"This situation could happen to me at the Democratic convention or standing on the street corner. Racism is a global issue," CNN camerawoman Patricia Carroll says of an ugly incident that happened inside the arena at the Republican National Convention.

"This situation could happen to me at the Democratic convention or standing on the street corner. Racism is a global issue," CNN camerawoman Patricia Carroll, in an interview with an institute that promotes diversity in the news media, says of the ugly racial taunts directed her way Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

As the Maynard Institute writes, Carroll was "assaulted with peanuts and called an animal by two attendees." They said to her, "this is what we feed animals," Carroll told the institute. The incident has gotten considerable attention on the Web.

Officials at the GOP convention issued a statement calling the women's actions "deplorable ... inexcusable and unacceptable." It is not known who the women were or what their connections to the convention were. They were escorted away.

The Maynard institute adds that:

"Carroll, 34, said that as an Alabama native, she was not surprised. 'This is Florida, and I'm from the Deep South,' she said. 'You come to places like this, you can count the black people on your hand. They see us doing things they don't think I should do.' "

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