Stewart and the protestors in Ferguson.

The 51-year-old's personal Facebook page and the one for his campaign have been deactivated and he has not returned requests by multiple agencies for comment.

According to New Jersey Globe, he withdrew his candidacy and in a statement said:

I'm sorry. There isn't much more that I can say except for that. I would like to extent my heartfelt apologies to those that I have offended and to those who have supported me in my endeavourers. 

Regarding the remarks that were recently published, I want you ro know that I wrote those remarks in anger from what I have seen transpire through our country over the years.

I acknowledge this is not an excuse for my actions. I know many will say I am apologisng because those remarks surfaced and I assure you this is not the case.

I could have deleted the posts or made my page private, but I didn't because that is not who I am. 

There are five candidates left running for three open seats on the school board in Monroe Township.

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