Furious columnist hits out at N.Y. Times for report on Black voters' view of Kamala Harris
Black pundits and columnists are already predicting the racism that will surface from some of the top media outlets in the country as they try to cover a candidate of color in the presidential race.
Writing for "The Nation," legal expert Elie Mystal shredded the New York Times for a report they titled: "Some Black Voters Say They Wonder if a Black Woman Can Win."
Mystal was furious as the Times "used other Black people to make their point."
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He explained that as a Black voter, he wonders about many things.
"I wonder if aliens exist; I wonder if God is an a--hole; I wonder how many abortions Donald Trump has paid for," Mystal wrote Tuesday. "But the Times wouldn’t run a story that stated 'Some Black Voters Say They Wonder How Many Active Ku Klux Klan Members Attended the Republican National Convention.'"
He thinks that more Black voters likely wonder about the latter than about whether Harris could win in November.
One Black woman from Atlanta, interviewed by the Times, said, "America is just not ready for a woman president, especially not a Black woman president."
Keli Goff at The Daily Beast is another writer parroting that language, he said. Her sentiment is akin to, “I’d vote for a Black woman, but not that Black woman.”
Mystal wrote that Goff simply stating what the U.S. has told Black people for generations, especially Black women. That message: "America hates you."
"We see the disdain this country holds for people of color whenever we turn on the news. We feel the antipathy this country holds for women every time we go to work, or read an opinion from the Supreme Court," Mystal wrote.
"Harris has been subjected to the worst press coverage of any vice president in my lifetime, and she’s about to be subjected to the worst coverage of any presidential candidate in American history… save perhaps Hillary Clinton."
He called it nothing more than "white male supremacy," which not only dictates the leadership, but works to hold others down by telling them that they feel don't deserve power.
"I can already see David Brooks and Bret Stephens clacking away on their keyboards, doing everything in their power to call Harris unqualified, unintelligent, and undeserving of the office she seeks," Mystal wrote.
The Washington Post editorial board has already taken a different path by encouraging Harris not to hold back out of prudence.
He warned it will get "ugly," but said he won't be deterred by "programming that’s designed to make me think a woman of color can’t win."
While "they are not ready for her, but she is ready to beat them," Mystal closed.