A panel on rebutting charges of racism at a conservative political conference went exactly was well as you might expect when one audience member suggested slaves should have been thankful to their masters for "feeding... and housing" them, earning scattered applause and a collective chorus of "Ooooooohh....!"

The audience member, a North Carolina gentleman named Scott Terry, wanted to know if Republicans should endorse segregation (Scott: no).

After the presenter, K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans, answered by referencing a letter by Frederick Douglass forgiving his former master, [Terry] said "For what? For feeding him and housing him?" Several people in the audience cheered and applauded Terry's outburst.

After the exchange, Terry muttered under his breath, "why can't we just have segregation?"

ThinkProgress, bless their hearts, caught up with Terry later, and was just as charming as you could hope:

At one point, a woman challenged him on the Republican Party's roots, to which Terry responded, "I didn't know the legacy of the Republican Party included women correcting men in public."

The panel, TP reports, "continued to be racked in controversy." It is unclear if the attendees did, in fact, learn how to "trump the race card." The Atlantic Wire's Elspeth Reeve has a full report.

[ThinkProgress, The Atlantic Wire]