Trump Forces Republicans Out of the Closet on Race

By GENE NICHOL

The North Carolina Republican General Assembly has, in the past 14 years, amassed one of the nation’s most imposing records of racial discrimination in electoral regulation.

According to the federal courts, lawmakers have repeatedly deprived Black North Carolinians of “a constitutionally adequate voice in the state legislature.” No other set of legislators has “done so much, so fast, to restrict access to the franchise.” Lawmakers have “interfered with the very mechanism by which the people confer their sovereignty”; and called into “question their capacity and willingness” to comply with the Constitution. Some record that.

But here in the Tar Heels State, Republicans like to carry out their racial work on the down low. Whenever they target Black voters, Republicans explain they were just pressing common sense measures, or seeking ballot accuracy, or electoral security – race had nothing to do with it. This isn’t 1860 or 1898 or 1954. We’re all decent folks here. Good gentlemen. Then the federal courts explain that the General Assembly’s position was mere pretext, or, more simply, a lie.

It’s now clear, though, that the ruse, the North Carolina feint, won’t satisfy Donald Trump. If Trump is going to have to undergo the indignity of running against a Black woman, it’s time for clarity – regardless of what century it may be. To traditional Tar Heel Republicans, it must seem unfair.

Trump again ratified his commitment to overt bigotry at the National Association of Black Journalists conference. He began by intentionally mispronouncing Vice-President Harris’ name – apparently because lots of other folks do it too. Such class.

Next, Trump was asked by Rachel Scott of ABC News whether it was acceptable that some of his supporters derisively referred to Harris – the former San Francisco district attorney, California state attorney general, U.S. Senator, and sitting Vice-President — as a “DEI hire.” Trump replied: “Could be.” (Making me wonder how he would characterize J.D. Vance, or himself.)

Trump then made it worse: “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black … is she Indian or Black?” So much for Howard University and Alpha Kappa Alpha. Echoing his earlier attacks on President Obama’s birth status, Trump suggested Harris should be investigated. He thinks he retains the power to determine her worth and meaning. Then, of course, he derided the noted Black journalist’s questions as “rude” and “nasty”. Trump as final arbiter. Imagine.

Trump then resurrected his claim that illegal immigrants were stealing “Black jobs.” Offended when asked what “Black jobs” might be, Trump’s muttered response was “anybody who has a job.” The great Olympian, Simone Biles, tweeted: “I love my Black job.” She’s probably DEI too.

N.C. Sen. Thom Tillis (R) tried to re-implement the dodge. He was unwilling, of course, to condemn Trump’s ever-exploding racism. Tillis said only “we have a difference of opinion about what is going to move voters.” Tactically, Tillis would emphasize the economy and the border. It’s not that racial hatred is impermissible, or gigantically immoral or, by definition, un-American. It’s not that xenophobia and pigheadedness is disqualifying for a president of the U.S. or a great political party, Tillis just prefers economics. But, to be clear, like his Republican colleagues, Tillis is happy to enlist his fealty in the explicit racist’s cause.

I’m glad we’ve come to this. A defining, existential battle between White supremacy, in all its seething horror, and the American promise. Most of North Carolina’s leaders are on the evil side. They must be beaten. Like a drum.

Gene Nichol is Boyd Tinsley Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law and in 2015 started the North Carolina Poverty Research Fund after the UNC Board of Governors closed the state-funded Poverty Center for publishing articles critical of the governor and General Assembly.

From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2024

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