--- title: Bobby Jindal Portrait: Governor Jokes About Painting description: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal responded with humor Monday when asked about controversy over a portrait that depicts him with light skin. canonical: https://time.com/3701081/bobby-jindal-portrait-2016-presidential-election/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-09T17:18:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:57.293Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's Bobby Jindal's response to a racial controversy over his portrait og:description: "You mean I'm not white?" og:url: https://time.com/3701081/bobby-jindal-portrait-2016-presidential-election/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Bobby Jindal's response to a racial controversy over his portrait twitter:description: "You mean I'm not white?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Here's Bobby Jindal's Response to a Racial Controversy Over His Portrait ## Video: Bobby Jindal Says There are "No-Go Zones" for Non-Muslims in London [Watch (HLS stream): Bobby Jindal Says There are "No-Go Zones" for Non-Muslims in London](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/JmRIP2et.m3u8) (1:09)  _Published 2015-01-20. Bobby Jindal says some countries have allowed Muslims to establish autonomous neighbourhoods._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Feb 9, 2015 5:18 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Feb 9, 2015 5:18 PM UTC Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal [responded with humor](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/viral-portrait-bobby-jindal-channels-richard-pryor-im/story?id=28831617) Monday when asked about [controversy over a portrait](http://time.com/3695541/bobby-jindal-indian-immigration/) that depicts the Indian-American governor with light skin. “You mean I’m not white?” he joked at a _Christian Science-Monitor_ breakfast. The portrait in question, which shows Jindal with skin shades darker than it actually is, attracted widespread ridicule on Twitter, including questions like “Who’s the white guy?” A spokesperson for the governor accused bloggers discussing the Jindal’s skin color in the portrait of “race-baiting” last week, and Jindal described the uproar as “silly” on Monday. > [](https://twitter.com/kjplotkin/status/562763969543544832) “I think the left is obsessed with race,” Jindal said Monday. “I think the dumbest thing we can do is to try to divide people by the color of their skin…. This is nonsense. We’re all Americans.” Jindal, a potential contender for the GOP’s 2016 presidential nomination, has been an outspoken critic of thinking in racial terms. In a 2013 _Politico_ [op-ed](http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/the-end-of-race-95875%5FPage2.html), he decried the “age of hyphenated Americans.” “It’s time for the end of race in America,” he wrote. “Now that would be progress.” _– Additional reporting by Zeke J. Miller_ **MORE:** [Why a Bobby Jindal Portrait Sparked a Racial Controversy](http://time.com/3695541/bobby-jindal-indian-immigration/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3701081/bobby-jindal-portrait-2016-presidential-election/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3701081/bobby-jindal-portrait-2016-presidential-election/"},"headline":"Here's Bobby Jindal's Response to a Racial Controversy Over His Portrait","datePublished":"2015-02-09T17:18:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:59:57.293Z","description":"\"You mean I'm not white?\"","url":"https://time.com/3701081/bobby-jindal-portrait-2016-presidential-election/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","viral","Race","Immigration","Bobby Jindal","Louisiana","2016 presidential election"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3701081/bobby-jindal-portrait-2016-presidential-election/","name":"Here's Bobby Jindal's Response to a Racial Controversy Over His Portrait"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Bobby Jindal Says There are \"No-Go Zones\" for Non-Muslims in London","description":"Bobby Jindal says some countries have allowed Muslims to establish autonomous neighbourhoods.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/JmRIP2et/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-01-20T04:31:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/JmRIP2et.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3701081/bobby-jindal-portrait-2016-presidential-election/","duration":"PT1M9S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3701081/bobby-jindal-portrait-2016-presidential-election/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```