Throwback Thursday: Definitive Proof That Republicans Are Racist

A "facts, not feelings"-based argument.

(Screenshot, Fox 5/YouTube)

This article originally appeared on NegusWhoRead on June 8, 2016.

Question: What’s the difference between a Ku Klux Klan rally and a Republican meeting?

Answer: One has a bunch of racists who are dedicated to the principles of intolerance, Christian nationalism and white supremacy.

The other is a Klan rally.

Hello? Is this thing on?

Since Donald Trump began his ascendance to the leadership of the Grand Ole Party, his repeated dropping of bigot bombs has cleared a path to the top of his party’s leadership. But the question remains:

Is the Republican Party racist?

The answer is yes.

To be fair, I don’t contend that all Republicans are racists. I’m sure there are some Crips whose favorite color isn’t blue, and I bet there are some Klansmen who just like the smell of wood burning and the feel of fresh white sheets against their skin. I’m saying that the Republican Party—as an entity and an organization—is objectively racist.

Of course, it is fair to question my characterization of the GOP. The question we’re here to answer is simple:

Racist, according to who?

According to the dictionary…

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary has four definitions for racism.

1. a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

2. Behavior or attitudes that reflect and foster this belief

3. the systemic oppression of a racial group to the social, economic, and political advantage of another

4. a political or social system founded on racism and designed to execute its principles

Let’s see how many fit the Republican Party.

While it is impossible to know what any specific individual believes, the recently released Republican platform begins with a set of “principles that unite us in a common purpose.”

“We believe in American exceptionalism,” the statement begins. “We believe the Constitution was written not as a flexible document, but as our enduring covenant.” While American doesn’t necessarily qualify as a race, according to the U.S. Constitution, race is the fundamental determinant of who is American.

The original Constitution excludes “Indians not taxed” (Native Americans living under tribal law) as part of “the People.” It differentiates between indentured servants and enslaved people and protects the institution of race-based slavery. Article I, Section 2 not only reduces some human beings to three-fifths of a person, but Article IV makes self-emancipation a national crime. Aside from treason, escaping from race-based slavery is the only crime specifically mentioned in the Republicans’ “inflexible covenant.”

If you doubt that the Constitution created a political system “founded on racism and designed to execute its principles,” the Supreme Court would like a word.

“[Black people] are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States,” wrote Chief Justice Roger Taney in Dred Scott v. Sandford. “On the contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings who had been subjugated by the dominant race.”

Still unconvinced? Well, here are a few other quotes from the Republican platform:

• “We will end the government's use of disparate impact theory in enforcing anti-discrimination laws with regard to lending.”

• “We will end the government mandates that required Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and federally-insured banks to satisfy lending quotas to specific groups.”

• “We both encourage the preservation of heritage tongues and support English as the nation's official language, a unifying force essential for the advancement of immigrant communities and our nation as a whole.”

Regardless of how you feel about taxes, Jesus-based policies and the “gay agenda,” the GOP platform is also “a political system founded on racism and designed to execute its principles.”

According to logic…

“Laziness is a trait in Blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not something they can control.”

—Donald Trump (allegedly)

Let’s do a logical proof.

If Donald Trump is a racist…

Chris Christie recently remarked that he has known Donald Trump for 14 years, and he knows he’s not a racist, but it is hard to take the word of a dude whose diet consists only of honey buns and wild cherry Hi-C. Or maybe he knows Donald Trump doesn’t have racism in his heart, but I have repeatedly stated that no one gives a damn about what’s in anyone’s heart—it’s what you actually do or say that matters.

Donald Trump wants to ban people from entering the country because they had a different religion than him. He stated that he “can only assume” that some Mexicans are good people. He has been sued twice by the Justice Department for discrimination against Black people.

Donald Trump is racist.

And Republicans voted Donald Trump as their representative…

Come on, Republicans, y’all could have selected anybody else. You had a bunch of people to choose from—a bass-playing preacher, the smart Bush, a guy named Rand, a Black brain surgeon (let me say that again. AN ACTUAL BRAIN SURGEON!!!). Or you could’ve shown the country that you were really fiscally conservative by saving it a bunch of money and selecting Chris Christie. But noooooo, y’all wanted that tangerine-colored clown as your leader.

Then Republicans must be racist.

By definition, Trump either speaks for Republicans or is an example of Republicans, which means when he says something that even the speaker of the House called “the textbook definition of racism,” he is speaking for the party.

That’s just math.

There are some Republicans who might refute the above hypothesis by saying they don’t support everything Donald Trump believes–even if he is their representative. That is a solid point. Just because someone in your group does something racist doesn’t make you a racist.

Except…

Imagine you were riding with a group of friends who thought it would be a good idea to rob a bank. You thought it was a stupid idea, so you stayed in the car. Let’s say they even took a democratic vote to see if everyone wanted to do it, and you voted “no” but were outvoted, but you still decided to ride in the car to the robbery. If your friends came out of the bank and you were still in the getaway car, you would be charged as an equal participant in the crime.

If Trump succeeds in instituting his racist policies, it will be because he has the backing of the entire Republican Party. So no, I’m not saying every Republican is prejudiced. I know there are some who disagree with many of Trump’s bigoted actions, but…

If you’re riding with a racist, you’re at least an accessory to racism.

History

The Republican Party is the Party of Lincoln and he freed the slaves, so how can Republicans be racist?

That is the first sentence of every defense whenever anyone suggests Republicans might be a little bit racist (you should know, “a little bit of racism” is like having sex with someone, then informing them that you have “a little bit of chlamydia”). But the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free enslaved people; the 13th Amendment did. And if you give Lincoln credit for the Emancipation Proclamation, then you’re also admitting that he intentionally chose to keep Black people in captivity if they were enslaved in a border states or in a Confederate areas under Union control.

Then, there’s this:

“I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any of her man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

—Abraham Lincoln, Sept. 18, 1858

To be fair, there was a time when most Black people voted Republican. However, that doesn’t mean that the party wasn’t racist. Although many people believe that the parties “switched sides” during the Civil Rights Movement, the truth is, that’s when white Southerners began flocking to the GOP. The GOP actually adopted its racist principles in the 1870s, when the Republican Lily White Movement tried to prevent Black voters from exercising political power

Republicans would also like you to believe that Republicans supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Democrats opposed it, which is also not exactly true. To understand the change in both parties’ ideology, all one has to do is count the votes.

• There were 94 Southern Democrats in the House of Representatives. Seven voted for the bill.

• There were 10 Southern Republicans in the House of Representatives. Zero voted for the bill.

• Northern House Democrats voted in favor of the bill 145-9

• Northern House Republicans favored the bill 138-24

• Of the 21 Southern senators (Democrat or Republican), only one voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act (a Texas Democrat who was elected by a Black and brown coalition).

As you can see, it wasn’t the Democrats who opposed the Civil Rights Act and the Republicans who favored it. Everyone supported the Civil Rights Act except the South. It was Southern politicians from both parties who voted against the legislation. The reason Republicans say they supported the bill is that there weren’t very many Southern Republicans in Congress in 1964.

That’s right, the GOP has been racist as long as Black people got the right to vote.

According to racists…

If I’m wrong, then here’s a question:

Why do racists always support Republican candidates?

The first Republican president was a racist. The second Republican president (Ulysses Grant) oversaw the worst period of racial terrorism in U.S. history. Rutherford B. Hayes, the third Republican president, traded a presidential election in exchange for Jim Crow. Richard Nixon pioneered the Southern Strategy along with Strom Thurmond who switched parties to become a Republican. The Klan supported Barry Goldwater in 1964 and endorsed Ronald Reagan in both his presidential runs. White supremacist David Duke is a Trump supporter. Trump’s campaign manager, Steve Bannon, led the online white supremacist movement called the alt right.

You don’t have to believe me; believe the racists.

But does that make every single Republican complicit? Well, 99% of Germans during the Third Reich never gassed a Jew or forced anyone on a train. Without the support of the rank-and-file members of his party, Hitler couldn’t have carried out the Holocaust. In fact, historians have a name for the rank-and-file party members who didn’t actually participate in those heinous crimes:

“Nazis.”

Last night, I watched Pervert Park, a documentary about a trailer park that is home to formerly incarcerated men trying to reintegrate into society while living with the tag “sex offender.” Part of the film paints a sympathetic portrait of two men who insisted that they didn’t actually rape anyone. According to them, they were simply present when one of their friends attacked a woman.

When the victim shared her story, she noted that she was afraid to run or scream. She said she might have been able to fight off one person, maybe even two. But because there were three men, the two silent men were as much a factor in her assault as the one who physically attacked her. The woman even has a special name for the two men whose very presence enabled that horrific experience.

“The rapists.”

And so it is with Donald Trump’s supporters. Just as there is no such thing as a little bit racist, it is impossible to separate Donald Trump’s racism from the source of his power. It would be easy to shut down a carrot-colored, combed-over bozo if he were a singular idiot in a sea of reason. But he’s not. He is represents the political desires of half the country, the majority of white voters and America’s oldest political party. The Republican Party is just a combination of vowels and consonants, without the people behind it, he would be a slightly racist punchline to a kinda racist joke.

There’s a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. that sums it up:

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

A racist is the leader of the GOP. The party’s powerbrokers are giving him more authority. The rank-and-file Republicans are, at best, silent. There is no single significant part of the conservative movement that has rejected an objectively racist man from becoming the most powerful person in the world.

If you’re with them, you are racist.

You are perfectly within your rights to vote for whoever you want. And maybe somewhere in America, there is a Republican voters who aren’t racist. But the victims of the GOP’s racism have a special name for people who don’t believe in white supremacy, but are willing to support a party designed to execute its principles.

“The racists.”