Denée Benton Called Ron DeSantis A 'Grand Wizard' At The Tonys, Because Of How That's What He Is

She said what she said.

Sunday, during the Tony Awards, actress Denée Benton referredto Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the "Grand Wizard" of her home state, and in a shocking development, a white man has an opinion about her remarks. Ken Jones, chief film critic for @onscreenblogand "forever #NeverTrump," tweeted, "Listen, I love dunking on DeSantis as much as the next guy, but #DeneeBenton calling him a 'grand wizard' is counter-productive. Over the top rhetoric & constantly crying wolf about political figures being the worst pre-2016 is partly why we ended up with Trump, the actual worst."

Men of all creeds and colors need to stop lecturing women about how something they've said is "counter-productive." Really, guys, just slap yourself if you're ever tempted to use that word in public.

Ms. Benton, who didn't ask for this white man's opinion, "told no lies," as actor Yvette Nicole Brown tweeted. That's two Black women who can "see that racist for he truly is." Brown added, "Calling that imp a #GrandWizard was kind."

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PREVIOUSLY:

 Let's Dish About The Tonys! 

 Of Course A Bunch Of Pro-DeSantis Neo-Nazis Are Protesting In Front Of Disney 

 Florida Republicans Let Ron DeSantis Have His Jim Crow Congressional Maps 

 Ron DeSantis's Drunk Black History 

Jones promotes the popular argument among many white moderates and Never Trump conservatives that Trump is the sole result of Democrats not playing kissy-face with Republicans and even winning the occasional election. Republicans were helpless against such relentless liberal aggression and in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn't fully understand. This probably makes a lot of arrogant white men feel good about themselves, but it's nonsense. Even before Trump, mainstream Republicans were calling almost all Democrats "socialists" and suggesting that Barack Obama was a Manchurian candidate deliberately plotting to destroy the nation. Democrats responded to decades of increasingly vicious rightwing rhetoric with moderate, sane candidates, culminating in the election of everyone's favorite TV grandpa, and Republicans still tried to overthrow the government.

Trump is the direct result of Republican voters not accepting an increasingly diverse, inclusive society. DeSantis has seized on the white grievance politics that Trump perhaps slightly modernized, but they've existed since Reconstruction. DeSantis is a classic Jim Crow governor. It's not "crying wolf" to note what large teeth DeSantis has.

Another white man on TV yesterday (I was at the gym so I didn't get his name) thought it was unfair to call DeSantis a "Grand Dragon" because he'd never actually killed anyone. Of course, men like DeSantis, who controlled the levers of power, were why members of the Ku Klux Klan could terrorize Black people with relative impunity. Politicians who enable gangsters or white racial terrorists are not morally superior just because their hands are slightly less bloody.

The Saturday before the Tonys, sad little men with Nazi flags and Ron DeSantis banners protested outside Disney World, which the governor has actively attacked over the past year or so. Those are legitimate wolf-sightings. There were even more at the drag shows across the country where bigots have shown up with guns. Back in March, 20-year-old "White Lives Matter" member Aimenn D. Penny firebombed an Ohio church that was scheduled to hold a drag queen story hour. DeSantis has specifically targeted drag queens and trans people in general.

The KKK's first Grand Wizard is believed to be Confederate calvary general Nathan Bedford Forrest, and until the mid-1950s, most Grand Wizards were well-connected, professional men (not the David Duke stereotype that might pop into your head now). The Klan was originally a sort of "social club" for Confederate veterans, who hoped to "persuade" Black people to voluntarily return to their pre-war state of bondage. When that obviously didn't work, they advanced their racist cause through violence and intimidation. Author Andrew Ward wrote, "In the spring of 1867, Forrest and his dragoons launched a campaign of midnight parades; 'ghost' masquerades; and 'whipping' and even 'killing Negro voters and white Republicans, to scare blacks off voting and running for office' "

DeSantis seeks to suppress the Black vote, minimize Black history, and eliminate diversity and inclusion efforts. He doesn't wear a hood (though that could be an improvement) but there's nothing "over the top" about what Denée Benton said at the Tonys.

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