It was fast, but it happened. A post was displayed on the Butler County Republican Committee Facebook Page Sunday night that included controversial text in addition to a reference to a video titled “How to End White Privilege.”

“There is no such thing as white privilege or systemic racism,” the post said. “Every person in this country has the right to be, do and have whatever they want; they just have to be willing to work for it.”

Hours after it had been posted, the item had been removed, but screenshots of the post were circulated on the social media platform.

In an interview Tuesday, Butler County Republican Committee chairman Al Lindsay said the post prompted quick action on the part of the group's executive committee, which altered its communication policy at a Monday meeting.

“We passed a resolution last night that no messages can be put on that website without the explicit approval from the executive committee or the committee of the whole,” Lindsay said Tuesday.

Lindsay said the change was made because there was concern that statements like this one might not reflect the committee or the entirety of its membership.

“When you have a committee where people express themselves, there are many divergent opinions,” he said.

Butler City Councilman Jeff Smith, a former chairman of the county Republican committee, said the post made it seem that all Republicans support the post's position.

“I know that doesn't represent the opinions of the vast majority of Republicans in Butler County or Republican committee people,” Smith said. “It was just an unfortunate post.”

Smith said the post merited an apology from the committee, and he felt that stronger vetting for posting is called for to help dissuade the platform from being used to promote personal opinions in the guise of a unified belief.

He said Facebook in particular is usually counteractive to serious discourse.

“It's not a good place to have discussions,” Smith said.

On Tuesday, state Rep. Marci Mustello, R-11th, who was endorsed by the committee, said she had not seen the post, but heard that it sounded inappropriate. She said she was glad the county committee was doing something positive in response.

“I'm glad to see the Republican Party doing the right thing with future posts,” Mustello said.

While change of policy is a good thing, some Facebook commenters said the Republican committee should post an official stance on white privilege and systemic racism.

Catherine Lalonde, chairwoman for the Butler County Democratic Committee, said she wants to know who posted the comments and a clarification from the party. She said she also doubted that the inappropriate statement was collectively agreed upon by the county's Republicans.

“I think most people I know would accept that we have had the privilege. We don't really recognize it because of living in a mostly white place,” Lalonde said.

She said there are still people who would not want to live next to a nonwhite person. She said there are still inadequacies in today's version of equality that have yet to be addressed.

“This is both myself and the (Democratic) committee feel this way. We recognize that there's discrimination,” Lalonde said. “I definitely think they should deal with it within their committee and put out a message about what they believe should be done about racism.”