Gov. Bobby Jindal on viral portrait: 'The left is obsessed with race'

BATON ROUGE, La., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Gov. Bobby Jindal quoted comedian Richard Pryor in response to a widely circulated portrait that depicted the Louisiana Republican with pale skin.

"You mean I'm not white?" Jindal told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor briefing in Washington, D.C., on Monday. "I'm shocked at this revelation."

"I think this whole thing is silly. I think the left is obsessed with race," he added. "I think the dumbest thing we can do is to try to divide people by the color of their skin. The left is devoid of ideas, and this is unfortunately what they're resorted to – name-calling."

Jindal was referring to a portrait that hangs near his office in Baton Rouge. Liberal blogger Lamar White, Jr., tweeted a photo of the painting on Feb. 3, incorrectly identifying it as Jindal's "official portrait."

Many Twitter users said the painting "white-washed" the Indian-American governor.

This is Bobby Jindal's official portrait. Photo credit: Robin May of @theInd pic.twitter.com/QBzSsMOoYZ

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— Lamar White, Jr (@CenLamar) February 3, 2015

Kyle Plotkin, Jindal's chief of staff, responded with a photo of the governor's real official portrait and accused White of "race baiting."

Hey @CenLamar-that's not the official portrait. Constituent loaned it.This 1's official. Thx 4 ur race-baiting tweet pic.twitter.com/wx2SBY3ZBQ

— Kyle Plotkin (@kjplotkin) February 4, 2015