Much is made of the racism supposedly imbued in President Donald Trump’s recent tweets (hint: there isn’t any).
But much is ignored of the racism inherent in the words of four freshman Congresswomen: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D, NY), Rashida Tlaib (D, MI), Ilhan Omar (D, MN), and Ayanna Pressley (D, MA). Here’s Tlaib, providing a canonical example of those four’s blatant racism on last Tuesday’s CBS This Morning. In speaking of their relationship with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Tlaib said
Acknowledge the fact that we are women of color, so when you do single us out, be aware of that and what you’re doing, especially because some of us are getting death threats, because some of us are being singled out because of our backgrounds, because of our experiences and so forth.
Because the first thing of importance in their minds is their skin color. Not that they’re Congresspersons who happen to be women and who happen to have brown or black skin. Not that they represent a constituency in their home districts. Not even that they’re Americans.
No. What’s most important to them, all that’s important to them, is that they’ve black or brown.
It’s hard to get more racist than that.
That business about death threats, being singled out because of their backgrounds, “and so forth?” It’s been Republicans and Conservatives against whom such threats and singling-out have actually been carried out. It’s been Conservatives who’ve been viciously attacked, for instance in Portland where the Progressive-Democrat mayor instructed his police force to stand down while the attacks went in—including during the assault on a Conservative journalist. It’s been a Republican Congressman who was shot and seriously wounded, along with several others, for no other reason than that he, and they, are Republicans and Conservatives.
These four Congresswomen should be ashamed of their racism. But they don’t have the grace, even for embarrassment.