Trump is forcing Republicans, including some in NC, out of the closet on race | Opinion
The Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly has, in the past 14 years, amassed one of the nation’s most imposing records of racial discrimination in electoral regulation.
According to the federal courts, lawmakers have repeatedly deprived Black North Carolinians of “a constitutionally adequate voice in the state legislature.” No other set of legislators “have ever done so much, so fast, to restrict access to the franchise.” Lawmakers have “interfered with the very mechanism by which the people confer their sovereignty,” and called into “question their capacity and willingness” to comply with the Constitution.” Some record that.
But here in the Tar Heel state, Republicans like to carry out their racial work on the down low. Whenever they target Black voters, Republicans explain they were just pressing common sense measures, or seeking ballot accuracy, or electoral security — race had nothing to do with it. This isn’t 1860 or 1898 or 1954. They seem to be saying “We’re all decent folks here. Good gentlemen. “ Then, the federal courts explain that the General Assembly’s position was mere pretext, or, more simply, a lie.
It’s now clear, though, that the ruse, the North Carolina feint, won’t satisfy Donald Trump.
Trump again ratified his commitment to overt bigotry at the National Association of Black Journalists conference. He began by intentionally mispronouncing Vice President Kamala Harris’ name — apparently because lots of other folks do it too. Such class.
He was asked by ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott whether it was acceptable that some of his supporters derisively referred to Harris — the former San Francisco district attorney, California state attorney general, U.S. senator and sitting vice president — as a “DEI hire.”
Trump replied: “Could be.” (Making me wonder how he would characterize JD Vance, or himself.)
Trump made it worse: “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or Black?”
So much for Howard University and Alpha Kappa Alpha. Echoing his earlier attacks on President Obama’s birth status, Trump suggested Harris should be investigated. He thinks he retains the power to determine her worth and meaning. Then, of course, he derided the noted Black journalist’s questions as “hostile” and “nasty.” Trump as final arbiter. Imagine.
Trump also resurrected his claim that illegal immigrants were stealing “Black jobs.” Offended when asked what “Black jobs” might be, Trump’s muttered response was “anybody who has a job.” The great Olympian, Simone Biles, later tweeted: “I love my black job.”
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis tried to re-implement the dodge. He was unwilling, of course, to condemn Trump’s ever-exploding racism. Pushed to respond, Tillis called Trump’s comments a “distraction” and said: “I think it shifts away from the discussion I want to focus on, but it may very well be that we have a difference of opinions about what is going to move the voters. I for one think its the failure on the economy, the failure on the border and the failure on national security.”
Tactically, Tillis would emphasize the economy and the border. It’s not that racial hatred is impermissible, or gigantically immoral or, by definition, un-American. It’s not that xenophobia and pigheadedness is disqualifying for a president of the U.S. or a great political party, Tillis just prefers economics. But, to be clear, like some of his Republican colleagues, Tillis is happy to enlist his fealty in the explicit racist’s cause.
I’m glad we’ve come to this. A defining, existential battle between white supremacy, in all its seething horror, and the American promise.
Contributing columnist Gene Nichol is a professor of law at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
