For Black Republicans, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is an obligatory fiction

[j-mac]

When you show that blacks have done exactly the same things whites have done, I'll agree with you. But I doubt you will find laws and policies passed by blacks to purposefully deny whites of rights or opportunity.

What opportunity are you being denied now…..

 

[j-mac]

Wrong. What I posted is true.

Nah, it’s bullshit.

 

[Bootney Lee Farnsworth]

Nah, it’s bullshit.

He knows that. He only cares about getting whitey. Marxism is just the icing on the black cake.

 

[daveman]

What opportunity are you being denied now…..

THE OPPORTUNITY TO NOT BE QUESTIONED YOUR OPPRESSING HIM

 

[scruffy]

I know what racism is I live with it. The facts of history show what I say to be correct. Now you have made some assumptions based on your own racism. Because I'm well aware that all whites aren't racists, but the reality you can't man up on is that whites did the things I am talking about. Racism is a BELIEF, I am talking about things that are called facts.

Definition of fact: 1 a: something that has actual existence. b: an actual occurrence. 2: a piece of information presented as having objective reality. 3: the quality of being actual. 4: a thing done. b archaic: action. c obsolete: feat Definition of opinion:1 a: a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter. 2 a: belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge. b: a generally held view. 3 a: a formal expression of judgment or advice by an expert. b: the formal expression (as by a judge, court, or referee) of the legal reasons and principles upon which a legal decision is based.

Now when I discuss race I'm talking about it in a systemic fashion. You cannot find where blacks or asians codified their racism into law and policy, then created an mechanism to enforce it. You cannot find where blacks, asians, etc., implemented laws and policies designed to exclude whites from competing in this system. Your little definition of racism is not the true definition.

So you go run along until you learn that the definition of racism involves the belief that a race is inherently superior or inferior. A belief is not fact. Redlining is a policy that whites implemented to denying housing to blacks. That is not a belief, that is fact supported by the FHA policy manual. So again, your argument is lacking. I am not a racist and I damn sure don't need some right winger trying to explain what racism is.

Fuck you, dumb shit.

You think you have a monopoly on racism?

GET OVER YOURSELF !

Ours is a mixed race family.

Our children experienced the ENTIRE spectrum of racism before they were six years old.

I probably know more about racism than you do.

And I'm telling you point blank: any sentence with the word "whites" in it is RACIST.

Do you get it now?

 

[LeftofLeft]

Aside from racial gerrymandering, suppressing votes, underfunding schools, upholding a biased criminal justice system, denying a woman’s right to choose, preventing access to healthcare, undermining democracy, opposing reparations and thwarting every effort for equal rights, perhaps the most preposterous part of conservative mythology is the insidiously racist idea of “bootstraps”.

According to this wholly absurd construct, hard work – and hard work, alone – is a magical key that unlocks the promises of the American dream. And, if one accepts this premise, then the converse must also be true. Anyone who doesn’t achieve their dreams is simply not working hard enough.

Although “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” was originally intended to be an obviously sarcastic phrase suggesting an impossible accomplishment, the concept has become a key component of the Republican ideology, especially as it relates to racial inequality. Apparently, the infallible founding fathers and the heralded leaders of the past wasted 250 years constructing laws, traditions, practices and a constitution that provided an economic, political and social advantage to the white majority when all they had to do was put their noses to the grindstone. America’s white majority benefited from human trafficking, free labor, segregation, redlining and the whole of government-sanctioned racism. Yet, to fulfill the promise that America offers, all Black people ever needed is a strong back, a good idea and an unfailing work ethic.


For Black Republicans, accepting this sliver of ahistorical fiction is the first step to ascending to a position of power and prominence in the Grand Old Party. Counterbalancing the accusations of racism lobbed at the Republican party is the main job of Black conservatives. To do this, they are required to fabricate a life story that serves as a parable and proof of the bootstrapping thesis.

Even before Herschel Walker decided to vie for the Georgia Senate seat occupied by Senator Raphael Warnock, the NFL running-back-turned-bootstrap-evangelist made a habit of explaining how his work ethic and a don’t-quit mentality led to accomplishments as a student, multimillionaire and a business mogul. There was only one problem with Walker’s backstory:

It doesn’t seem to be true.

According to investigations by the Associated Press, Georgia Public Broadcasting and the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, there is no evidence that supports Walker’s claims to own the largest minority-owned food business in America, his supposed net worth of $65m, or his proprietary mist that can “kill any Covid in your body”. It is possible that Walker isn’t a liar; maybe he simply meant to inspire others with the story about how he worked his way out of poverty to graduate in the top 1% of his class at the University of Georgia … Except he didn’t graduate from college.

Although he was hailed as the only hope of regaining the invaluable Senate seat, Walker’s Republican challengers are now convinced that his fabricated backstory, and domestic violence allegations by his ex-wife, have become a risk to the party, according to a report by Politico. Now that Walker’s con has been exposed, he is of no use to his Republican colleagues. The fairytale life that was once his biggest attribute has become “baggage”.

The South Carolina senator Tim Scott is taking note. For years, he has repeatedly extolled the values of hard work as part of his origin story. He often recounts the tale of his poor, illiterate grandfather who – Scott conveniently forgets to mention – owned 900 acres in South Carolina. While Scott once told me during an interview that he “struggles to come up with a concise definition of what systemic racism looks like”, he confidently told the world that “America is not a racist country”. And, according to Axios, Scott is now preparing to give a speech that warns against “teaching kids that they are oppressors”. How convenient. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Scott’s name has been bandied about as a presidential candidate.

Perhaps America’s highest-ranking Black Republican is Clarence Thomas. During his rise to the supreme court, Thomas loved to tell the tale of how his sister was content to survive on government assistance while he embraced the all-American ethos of hard work. “She gets mad when the mailman is late with her welfare check,” Thomas told a group of Black conservatives in 1980. “What’s worse is that now her kids feel entitled to the check too. They have no motivation for doing better or getting out of that situation.’’ It turns out, it was all a lie. But of course, it served its purpose. As a supreme court justice, Thomas’s life has turned into a liability that may cost his party a supreme court seat.

“What has happened too often is that people who seemingly mean well have promoted things that do not encourage development of any innate talent in people,” explained another Black bootstrapper, Ben Carson. “Hence we have generation after generation living in dependent situations. It’s not that they’re bad people, it’s that this is what they’ve been given, and it’s all they know in some cases.” As secretary of the housing and urban development department, Carson, a former presidential candidate, pledged to reverse policies that “created a culture of dependency in urban communities”. Carson didn’t mention that those same policies provided shelter, food and even the ability to see clearly during his quest to become one of the most celebrated neurosurgeons in American history. But, alas, he has been discarded, too.

Unlike their white counterparts, Black Republicans are required to promote the idea that – instead of discrimination, systemic inequality and history – Black people are victims of their own laziness. Kelly Loeffler, who held the Georgia Senate seat before Walker’s opponent, came from a family that profited from government assistance. However, Loeffler didn’t bear the burden of representing the shiftlessness of white “culture”. Ben Carson didn’t point out that the man who appointed him could serve as the poster boy for white privilege, if Trump could manage to wrestle the title from the man who appointed Thomas to the supreme court, George HW Bush.

But that’s not what makes this a racist idea.

By preaching the tenets of the bootstrap gospel, Black Republicans are essentially saying that 83% of Black voters, 63% of Hispanic voters and 72% of Asian American voters are wrong. The fact that every non-white demographic in America has rejected this narrative cannot unseat this fraudulent conservative conceit. They might not know much about history, business, systemic racism or inequality in their own country but, apparently, white people know what’s best for everyone else.

The willingness to toss aside the people who labored for the conservative movement actually disproves the logic of bootstrap mythology. Ultimately, when the premise of the false narrative is exposed as a fantasy, they have no use for the Black people whose lives once supported the idea that the gears to equality are lubricated with elbow grease.

It turns out, it was snake oil all along.

For Black Republicans, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is an obligatory fiction

Just listen to the new tokens the Republicans have adopted, Herschel Walker and Tim Scott are the two they parade out front today. It used to be Herman Cain, Ben Carson, Allen West, etc., but they seemed to have fallen off the map.

What does it take for one - regardless of race- not to give a flying fuck if or when the welfare check arrives? And stop your bullshit about about “underfunded schools”. I live in the shadow of Washington DC which has the most per capita cost per student in the nation yet still cries about not enough money for schools while Democrats shoot down vouchers. As always, Democrats and their cronies making bank off of Blacks.

 

[IM2]

Fuck you, dumb shit.

You think you have a monopoly on racism?

GET OVER YOURSELF !

Ours is a mixed race family.

Our children experienced the ENTIRE spectrum of racism before they were six years old.

I probably know more about racism than you do.

And I'm telling you point blank: any sentence with the word "whites" in it is RACIST.

Do you get it now?

You're wrong. And nobody of color has created laws and policies denying whites rights or opportunity. So can your white victimhood because it's fake news. Saying the word white is not racist, not when there are whites who have declared that being white means you're better than everybody else. So shut the fuck up because there is a subculture in white America that practices racism.

 

[IM2]

What does it take for one - regardless of race- not to give a flying fuck if or when the welfare check arrives? And stop your bullshit about about “underfunded schools”. I live in the shadow of Washington DC which has the most per capita cost per student in the nation yet still cries about not enough money for schools while Democrats shoot down vouchers. As always, Democrats and their cronies making bank off of Blacks.

Bullshit.

 

[LeftofLeft]

Aside from racial gerrymandering, suppressing votes, underfunding schools, upholding a biased criminal justice system, denying a woman’s right to choose, preventing access to healthcare, undermining democracy, opposing reparations and thwarting every effort for equal rights, perhaps the most preposterous part of conservative mythology is the insidiously racist idea of “bootstraps”.

According to this wholly absurd construct, hard work – and hard work, alone – is a magical key that unlocks the promises of the American dream. And, if one accepts this premise, then the converse must also be true. Anyone who doesn’t achieve their dreams is simply not working hard enough.

Although “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” was originally intended to be an obviously sarcastic phrase suggesting an impossible accomplishment, the concept has become a key component of the Republican ideology, especially as it relates to racial inequality. Apparently, the infallible founding fathers and the heralded leaders of the past wasted 250 years constructing laws, traditions, practices and a constitution that provided an economic, political and social advantage to the white majority when all they had to do was put their noses to the grindstone. America’s white majority benefited from human trafficking, free labor, segregation, redlining and the whole of government-sanctioned racism. Yet, to fulfill the promise that America offers, all Black people ever needed is a strong back, a good idea and an unfailing work ethic.


For Black Republicans, accepting this sliver of ahistorical fiction is the first step to ascending to a position of power and prominence in the Grand Old Party. Counterbalancing the accusations of racism lobbed at the Republican party is the main job of Black conservatives. To do this, they are required to fabricate a life story that serves as a parable and proof of the bootstrapping thesis.

Even before Herschel Walker decided to vie for the Georgia Senate seat occupied by Senator Raphael Warnock, the NFL running-back-turned-bootstrap-evangelist made a habit of explaining how his work ethic and a don’t-quit mentality led to accomplishments as a student, multimillionaire and a business mogul. There was only one problem with Walker’s backstory:

It doesn’t seem to be true.

According to investigations by the Associated Press, Georgia Public Broadcasting and the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, there is no evidence that supports Walker’s claims to own the largest minority-owned food business in America, his supposed net worth of $65m, or his proprietary mist that can “kill any Covid in your body”. It is possible that Walker isn’t a liar; maybe he simply meant to inspire others with the story about how he worked his way out of poverty to graduate in the top 1% of his class at the University of Georgia … Except he didn’t graduate from college.

Although he was hailed as the only hope of regaining the invaluable Senate seat, Walker’s Republican challengers are now convinced that his fabricated backstory, and domestic violence allegations by his ex-wife, have become a risk to the party, according to a report by Politico. Now that Walker’s con has been exposed, he is of no use to his Republican colleagues. The fairytale life that was once his biggest attribute has become “baggage”.

The South Carolina senator Tim Scott is taking note. For years, he has repeatedly extolled the values of hard work as part of his origin story. He often recounts the tale of his poor, illiterate grandfather who – Scott conveniently forgets to mention – owned 900 acres in South Carolina. While Scott once told me during an interview that he “struggles to come up with a concise definition of what systemic racism looks like”, he confidently told the world that “America is not a racist country”. And, according to Axios, Scott is now preparing to give a speech that warns against “teaching kids that they are oppressors”. How convenient. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Scott’s name has been bandied about as a presidential candidate.

Perhaps America’s highest-ranking Black Republican is Clarence Thomas. During his rise to the supreme court, Thomas loved to tell the tale of how his sister was content to survive on government assistance while he embraced the all-American ethos of hard work. “She gets mad when the mailman is late with her welfare check,” Thomas told a group of Black conservatives in 1980. “What’s worse is that now her kids feel entitled to the check too. They have no motivation for doing better or getting out of that situation.’’ It turns out, it was all a lie. But of course, it served its purpose. As a supreme court justice, Thomas’s life has turned into a liability that may cost his party a supreme court seat.

“What has happened too often is that people who seemingly mean well have promoted things that do not encourage development of any innate talent in people,” explained another Black bootstrapper, Ben Carson. “Hence we have generation after generation living in dependent situations. It’s not that they’re bad people, it’s that this is what they’ve been given, and it’s all they know in some cases.” As secretary of the housing and urban development department, Carson, a former presidential candidate, pledged to reverse policies that “created a culture of dependency in urban communities”. Carson didn’t mention that those same policies provided shelter, food and even the ability to see clearly during his quest to become one of the most celebrated neurosurgeons in American history. But, alas, he has been discarded, too.

Unlike their white counterparts, Black Republicans are required to promote the idea that – instead of discrimination, systemic inequality and history – Black people are victims of their own laziness. Kelly Loeffler, who held the Georgia Senate seat before Walker’s opponent, came from a family that profited from government assistance. However, Loeffler didn’t bear the burden of representing the shiftlessness of white “culture”. Ben Carson didn’t point out that the man who appointed him could serve as the poster boy for white privilege, if Trump could manage to wrestle the title from the man who appointed Thomas to the supreme court, George HW Bush.

But that’s not what makes this a racist idea.

By preaching the tenets of the bootstrap gospel, Black Republicans are essentially saying that 83% of Black voters, 63% of Hispanic voters and 72% of Asian American voters are wrong. The fact that every non-white demographic in America has rejected this narrative cannot unseat this fraudulent conservative conceit. They might not know much about history, business, systemic racism or inequality in their own country but, apparently, white people know what’s best for everyone else.

The willingness to toss aside the people who labored for the conservative movement actually disproves the logic of bootstrap mythology. Ultimately, when the premise of the false narrative is exposed as a fantasy, they have no use for the Black people whose lives once supported the idea that the gears to equality are lubricated with elbow grease.

It turns out, it was snake oil all along.

For Black Republicans, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is an obligatory fiction

Just listen to the new tokens the Republicans have adopted, Herschel Walker and Tim Scott are the two they parade out front today. It used to be Herman Cain, Ben Carson, Allen West, etc., but they seemed to have fallen off the map.

Regarding gerrymandering, show US where Democrats have never engaged in such a practice?

 

[IM2]

Regarding gerrymandering, show US where Democrats have never engaged in such a practice?

Racial gerrymandering is illegal, but republican states are doing it right now.

 

[LeftofLeft]

Bullshit.

Be accountable, not entitled, and back up your call of bullshit with data and independent sources.

 

[IM2]

What opportunity are you being denied now…..

Equal pay for the same work. employment, housing, loans, habeas corpus, the right not to face unreasonable searches and seizures, equal educating, voting and:

The quote below is written by members of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and the National Lawyers Guild as part of the Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence against People of African Descent in the U.S., on page 16:

"The Commissioners find a prima facie case of Crimes against Humanity warranting an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The crimes under the Rome Statute include: Murder, Severe Deprivation of Physical Liberty, Torture, Persecution of people of African descent, and other Inhumane Acts, which occurred in the context of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population of Black people in the U.S."

 

[AzogtheDefiler]

Aside from racial gerrymandering, suppressing votes, underfunding schools, upholding a biased criminal justice system, denying a woman’s right to choose, preventing access to healthcare, undermining democracy, opposing reparations and thwarting every effort for equal rights, perhaps the most preposterous part of conservative mythology is the insidiously racist idea of “bootstraps”.

According to this wholly absurd construct, hard work – and hard work, alone – is a magical key that unlocks the promises of the American dream. And, if one accepts this premise, then the converse must also be true. Anyone who doesn’t achieve their dreams is simply not working hard enough.

Although “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” was originally intended to be an obviously sarcastic phrase suggesting an impossible accomplishment, the concept has become a key component of the Republican ideology, especially as it relates to racial inequality. Apparently, the infallible founding fathers and the heralded leaders of the past wasted 250 years constructing laws, traditions, practices and a constitution that provided an economic, political and social advantage to the white majority when all they had to do was put their noses to the grindstone. America’s white majority benefited from human trafficking, free labor, segregation, redlining and the whole of government-sanctioned racism. Yet, to fulfill the promise that America offers, all Black people ever needed is a strong back, a good idea and an unfailing work ethic.


For Black Republicans, accepting this sliver of ahistorical fiction is the first step to ascending to a position of power and prominence in the Grand Old Party. Counterbalancing the accusations of racism lobbed at the Republican party is the main job of Black conservatives. To do this, they are required to fabricate a life story that serves as a parable and proof of the bootstrapping thesis.

Even before Herschel Walker decided to vie for the Georgia Senate seat occupied by Senator Raphael Warnock, the NFL running-back-turned-bootstrap-evangelist made a habit of explaining how his work ethic and a don’t-quit mentality led to accomplishments as a student, multimillionaire and a business mogul. There was only one problem with Walker’s backstory:

It doesn’t seem to be true.

According to investigations by the Associated Press, Georgia Public Broadcasting and the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, there is no evidence that supports Walker’s claims to own the largest minority-owned food business in America, his supposed net worth of $65m, or his proprietary mist that can “kill any Covid in your body”. It is possible that Walker isn’t a liar; maybe he simply meant to inspire others with the story about how he worked his way out of poverty to graduate in the top 1% of his class at the University of Georgia … Except he didn’t graduate from college.

Although he was hailed as the only hope of regaining the invaluable Senate seat, Walker’s Republican challengers are now convinced that his fabricated backstory, and domestic violence allegations by his ex-wife, have become a risk to the party, according to a report by Politico. Now that Walker’s con has been exposed, he is of no use to his Republican colleagues. The fairytale life that was once his biggest attribute has become “baggage”.

The South Carolina senator Tim Scott is taking note. For years, he has repeatedly extolled the values of hard work as part of his origin story. He often recounts the tale of his poor, illiterate grandfather who – Scott conveniently forgets to mention – owned 900 acres in South Carolina. While Scott once told me during an interview that he “struggles to come up with a concise definition of what systemic racism looks like”, he confidently told the world that “America is not a racist country”. And, according to Axios, Scott is now preparing to give a speech that warns against “teaching kids that they are oppressors”. How convenient. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Scott’s name has been bandied about as a presidential candidate.

Perhaps America’s highest-ranking Black Republican is Clarence Thomas. During his rise to the supreme court, Thomas loved to tell the tale of how his sister was content to survive on government assistance while he embraced the all-American ethos of hard work. “She gets mad when the mailman is late with her welfare check,” Thomas told a group of Black conservatives in 1980. “What’s worse is that now her kids feel entitled to the check too. They have no motivation for doing better or getting out of that situation.’’ It turns out, it was all a lie. But of course, it served its purpose. As a supreme court justice, Thomas’s life has turned into a liability that may cost his party a supreme court seat.

“What has happened too often is that people who seemingly mean well have promoted things that do not encourage development of any innate talent in people,” explained another Black bootstrapper, Ben Carson. “Hence we have generation after generation living in dependent situations. It’s not that they’re bad people, it’s that this is what they’ve been given, and it’s all they know in some cases.” As secretary of the housing and urban development department, Carson, a former presidential candidate, pledged to reverse policies that “created a culture of dependency in urban communities”. Carson didn’t mention that those same policies provided shelter, food and even the ability to see clearly during his quest to become one of the most celebrated neurosurgeons in American history. But, alas, he has been discarded, too.

Unlike their white counterparts, Black Republicans are required to promote the idea that – instead of discrimination, systemic inequality and history – Black people are victims of their own laziness. Kelly Loeffler, who held the Georgia Senate seat before Walker’s opponent, came from a family that profited from government assistance. However, Loeffler didn’t bear the burden of representing the shiftlessness of white “culture”. Ben Carson didn’t point out that the man who appointed him could serve as the poster boy for white privilege, if Trump could manage to wrestle the title from the man who appointed Thomas to the supreme court, George HW Bush.

But that’s not what makes this a racist idea.

By preaching the tenets of the bootstrap gospel, Black Republicans are essentially saying that 83% of Black voters, 63% of Hispanic voters and 72% of Asian American voters are wrong. The fact that every non-white demographic in America has rejected this narrative cannot unseat this fraudulent conservative conceit. They might not know much about history, business, systemic racism or inequality in their own country but, apparently, white people know what’s best for everyone else.

The willingness to toss aside the people who labored for the conservative movement actually disproves the logic of bootstrap mythology. Ultimately, when the premise of the false narrative is exposed as a fantasy, they have no use for the Black people whose lives once supported the idea that the gears to equality are lubricated with elbow grease.

It turns out, it was snake oil all along.

For Black Republicans, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is an obligatory fiction

Just listen to the new tokens the Republicans have adopted, Herschel Walker and Tim Scott are the two they parade out front today. It used to be Herman Cain, Ben Carson, Allen West, etc., but they seemed to have fallen off the map.

You are a racist

 

[IM2]

Be accountable, not entitled, and back up your call of bullshit with data and independent sources.

Your entire argument is based on entitlement. So spare me the cognitive dissonance.

 

[Seymour Flops]

Aside from racial gerrymandering, suppressing votes, underfunding schools, upholding a biased criminal justice system, denying a woman’s right to choose, preventing access to healthcare, undermining democracy, opposing reparations and thwarting every effort for equal rights, perhaps the most preposterous part of conservative mythology is the insidiously racist idea of “bootstraps”.

According to this wholly absurd construct, hard work – and hard work, alone – is a magical key that unlocks the promises of the American dream. And, if one accepts this premise, then the converse must also be true. Anyone who doesn’t achieve their dreams is simply not working hard enough.

Although “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” was originally intended to be an obviously sarcastic phrase suggesting an impossible accomplishment, the concept has become a key component of the Republican ideology, especially as it relates to racial inequality. Apparently, the infallible founding fathers and the heralded leaders of the past wasted 250 years constructing laws, traditions, practices and a constitution that provided an economic, political and social advantage to the white majority when all they had to do was put their noses to the grindstone. America’s white majority benefited from human trafficking, free labor, segregation, redlining and the whole of government-sanctioned racism. Yet, to fulfill the promise that America offers, all Black people ever needed is a strong back, a good idea and an unfailing work ethic.


For Black Republicans, accepting this sliver of ahistorical fiction is the first step to ascending to a position of power and prominence in the Grand Old Party. Counterbalancing the accusations of racism lobbed at the Republican party is the main job of Black conservatives. To do this, they are required to fabricate a life story that serves as a parable and proof of the bootstrapping thesis.

Even before Herschel Walker decided to vie for the Georgia Senate seat occupied by Senator Raphael Warnock, the NFL running-back-turned-bootstrap-evangelist made a habit of explaining how his work ethic and a don’t-quit mentality led to accomplishments as a student, multimillionaire and a business mogul. There was only one problem with Walker’s backstory:

It doesn’t seem to be true.

According to investigations by the Associated Press, Georgia Public Broadcasting and the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, there is no evidence that supports Walker’s claims to own the largest minority-owned food business in America, his supposed net worth of $65m, or his proprietary mist that can “kill any Covid in your body”. It is possible that Walker isn’t a liar; maybe he simply meant to inspire others with the story about how he worked his way out of poverty to graduate in the top 1% of his class at the University of Georgia … Except he didn’t graduate from college.

Although he was hailed as the only hope of regaining the invaluable Senate seat, Walker’s Republican challengers are now convinced that his fabricated backstory, and domestic violence allegations by his ex-wife, have become a risk to the party, according to a report by Politico. Now that Walker’s con has been exposed, he is of no use to his Republican colleagues. The fairytale life that was once his biggest attribute has become “baggage”.

The South Carolina senator Tim Scott is taking note. For years, he has repeatedly extolled the values of hard work as part of his origin story. He often recounts the tale of his poor, illiterate grandfather who – Scott conveniently forgets to mention – owned 900 acres in South Carolina. While Scott once told me during an interview that he “struggles to come up with a concise definition of what systemic racism looks like”, he confidently told the world that “America is not a racist country”. And, according to Axios, Scott is now preparing to give a speech that warns against “teaching kids that they are oppressors”. How convenient. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Scott’s name has been bandied about as a presidential candidate.

Perhaps America’s highest-ranking Black Republican is Clarence Thomas. During his rise to the supreme court, Thomas loved to tell the tale of how his sister was content to survive on government assistance while he embraced the all-American ethos of hard work. “She gets mad when the mailman is late with her welfare check,” Thomas told a group of Black conservatives in 1980. “What’s worse is that now her kids feel entitled to the check too. They have no motivation for doing better or getting out of that situation.’’ It turns out, it was all a lie. But of course, it served its purpose. As a supreme court justice, Thomas’s life has turned into a liability that may cost his party a supreme court seat.

“What has happened too often is that people who seemingly mean well have promoted things that do not encourage development of any innate talent in people,” explained another Black bootstrapper, Ben Carson. “Hence we have generation after generation living in dependent situations. It’s not that they’re bad people, it’s that this is what they’ve been given, and it’s all they know in some cases.” As secretary of the housing and urban development department, Carson, a former presidential candidate, pledged to reverse policies that “created a culture of dependency in urban communities”. Carson didn’t mention that those same policies provided shelter, food and even the ability to see clearly during his quest to become one of the most celebrated neurosurgeons in American history. But, alas, he has been discarded, too.

Unlike their white counterparts, Black Republicans are required to promote the idea that – instead of discrimination, systemic inequality and history – Black people are victims of their own laziness. Kelly Loeffler, who held the Georgia Senate seat before Walker’s opponent, came from a family that profited from government assistance. However, Loeffler didn’t bear the burden of representing the shiftlessness of white “culture”. Ben Carson didn’t point out that the man who appointed him could serve as the poster boy for white privilege, if Trump could manage to wrestle the title from the man who appointed Thomas to the supreme court, George HW Bush.

But that’s not what makes this a racist idea.

By preaching the tenets of the bootstrap gospel, Black Republicans are essentially saying that 83% of Black voters, 63% of Hispanic voters and 72% of Asian American voters are wrong. The fact that every non-white demographic in America has rejected this narrative cannot unseat this fraudulent conservative conceit. They might not know much about history, business, systemic racism or inequality in their own country but, apparently, white people know what’s best for everyone else.

The willingness to toss aside the people who labored for the conservative movement actually disproves the logic of bootstrap mythology. Ultimately, when the premise of the false narrative is exposed as a fantasy, they have no use for the Black people whose lives once supported the idea that the gears to equality are lubricated with elbow grease.

It turns out, it was snake oil all along.

For Black Republicans, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is an obligatory fiction

Just listen to the new tokens the Republicans have adopted, Herschel Walker and Tim Scott are the two they parade out front today. It used to be Herman Cain, Ben Carson, Allen West, etc., but they seemed to have fallen off the map.

I have to say, I did not expect you to provide examples to back up your subject line. If you had not, I would have called you on it. But, you did, so I will admit that I was wrong, even though I had not expressed it.

Point taken.

But here's another point: Politicians of all stripes love to present themselves as poor boys who made good. Been doing it since even before Lincoln's absurd story of doing homework on the back of a shovel. Why single out black politicians for it?

The fact that several of their parents were actually middle class homeowners, and land and business owners certainly does not disprove the claim that people of color can be successful in America. It confirms it. Even in the bad old days, opportunity was still there.

 

[scruffy]

You're wrong. And nobody of color has created laws and policies denying whites rights or opportunity. So can your white victimhood because it's fake news. Saying the word white is not racist, not when there are whites who have declared that being white means you're better than everybody else. So shut the fuck up because there is a subculture in white America that practices racism.

Your entire post drips of racism.

READ your words.

No one "of color"?

Like there's whites and there's everyone else?

Yeah, no shit pal, there's a subculture in America that practices racism. It's called the Democratic Party.

 

[LeftofLeft]

Your entire argument is based on entitlement. So spare me the cognitive dissonance.

Nothing contradictory about what I say. Prove me wrong with data.

 

[scruffy]

Equal pay for the same work. employment, housing, loans, habeas corpus, the right not to face unreasonable searches and seizures, equal educating, voting and:

Bullshit.

Horseshit, cowshit, and pigshit.

YOU are not being denied any if that

You're a liar.

"The Commissioners find a prima facie case of Crimes against Humanity warranting an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The crimes under the Rome Statute include: Murder, Severe Deprivation of Physical Liberty, Torture, Persecution of people of African descent, and other Inhumane Acts, which occurred in the context of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population of Black people in the U.S."

Yeah really?

When?

Before you were born?

Should they investigate Idi Amin too? That was before you were born too.

Ex post facto laws are illegal.

EVERYONE in this country has equal opportunity. Even illegal residents.

This country bends over backwards for minorities and immigrants of all kinds. We do MORE for minorities and immigrants than any other country in the world. BAR NONE.

And any statement to the contrary is an outright lie.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Racial gerrymandering is illegal, but republican states are doing it right now.

Racial gerrymandering is illegal,

Is that why democrats sue to create majority minority districts?

but republican states are doing it right now.

Democrat states do it, otherwise the CBC would have about four members.

 

[j-mac]

Equal pay for the same work. employment, housing, loans, habeas corpus, the right not to face unreasonable searches and seizures, equal educating, voting and:

The quote below is written by members of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and the National Lawyers Guild as part of the Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence against People of African Descent in the U.S., on page 16:

"The Commissioners find a prima facie case of Crimes against Humanity warranting an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The crimes under the Rome Statute include: Murder, Severe Deprivation of Physical Liberty, Torture, Persecution of people of African descent, and other Inhumane Acts, which occurred in the context of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population of Black people in the U.S."

Equal pay, employment, housing, loans, habeas corpus, search and seizure, education, and voting, are all guaranteed equally by law, and or amendment.

What else ya got?