Ever since Dylann Roofe “allegedly” went into a historic South Carolina church and killed nine black people there has been a steady stream of denial coming from the Republican party. Recently, Jon Stewart addressed the Charleston shooting in the most somber and grave manner I have ever seen him address a topic. He certainly took on the elephant in the room when it came to this tragedy, and that’s racism. He did something that the party of the elephant could not seem to do.
Here are a few examples of republican leaders skating around racism.
- Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.):
“What kind of person goes into church and shoots nine people? There’s a sickness in our country, there’s something terribly wrong, but it isn’t going to be fixed by your government. It’s people straying away; it’s people not understanding where salvation comes from.”
- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.):
“I just think he was one of these whacked out kids. I don’t think it’s anything broader than that. It’s about a young man who is obviously twisted.”
- Jeb Bush:
“It was a horrific act, and I don’t know what the background of it is, but it was an act of hatred. … Looks like to me it was [racially motivated], but we’ll find out all the information. It’s clear it was an act of raw hatred, for sure. Nine people lost their lives, and they were African-American. You can judge what it is.”
- Rick Santorum:
?You just can’t think that things like this can happen in America. It’s obviously a crime of hate. Again, we don’t know the rationale, but what other rationale could there be? … This is one of those situations where you just have to take a step back and say we — you know, you talk about the importance of prayer in this time and we’re now seeing assaults on our religious liberty we’ve never seen before. It’s a time for deeper reflection beyond this horrible situation.?
And, let’s hear from Fox News.
?Extraordinarily they called it a hate crime… Some look at it because it was a white guy apparently at a black church. But you just made a great point a moment ago about hostility towards Christians. And it was a church. So maybe that’s what they’re talking about. They haven’t explained it to us.?
- Bill O’Reilly said this:
?No question, that was an act of terror, no different that what ISIS and al Qaeda does ? targeting civilians because of who they are… In this case, skin color seems to be the motivator. This is not a tragedy. This is an execution designed to terrorize people just like the Boston Marathon bombing and the mass murder at Ft. Hood, TX.?
But you see what O’Reilly did there? Like a magician showing you one thing and turning into another, he masterfully switched the conversation to American-hating Islamic terrorists. Jon Stewart addresses this in his video as well.
The base that these Republicans cater to will attack anyone who mentions race. They instantly label those people “race baiters” and say that they are “stirring the pot.” This language is used again and again by conservatives. It’s become a very effective way to shut down any conversation about racial topics in America.
Conservatives would like to believe that everything is just fine, that blacks would fair better if they assimilated more and addressed their “moral failings” as a community. Ask any conservative and they will tell you that they never benefited from racism. No matter how many laws and political policies you cite, somehow, their ancestors were never the beneficiary of institutional racism. Although it’s only been 50 years of equality compared to several hundred years of inequality, conservatives believe blacks have “no excuse” not to be more successful. They stop short of saying that blacks are genetically inferior, although many do believe that. They find certain people, “tokens,” and hold them up as examples of how blacks should think.
When it comes to violence, they memorize just about every statistic related to black on black and black on white crime. So when crimes like Charleston take place, they can say the “liberal media” is blowing things out of proportion. They attempt to turn it around to make blacks seem like the real trouble makers. They stop just short of saying that America would be better off without us, but they always come close enough for you to read between the lines.
Here’s the Jon Stewart video.
