Everybody In This Post Completely Over Rep. Byron Donalds's Bullsh*t
Everybody In This Post Completely Over Rep. Byron Donalds's Bullsh*t
Poor guy getting gaslighted by having his words quoted verbatim, awwwwww.
The Congressional Black Caucus had this to say this week about Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who is Black:
“This is a pattern of embracing racist ideologies that we see time and again within the MAGA Republican Party. Rep. Donalds is playing his role as the mouthpiece who will say the quiet parts out loud that many will not say themselves. His comments were shameful and beneath the dignity of a member of the House of Representatives. He should immediately offer an apology to Black Americans for misrepresenting one of the darkest chapters in our history for his own political gain.”
Mouthpiece who will say the quiet parts loud that many will not say themselves. In other words, if we’re interpreting them correctly, they’re saying Donalds is helpful to MAGA because he puts a Black face on white supremacy.
Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries had this to say to Donalds:
“You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.”
OK, Jeffries had WAY MORE to say than that. If you missed what everybody’s so furious about that Donalds said, let Jeffries explain how Donalds said Black families had it so much better under Jim Crow.
“We were not better off when a young boy named Emmett Till could be brutally murdered without consequence because of Jim Crow. We were not better off when Black women could be sexually assaulted without consequence because of Jim Crow. We were not better off when people could be systematically lynched without consequences because of Jim Crow. We were not better off when children could be denied a high quality education without consequence because of Jim Crow. We were not better off when people could be denied the right to vote without consequence because of Jim Crow.
“How DARE you make such an ignorant observation? You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.”
Well damn.
Let’s look at exactly what Donalds, one of the lowest-integrity Republican congressmen this side of Nancy Mace, actually said, because he is GRRR SO ANGRY that everybody is supposedly misrepresenting him.
This was tweeted by the Biden campaign, because obviously:
DONALDS: During Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative, Black people have always been conservative-minded, but more Black people voted conservatively …
And so forth.
Donalds is all over Twitter and TV scuh-reaming about DON’T CLIP MY WORDS! and YOU TOOK ME OUT OF CONTEXT! and GASLIGHTING!
But if you watch his full comments, all it proves is that Donalds knows exactly how to spout white supremacist talking points.
You see, this is what the Congressional Black Caucus was talking about. He yaps that this is all about Black FAMILIES, he’s bemoaning that black FAMILIES (allegedly) used to be better off during Jim Crow. That’s all he’s saying! Just in this one specific way, Black people did better! (Allegedly.) Meanwhile, he gets to wink at the white racist MAGA voters by saying the words “During Jim Crow” over and over again.
It’s all very …
Here, don’t listen to us, a white boy writer, listen to this Black woman who goes by Candidly Tiff, who stitched Donald’s comments, explaining in great detail how what Donalds said is literally verbatim talking points from white Christian fascist organizations like the Heritage Foundation and other anti-abortion white Christian conservatives, who have been telling Black folks what’s good for them for decades since … well, since literally the fucking birth of this nation if you catch our drift.
She also notes that if Byron Donalds is so concerned about Black families and marriages, then Donalds’s own marriage — to a white woman — was not legal during Jim Crow in Florida, all the way up until Loving. She finishes by saying he’s full of shit and needs some self-awareness. “His goal is to cape for white supremacy, that is his mission. And he’s trying to be VP, which is never gonna happen, but good luck to him.” (Uh oh, sounds like he didn’t make Trump’s short list.)
On CNN the other night, Abby Phillip laid Donalds out on the facts, asking if he regretted tying his comments to Jim Crow. He tried to swear up and down that he never suggested that Black people were better off during Jim Crow because they were together, despite how that is exactly what he said, regardless of if whether he used the exact word “better.”
He also insisted that he is “one of the better communicators in the Republican Party,” so that was LOL.
Here is Phillip explaining that the Black unemployment rate and poverty rate are the lowest in American history under Joe Biden, so you can’t even say it was better under Trump.
On Joy Reid’s show last night, Donalds just screamed a lot, but she didn’t care. When he bitched and moaned about people saying he was being “nostalgic” for Jim Crow, she noted it was he who brought up Jim Crow “three times for emphasis.”
She asked if there was a “specific period between 1867 after the Civil War, to 1968, is there a specific period between 1867 and 1968 that you thought was this golden era for Black families, or a time that you thought was good for Black families?” He started yelling that he never said that, but she was like nope, MFer, gonna play the tape now. And she dd.
Finally, she made the same point that was made above, that Donalds couldn’t even have been married to his wife during Jim Crow. He agreed with Reid when she said she’s glad she doesn’t live during Jim Crow. “Perhaps don’t bring up Jim Crow when you’re trying to make that example,” Reid said, helpfully.
But remember, when Donalds says things like that to Joy Reid, or even in the parts of the Abby Phillip interview where he was nice, he knows he’s speaking to a CNN or MSNBC audience. Repeating the “Jim Crow” dogwhistle three times isn’t effective with that audience like it is with MAGA voters.
Finish by reading this excellent thread from Black writer Michael Harriot, who painstakingly details what Jim Crow was really about, how Black people were better off in exactly zero ways, and why Donalds is just shilling for white supremacists who believe “Black people are too dumb to know what’s good for them.”
Here are his last couple tweets, but you need to read it all to see how he gets there:
[JoeMyGod / videos via Biden campaign / Acyn / Candidly Tiff]
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I disagree with Michael Harriot. White supremacy is a product of right wing conservatives. Whether it was slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow, or any of that other horrible crap, it was always the conservatives who were most vocally and violently behind it. Maybe not every conservative is a white supremacist, but AFAIK, all white supremacists are conservative. It kind of goes with the whole "maintaining the powers that be and a shameful status quo" part of conservatism.
So let's not pretend it's something it's not, okay?
Conservatism is borne of a false consciousness brought about by broken people - people who can't play well with others, and who have an overactive amygdala so everything is fight or flight with them.
We as a global community would be better off if we started looking to getting these fuckers help rather than putting them in charge of anything important.
Ta, Evan. All Donalds needs is a bright red nose and oversize shoes.