The Lowering of the Barr: The Real Identity Politics

Let’s start with the fact that in the year 2018, the United States of America, the so called ‘greatest country on earth,” has a racist and White Supremacist as president.

The Don won a national election playing a brand of racial politics not seen in this country since George Wallace. His political brand was built on his nefarious birther theory. Back in the 70’s, a young Don and his father (who was a KKK supporter!) prevented black families from living in their properties. They were sued not once, but twice, by the Nixon administration’s Department of Justice. Papa and son never acknowledged any guilt or apologized for any of it. In the 90’s The Don called for the execution of the Central Park Five, who were erroneously incarcerated for 15 years for the murder of a young woman jogging in Central Park. History speaks for itself!

Regardless of whether you agreed with all of Obama’s politics and positions (and I didn’t), there was a belief that he was a thoughtful, ethical and moral man who carried himself with an admirable elegance and strove for inclusiveness. To have him replaced by a vulgar buffoon, who each and every day, erodes any sense of moral decency and promulgates racist ideology, is appalling but sadly, not surprising. It is not surprising because this country, despite whatever great things it is and aspires to, has at its core, a rancid stench emanating from its dehumanization of blacks through slavery.

Though slavery has been abolished, racism still flourishes. And though Jim Crow laws are formerly abolished, new insidious versions exist. (See Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow,” for a brilliant analysis and expose on institutionalized racism and incarceration of the black community.)

Continued efforts to suppress black voters through gerrymandering of districts, restrictive Voter ID laws, cross checking, and intimidation of black voters, is standard fare for Republican law -makers. This pernicious attempt to marginalize blacks at the voting booth is frankly, racist.

All this talk about the left and identity politics is the way white privilege frames the issue to castigate and further marginalize non-whites. Once again, non-whites are the problem. This so called Identity politics of people of color, is at its core, people fighting for equality, wanting the same rights and respect that white privilege automatically delivers.

The fact is that the Republican Party, which over the years has increasingly become a party of white people, is the true party of Identity politics. The Don has used his bully pulpit to stir his white base in to a frenzy- race baiting at every turn. His statements about Charlottesville, his attack on black football players for protesting police brutality, which the feckless NFL has endorsed with the threat of a fine to players who take a knee during the National Anthem, referring to hut-living Nigerians, AIDS carrying Haitians and intimating that we should be getting our immigrants from places like Norway are proof positive.

Just look at the recent events at Starbucks, Yale University and what happened to an NBA basketball player. These are just high profile cases; incidents like these happen all the time. Look at all the black deaths at the hands of police brutality, the higher rate of incarcerations and the more severe sentences given to blacks.

As I have stated in other pieces, The Don did not create this racism but as a racist, he has given free reign to those who want to carry its banner. When the president of the United States espouses racist ideology, we see the ugliness of White Identity politics writ large on public display. Startling, but once again not surprising, an April Quinnipiac poll found that an overwhelming 82 percent of Republicans believe Trump treats people of color with the same amount of respect as he treats white people!

Examples of The Don’s racist influence abound but here are a few poignant examples:

The Parkland, Fla., high school gunman Nikolas Cruz, talked about “killing Mexicans, keeping black people in chains and cutting their necks,”

The gunman at Santa Fe High School in Texas, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, posted photos of himself in Nazi regalia.

The Don pardoned sheriff Joe Arpaio, a known racist, who ordered the systematic racial profiling of Latino communities.

He pardoned Dinesh D’Souza, who has promulgated racism and homophobia for nearly 30 years.

There are 8 candidates running for political office who are declared “White Nationalists.”

Just to mention a few, there is Arthur Jones, a former member of the American Nazi Party who is vying for a seat in Illinois’s 3rd Congressional District. Jones is campaigning to make neighborhoods in Chicago 90 percent white; he believes “the average IQ of a black person is about 20 points lower than a white person’s.”

Patrick Little, a Republican candidate for Senate in California, called the Jewish community a “monstrous” group and said President Trump relates to people who hold similar views by decrying “globalists.”

Let’s not forget, Republican primary candidate for Governor of Georgia, Michael Williams “Deportation Bus.” (Thankfully, the folks of Georgia didn’t select him to represent the Republicans in the race for Governor.)

And last but not least, we have Roseanne Barr, whose racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a top aide to Obama, resulted in her TV show being cancelled by ABC.

“Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.”

I suppose we should take our hats off to ABC for its quick and decisive actions, but to be honest, ABC should have never allowed her to have the show to begin with, because she has been saying racist shit forever. But I guess, to quote Martin Luther King: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

So how did The Don respond to Barr’s tweet?

“Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that ‘ABC does not tolerate comments like those’ made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn’t get the call?”

Not surprisingly, The White Nationalist that he is said nothing about Barr’s reprehensible statement, which dehumanized Jarrett. It was all about him and the injustices he experiences at the hands of the media.

The Don’s refusal to say anything about Barr says it all. For The Don, the moral universe doesn’t exist and the only kind of justice that exists is the justice that supports him.

As a result of The Don’s White Identity politics, David Duke, the former KKK Grand Wizard, wakes up every day smiling and chants: “Go white team!”

Note: Barr blamed her racist tweet on the fact that she was on the sleep medication Ambien. For all the millions of people who take Ambien, rest assured, as the maker of the drug responded to Ms. Barr’s explanation for her rant by stating: “Racism is not a known side effect.”