March 2, 2019

In the august halls of the House of Representatives, the interest in comity will have members of color apologizing for accusing other members of racism, much sooner than any member will apologize for being blatantly racist.

Such is the case with Mark Meadows' (R-NC11) crass and racist stunt during the Michael Cohen hearing to bring a former Trump Org employee (and current federal employee in Trump's HUD department) Lynne Patton to prove that Donald Trump can't possibly be racist, he's hired a black person before.

AboveTheLaw.com editor Elie Mystal doesn't feel constrained by the rules of comity to sugarcoat it for white people's fragility, as he so amply proved on AMJoy on Saturday.

“Mark Meadows is so racist he needs to be on display in the African American History Museum as an artifact."

See, I don't know how accurate that is. I agree completely that Meadows is a racist, but "artifact" implies that it is some old, long-buried thing, which it absolutely is not. Racism, especially in the Republican Party, is blooming and fulsome part of how they process the world.

But I do agree with Mystal that it is not for white people to decide what is or is not racist. That belongs to those to whom it is directed. And the accusation of racism, which Meadows took so much umbrage to when it was suggested by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI13)--even though other members of color had done so earlier--should never been taken as more serious than the ACTUAL racist act.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon