Op-Ed: The GOP Actually Loves Playing Identity Politics, And The Republican National Convention Proves It
Republicans proved during the Republican National Convention that they are not above resorting to identity politics.
The post Op-Ed: The GOP Actually Loves Playing Identity Politics, And The Republican National Convention Proves It appeared first on NewsOne.
U.S. Rep Wesley Hunt (R-TX) speaks on stage on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. | Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
Contrary to what Republicans would have us believe, the GOP is not anti-identity politics and it certainly isn’t above having a DEI state of mind, and the Republican National Convention on its first night Monday.
First, early on during the RNC anti-woke-o-thon, the Republican Party’s nominee for governor in North Carolina, Mark Robinson, Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Tex.), and John James (R-Mich.) went back-to-back-to-back giving their largely white MAGA constituents a Black-on-Black-on-Black shucking and jiving extravaganza as they all really just seemed to be there for the sole purpose of serving as the “Black friends” who will declare he’s not racist and that he’s the No. 1 white savior for Black America.
Robinson—who recently said from a church pulpit that “some folks need killing” in reference to alleged violent criminals who haven’t yet been granted due process and “liberals” who are simply of a different ideology—began his speech by immediately introducing himself to the supposedly anti-DEI and anti-identity politics crowd as “the first lieutenant governor of North Carolina” before mentioning that he is also “on the verge of becoming the first Black governor of North Carolina.”
Mark Robinson speaks at the RNC. I love this man. He is amazing.
What an inspiration.
pic.twitter.com/p9oFcpcAC3
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) July 16, 2024
After Robinson finished painting a largely fictional doom and gloom image of America under the Biden administration and praising Trump as the only man who can save us, Hunt hit the stage to spread a little Republican critical race theory by declaring that “Illegals are getting better help in four days than we’ve had in 400 years,” which appears to be a passive acknowledgment of the systemic racism Black people have endured for virtually our entire existence in America—but nah, that couldn’t be what he meant by it, because that would just be a bunch of woke gobbledygook.
Republica. John James lying "Illegals are getting better help in four days than we've had in 400 years". WTF — Finding a group of people to blame rather than finding a solution. #RNCConvention #RNC2024 #RNC #Latinos4Trump pic.twitter.com/y88UbAD9Oj
— Pablo William (@Dinamico_7) July 16, 2024
Hunt also did his one “Black job” by harping on the (again, largely fictional) damage the Democratic party has done to Black people under recent administrations.
Great speech John James at the RNC!! https://t.co/E2rE4V7J6k
— Tori Sachs (@Tori_Sachs) July 16, 2024
This, of course, comes after Hunt and his fellow GOP blackey-lackey, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), went on their media tour where they Black friend-splained that Trump isn’t racist and he actually really loves the Blacks.
President Trump is the first Republican in memory to speak directly to minority voters. He has and continues to grow our party and make the tent bigger for ALL Americans.
And that’s why he will be our 47th President of these United States.
It’s an honor to join him and my… pic.twitter.com/c6loOuq0hm
— Wesley Hunt (@WesleyHuntTX) June 27, 2024
OUTSTANDING VIDEO:
Congressman Wesley Hunt (Rep-TX) telling his favorite President Trump story, with an assist by Congressman Byron Donalds (Rep-FL). Isn’t Trump’s strength what the world needs? pic.twitter.com/p676Jlg9qp— • ᗰISᑕᕼIᗴᖴ
• (@4Mischief) July 3, 2024
As someone who has been black his entire life, it enrages me to see the vitriol and accusations of racism thrown President Trump’s direction.
Donald Trump has a history of standing with the black community, and his historic support of HBCUs and opportunity zones are not lost on… pic.twitter.com/DgUKelv9ak
— Wesley Hunt (@WesleyHuntTX) February 8, 2024
Next up was James, who also testified to the non-racistness of Trump, and, as a bonus, channeled his inner Joe Biden while getting a laugh out of his MAGA white overseers by joking that “if you don’t vote for Donald Trump, you ain’t Black!”
"If you don't vote Donald Trump, you ain't black." – Rep. John James (R-MI) tonight at the RNC in Milwaukee. pic.twitter.com/0mr3O9X5N9
— Denn Dunham (@DennD68) July 16, 2024
James also played his one and only role as one of the GOP’s resident “Black friends” by declaring that “America is not a racist country,” as did Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who, at this point, might as well get the words tramp stamped on his lower back since his entire GOP identity has been wrapped up in the declaration for as long as we’ve known his name.
Tim Scott has perfected the art of sycophantic bootlicking. He’s a master step n fetch it artist and cunning white supremacy apologist, who demonstrated his buck dancing skills at the RNC.
“America is not a racist country”
– @TimScottSC
— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) July 16, 2024
Also, for whatever reason, Amber Rose was there. (Seriously, do they think Black people care about Rose? We didn’t say much about her when she hosted a “Slut Walk” or six years ago when she called Trump a “sexual predator,” and all we say about her now is “Joseline Hernandez was right!”)
Y’all owe Joseline Hernandez an apology IMMEDIATELY because she was very much so right about Amber Rose
pic.twitter.com/aBN7v4dq2P
— Winsley Nicole (@WinsleyMelan) May 21, 2024
Rose, who first declared her love for Trump in May, claimed she used to hate Trump due to media “lies,” but now she has come to MAGA glory and “realized Donald Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re Black, White, gay or straight, it’s all love.”
During her RNC speech, model and TV personality Amber Rose spoke about becoming a Trump supporter after previously being critical of the former president.
"I realized Donald Trump and his supporters don't care if you're Black, White, gay or straight, it's all love." pic.twitter.com/RTWneHdiNm
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 16, 2024
Yeah—here’s what I wrote about that when she said something similar previously, telling
Black people that Biden doesn’t care about us:
Does Biden care about Black people? Probably not, but Biden is not the president who spearheaded the propaganda-reliant attack on critical race theory, issued an executive order banning diversity training in the workplace, and he’s not the one promising to end all DEI programs across America if he’s elected again. Biden also isn’t the one who tried to disenfranchise voters of color by trying to invalidate votes from largely Black and Latino voting precincts as part of a voter fraud propaganda campaign after losing the 2020 election. Trump also told Black and brown congresswomen to “go back where they came from”, despite them all being born and/or raised in America. He generalized Mexican migrants and rapists and drug dealers, compared South American migrants to Hannibal Lecter, called them “animals” who are “not human” and said he wishes the U.S. received more white immigrants from “nice” European countries. (This is barely a fraction of his racist offense, by the way.)
But none of Trump’s “Black friends” seem to mind the fact that it’s generally required of them to center their speeches around or at least mention that Trump is the president for Black people, and the GOP is, at this point, just getting lazy, so much so that they don’t even bother hiding their hypocrisy when it comes to leveraging identity politics when it’s convenient for them and then defaulting to anti-Black business as usual afterward.
In fact, Republicans are so superficial and self-serving when it comes to their idea of diversity and inclusion, that when they brought finance advisor Lida Fornos to the stage, she was literally introduced only as “Latino-American Linda Fornos.”
Meanwhile, many of the members of the GOP’s Caucasian majority spent the night stoking the fear of white people—who already believe they’re being persecuted in a country where they’re the majority and overwhelmingly represented in both parties of the U.S. government—by continuing the propaganda campaign against any and all diversity initiatives, which they did without catching a whiff of their own hypocrisy, which was on full display every time they brought a person of color to that RNC stage.
But please, tell us more about how anti-identity politics the GOP is.
SEE ALSO:
Voters At The Republican National Convention Even More Invested After Trump’s Assassination Attempt
Videos Of Donald Trump Falling Asleep At RNC’s Opening Night Go Viral
The post Op-Ed: The GOP Actually Loves Playing Identity Politics, And The Republican National Convention Proves It appeared first on NewsOne.