I’m not sure if I liked Republicans better when they were secretly racist or if it’s better now that they’ve decided to wear their racism on their sleeves. Seriously, the way Tucker Carlson is going lately, I expect him to show up on the air in a Waffen SS uniform any day now. (I assume he’s already wearing the vintage Eva Braun Underoos.)
So here’s my advice to my fellow white people. Before you speak on anything related to race, or race relations, or the history of racial oppression in the U.S., or—good God in heaven—slavery, think about what you’re saying before you say it. Then, just to be safe, don’t fucking say it. Maybe listen for once.
So in episode No. 10,342 of Republicans Behaving Badly, we encounter Colorado state Rep. Ron Hanks, a white man (natch) who doesn’t think the infamous Three-Fifths Compromise is what we can all clearly see it was: an attempt to categorize Black people as something less than a full a person.
HuffPost:
The newly elected lawmaker, who was part of the insurrectionist mob that marched on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, was mistakenly introduced as Rep. Lynch during debate on a bipartisan bill to strengthen civics education in Colorado public schools. (There is a Colorado lawmaker named Mike Lynch).
“Being called Mr. Lynch might be a good thing for what I’m about to say. No, just kidding,” Hanks began.
Clearly, Hanks knew he was about to say something awful … but he did it anyway.
Okay, really fucking terrible start. I mean, really terrible. As bad as it gets. Surely he’s reached his nadir. Everyone mark April 15, 2021, on their calendars as the day Rep. Ron Hanks bottomed out, because it can’t possibly get any wor …
Oh, shit.
“Going back to the founding, and going back to the three-fifths, and I heard the comments and I appreciate them, and I respect them. But the Three-Fifths Compromise, of course, was an effort by non-slave states to try to reduce the amount of representation that the slave states had,” he said. “It was not impugning anybody’s humanity.”
Hearing dissent in the chamber, Hanks asked, “Is this really racist to be talking about what the Three-Fifths Compromise was?”
Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut the FUCK up!
Yeah, it’s so hard to wrap one’s head around the idea that counting Black people as three-fifths of a person during slavery might just possibly be a tad dehumanizing. What’s wrong with all these woke snowflake liberals?
Needless to say, there was blowback.
“The fact that Representative Hanks thought it would be appropriate to make a ‘joke’ about lynching―especially at a time when we’re seeing a rise of racially motivated assaults on people of color across our country―is utterly despicable,” said Halisi Vinson, executive director of the Colorado Democratic Party. Vinson also noted that Hanks was attempting to “whitesplain the historical experience of Black people in our country.”
Meanwhile, Shenika Carter, chair of the African Diaspora Initiative of the Colorado Democratic Party, also issued a statement: “To call the comments made by Mr. Hanks today disgusting and ignorant would be a gross understatement. For him to downplay the indisputable, historical fact that enslaved Black people were treated less a person’s worth both in law and in practice is offensive and beneath the dignity of our state legislature. Mr. Hanks needs to apologize immediately, and he needs to educate himself before he makes ignorant comments with such recklessness in the future.”
Say, didn’t Kevin McCarthy just say, in response to the Hitler Boof Caucus that Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar are starting, that the GOP is “not the party of nativist dog whistles?” He’s right. It’s the party of nativist train whistles. And we all live next to the tracks. And the train comes through every 15 minutes or so. It’s kind of hard to miss, frankly.
Again, to some degree it might be a good thing that people are getting their racism out in the open. On the other hand, the inevitable backlash doesn’t appear to teach them anything.
Maybe they should just keep their mouths shut, now and forever. We’d all sleep better.
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