Florida Rep. Byron Donalds Thinks Systemic Racism No Longer Exists. Facts Beg to Differ
Donalds, who is running for governor, believes the gutting of the Voting Rights Act was the right decision while ignoring Florida's long history of disenfranchising Black voters.
Florida Rep. Byron Donalds doesn’t see racism.
Every few months, the Florida gubernatorial hopeful pops up on Fox News to explain why racism isn’t really racism anymore, why protections designed for Black voters are suddenly unfair or why America should stop talking about race altogether.
This week’s performance came during an appearance on One Nation with Brian Kilmeade in which Donalds defended the Supreme Court case Louisiana v. Callais, where Donalds argued that systemic discrimination against Black Americans no longer exists and that race-conscious districting is unnecessary.
“There was a time when the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed, where Black Americans were systematically discriminated against by Democrats in the South of the United States of America. That’s a fact,” Donalds said, the Miami Times reports. “That’s what happened. And so you needed the 1965 Voting Rights Act because of the systematic discrimination against Black Americans. But if you look at the last 30 years in America, there is no systematic discrimination. The court looked at that, looked at all the evidence, looked at all the information, and they ruled correctly that you do not need racial gerrymandering today.”
That’s not merely dishonest. That’s incredible. Florida isn’t just a vacation spot for systemic racism; it’s one of the clearest examples in America of how systemic racism evolves instead of disappearing. It changes clothes. It learns legal language. It hires consultants. It gets described as “race-neutral.” But the outcomes somehow always land in the same place: Black communities with less power, less protection, less representation and less access.
Because Donalds doesn’t see racism, he wants people to believe the Voting Rights Act solved racism so thoroughly that we can now pretend race plays no role in American life. Conveniently, that argument arrives at the exact moment conservatives across the South are cutting off voting protections and redrawing districts that helped Black voters elect candidates of their choice.
That’s because Byron Donalds doesn’t see racism; he does, however, see boots.
And that’s the thing about bootlicking politics; it always asks for the same trade: your honesty in exchange for proximity to power.
Donalds has become one of the Republican Party’s favorite validators precisely because he says the things many conservatives wish they could say themselves. When Donalds declares systemic racism dead, Republicans hear permission. When he calls race-conscious districting “racial gerrymandering,” conservatives hear absolution. They can point at the Black guy on television and say, “See? Even he agrees.”
Because Byron Donalds doesn’t see racism.
