Kanye, Tuberville, MTG = antisemitic, racist weekend - What's louder than their hate? GOP silence.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Kanye, Tuberville, MTG = antisemitic, racist weekend - What's louder than their hate? GOP silence.
The Four Jackasses Of The Apocalypse
October 11, 2022 | USA TODAY (USA)
Page: A7 | Section: Opinion
It was a big weekend for big public displays of antisemitism and racism.
Kanye West – who now goes as Ye and was hailed a hero by many Republicans last week because he wore a "White Lives Matter" shirt – tweeted Sunday that he's "going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE."
That was met by silence from the aforementioned Republicans, with the notable exception of Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who tweet-praised Ye's "independent thinking."
The Twitter account for Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee had a tweet up all weekend that read "Kanye. Elon. Trump." Nobody bothered to take it down – or respond to it – after Kanye declared war on Jewish people. That's either lazy or unconcerned, neither of which is good.
Ye's tweet got his Twitter account suspended, but the awfulness vacuum was swiftly filled by racist rants from two sitting Republican lawmakers, Sen.Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
At one of former President Donald Trump's (hate) rallies Saturday night, Tuberville said this of Democrats: "They're pro-crime. They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that."
If I run that through my Racist White Guy Translator it reads: "Black people are all criminals." There's also the seemingly important fact that, according to FBI data, the majority of people who commit crimes are white. But I wouldn't want to toss a fact at Tuberville. He'd probably break out in hives.
These aren't insignificant trolls spouting insignificant hate
There's a tendency to write off comments like these as the ramblings of insignificant trolls, but I'll remind you the examples cited came from: a rapper and fashion designer who's one of the most famous people in the world; the top law enforcement officer in Indiana; and a U.S. senator. They are not insignificant.
And then there's Greene, who should be insignificant but, because the universe is testing our will to live, is not.
At another Trump rally on Sunday, Greene took the so-called great replacement theory – a belief that there's an effort afoot to replace majority white populations with nonwhite people – and gave it a big old hug, saying that "illegal aliens are on the verge of replacing you, replacing your jobs, and replacing your kids in school. And coming from all over the world, they're also replacing your culture." That is, as we say in the basic-human-decency biz, abhorrent. It's also complete nonsense.
The avowed white supremacist who shot and killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, in May was inspired by the so-called theory (and let's be clear: There is nothing "great" about it). It's not the kind of belief a sitting members of Congress should be peddling, but if we're being fair, Greene isn't the kind of person who should be a sitting member of Congress. And yet ...
If the end is near – and at this point, I'm rooting for it – Ye, Rokita, Tuberville and Greene are the Four Jackasses of the Apocalypse. But what's somehow louder than their thunderously repugnant rhetoric is the silence from the political party that embraces them.
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska seemed to be the only Republican addressing Sen. Tuberville's comments on Sunday, telling NBC News' "Meet the Press": "I'm not going to say he's being racist."
You may not want to say it, Rep. Bacon, but it's true. If you took out your iPhone and said, "Siri, show me something racist," Siri would direct you to Tuberville's Saturday rant.
Bacon continued: "But the fact is we can't ignore we have a 40-50% violent crime increase."
The fact is ... facts
aren't on their side
That's also factually incorrect – the FBI reported last week that America's crime rate, violent or otherwise, largely held steady in 2021 – and it's irrelevant to the racism in question.
It's 2022 and we have people with a lot of power and a lot of fame comfortably saying they're "going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE" (speaking of facts, Ye, it's DEFCON, you blockhead), saying Black people are "the people that do the crime" and telling white people that nonwhite immigrants are "on the verge of replacing you."
They're saying it without fear of repercussion, and many of the people they're saying it to are lapping it up because – lo and behold – they agree.
There's one thing that connects all these people: the disturbingly silent Republican Party.
That leaves the rest of us with a choice: Stay silent, or make some noise.
Grab your bullhorns, folks. I say the more noise the better.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Twitter @RexHuppke and Facebook: facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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Rex Huppke is good.
Tuberville made that speech in Minden NV a town with a very racist past that they still hold on to. The perfect venue for Tuberville.
All you will get from the republicans is blaming the other side of the isle.
Ding ding ding
What prize do I get Johnny?
An ignore button
I can hear it now...he wasn't racist! He didn't say anything about black people being criminals.
But we all heard the dog whistle in his bitchy tirade
By the way, Kanye is off his fucking rocker. Why people buy his shit I will never know. He is an insane narcissist.
“He is an insane narcissist.”
And yet can’t even hang with the kardashians.
You know when the Kardashians throw you to the curb you've hit bottom.
More finger pointing from those that are not willing to call out out the elitist (hell even the regular ones now) virtue signaling racist Democrats.
And more deflection from Republicans who refuse to do even an ounce of self-reflection. We won't hear any apologies from rightwing media that has been waving Kanye around like a symbol of their diversity and wrapping him around their shoulders as if he's proof they're not racist. They were cheering him on just days ago for wearing his "White Lives Matter" t-shirt which of course rightwing conservatives just love because it's clearly what many of them think about all the time, that they and only they should matter. Now one of their favorite symbols of how 'not-racist' they are apparently expressed what he thought they'd like to hear and they're all turning away, turning their backs and saying "I never knew you...".