Saturday, May 01, 2021

Tim Scott Faces Heinous Racist Attacks for Telling the Truth

BY TYLER O'NEIL | P J Media

Screenshot via CNBC Television

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) delivered a powerful response to President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress on Wednesday. He noted that, despite Biden’s unity rhetoric, “the president and his party are pulling us further apart.” He spoke about his struggles as a black man, but he countered the leftist critical race theory narrative by clearly stating that “America is not a racist country.”

For that, leftist influencers and Democrats branded Scott “Uncle Tim” and accused him of trying to protect “white supremacy.”

“A major strategy of racists, is to incentivize one of it’s [sic] Black victims to act as the crash test dummy for white supremacy. When Uncle Tim Scott says America is not a racist country, he is fully aware he is speaking in bad faith. The purpose is to protect white supremacists,” film producer Tariq Nasheed, who has more than 250,000 followers on Twitter, declared.

Former MSNBC host TourĂ© defended the “Uncle Tim” label — a racist attack suggesting that Tim Scott is an “Uncle Tom,” a traitor to his race.

“What makes Tim Scott an Uncle Tim? He has siblings and they have kids. Duh,” TourĂ© sardonically wrote. Then he got to the real issue: “Also he was on TV denying that America is racist thus aiding and abetting white supremacy.”

Talbert Swan, a Canadian bishop and the president of Greater Springfield NAACP in Massachusetts, delivered perhaps the nastiest attack.

“Uncle Tim Scott has perfected the art of sycophantic bootlicking,” Swan tweeted. “He’s a master step n fetch it artist and cunning white supremacy apologist, who demonstrated his buck dancing skills in front of the entire world.”

Adam Ford, founder of The Babylon Bee, arguably gave the best response to this attack: “As this ‘pastor’ so colorfully illustrates, ‘antiracism’ is nothing more than actual racists discovering a way to shout their racism in civil society without being silenced … because it allows them to accuse anyone who disagrees with them of racism!”

Swan did not shy away from attacking Vice President Kamala Harris when she echoed Scott in saying, “I don’t think America is a racist country.” He did not use the same kind of race-tinged attacks against Harris as he did against Scott, however.

“This comment is as asinine as Uncle Tim Scott’s,” Swan responded. “Stop giving white supremacy cover.”

While Swan did attack Harris for her truthful admission, he also stepped up to defend her when Meghan McCain referred to her as “Kamala.”

“It’s Madam Vice President, not Kamala, you disrespectful shrew,” he jabbed at McCain. After McCain praised Tim Scott, Swan again attacked the senator as “Uncle Tim” tweeting, “Uncle Tim Scott is a sycophantic white supremacy apologist.”

By attacking Scott as an “Uncle Tim,” these left-leaning commentators proved the senator’s point.

“Nowhere do we need common ground more desperately than in our discussions of race,” Scott said in his speech. “I have experienced the pain of discrimination. I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason. To be followed around a store while I’m shopping.”

Yet he also described having ” experienced a different kind of intolerance. I get called ‘Uncle Tom’ and the N-word — by ‘progressives’! By liberals! Just last week, a national newspaper suggested my family’s poverty was actually privilege… because a relative owned land generations before my time.”

Yet Scott also condemned the divisive racialist politics of critical race theory that the Democratic Party has championed.

“A hundred years ago, kids in classrooms were taught the color of their skin was their most important characteristic — and if they looked a certain way, they were inferior. Today, kids again are being taught that the color of their skin defines them — and if they look a certain way, they’re an oppressor,” he lamented.

“From colleges to corporations to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven’t made any progress. By doubling down on the divisions we’ve worked so hard to heal. You know this stuff is wrong,” Scott said.

Then he delivered the message that so triggered the leftists: “Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country. It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different discrimination. And it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.”

Yet Scott does not oppose police reform. Elsewhere in the speech, he said, “Believe me, I know our healing is not finished. In 2015, after the shooting of Walter Scott, I wrote a bill to fund body cameras. Last year, after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, I built an even bigger police reform proposal.”

“But my Democratic colleagues blocked it! I extended an olive branch. I offered them amendments. But Democrats used the filibuster to block the debate from even happening,” Scott recalled. “My friends across the aisle seemed to want the issue… more than they wanted a solution.”

On issue after issue — from COVID-19 relief to the infrastructure bill to police reform — Democrats in Congress and the Biden administration have refused to work with Republicans to craft a bipartisan clean piece of legislation that addresses the issue without including massive Democratic handouts. Each time, Democrats turned away Republican efforts.

Only about 5 percent of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 “relief” package Biden signed actually went to fighting the pandemic. Only about 10.5 percent of his $2.25 trillion “infrastructure” bill actually funds traditional infrastructure. Democrats fought Tim Scott’s police reform bill before Scott had finished writing it. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called it a “token” effort and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tripled down on accusations that Republicans were “trying to get away with murder, the murder of George Floyd” because Tim Scott’s provisions against chokeholds did not go far enough, in her view.

In fact, Tim Scott’s JUSTICE Act is substantially similar to the Democrats’ bill, the Justice in Policing Act. Yet the Democrats’ bill goes further by banning chokeholds and no-knock raids rather than incentivizing police departments to ban them, by prohibiting “racial, religious and discriminatory profiling,” and by eliminating qualified immunity for law enforcement.

The fact that Tim Scott counters critical race theory and the claim that America is “systemically racist” does not make him an “Uncle Tim” or a “white supremacy apologist.” America has indeed experienced tremendous racial progress thanks to abolition, the civil rights amendments, the civil rights movement, the election of a black president, and more.

It is extremely telling that proponents of critical race theory are willing to engage in racist attacks against a black Republican because he disagrees with their hyperbolic rhetoric. This episode demonstrates that it is vitally important for Americans to reject critical race theory and the hucksters who push it.

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Senior editor of PJ Media, Tyler O'Neil is an author and conservative commentator. He has written for numerous publications, including The Christian Post, National Review, The Washington Free Beacon, The Daily Signal, AEI's Values & Capitalism, and the Colson Center's Breakpoint. He enjoys Indian food, board games, and talking ceaselessly about politics, religion, and culture. He has appeared on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight." He is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/04/30/tim-scott-faces-heinous-racist-attacks-for-telling-the-truth-n1443801?utm_source=pjmedia&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=227841a8b1ca836b99e21ea36efa6859&recip=28551147

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RELATED ARTICLE

GOP Sen. Tim Scott Delivers a Unifying Message on Race That (Shock!) Even Kamala Harris Agrees With

BY STACEY LENNOX | P J Media

Screenshot via CNBC Television

Republicans selected Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to give the response to President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress. He spoke convincingly and sincerely on issues of race currently dominating the culture. Of course, only one line from his entire segment on the topic is making the rounds, which I have highlighted in his full remarks on the subject:

I have experienced the pain of discrimination. I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason. To be followed around the store while I am shopping. I remember every morning at the kitchen table, my grandfather would open the newspaper and read it, I thought. But later I realized he had never learned to read it. He just wanted to set the right example.

I’ve also experienced a different kind of intolerance. I get called Uncle Tom and the n-word by progressives. By liberals. Just last week, a national newspaper suggested my family’s poverty was actually privilege.  Because a relative owned land generations before my time.

Believe me, I know firsthand our healing is not finished. in 2015 after the shooting of Walter Scott I wrote a bill to fund body cameras. Last year after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, I built an even bigger police reform proposal.

But my Democratic colleagues blocked it. I extended an olive branch. I offered amendments. But Democrats used a filibuster to block the debate from even happening. My friends across the aisle seem to want the issue more than they wanted a solution. But I’m still working. I’m hopeful that this will be different.

When America comes together, we’ve made tremendous progress. But powerful forces want to pull us apart. One hundred years ago, kids in classrooms were taught the color of their skin was their most important characteristic. And if they looked a certain way, they were inferior. Today kids are being taught the color of their skin defines them again. And if they look a certain way, they’re an oppressor.

From colleges to corporations to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven’t made any progress at all. By doubling down on the divisions we’ve worked so hard to heal. You know this stuff is wrong. Hear me clearly, America is not a racist country. it’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination. And it’s wrong to try and use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.

Out of all that passionate, personal, sincere, and even personally painful prose from Scott, five words are all the corporate media cares about. That is how much the activist commentariat relies on racial divisions to distract and divide us on behalf of their political party. Predictably, Vice President Kamala Harris was asked to comment. Keep in mind that Harris was raised by two Ph.D.s in one of the country’s most liberal cities and spent a large portion of her childhood in Canada. A single mother raised Tim Scott in the South.

On Good Morning America, Clinton hack George Stephanopoulos posed the question to Harris:

Stephanopoulos: [Senator Tim Scott said] last night that America is not a racist country. Do you agree with that? And what do you make of his warning against fighting discrimination with more discrimination?

Harris: I believe that we need to adj… well, first of all… no. I don’t think America is a racist country, but we also do have to speak truth about the history of racism in our country and its existence today. And I applaud the president for always having the ability and the courage frankly to speak the truth about it.

Sure. The guy whom Harris, for all intents and purposes, accused of racism during the primary, speaks the truth and has courage on issues of race. They make quite a pair. Their policies incarcerated thousands of young black men for lengthy sentences on minor, non-violent crimes between the two of them. After Harris bailed on the primary, writers acknowledged that black voters did not trust her because of her record as a prosecutor. She had little black support in the primary. Others said they just didn’t identify with her. It is still a mystery how Biden got a pass with black voters, given his history.

Still, Harris let the cat out of the bag. America is not a racist country. There is no way to put that toothpaste back in the tube. Her caveat is ridiculous, since, as you can see above, Scott acknowledges the history and current presence of racism in personal and cultural terms. His approach is different. He considers the problem to be one that afflicts individuals and does not require a fundamental change to our entire system of government, education, and policing. Instead, he advocates incremental change through targeted reforms to policing and school choice.

Just because Democrats can point to a disparity in outcomes between the races does not mean they have evidence of discrimination. It is the only evidence they point to for “systemic racism” when any individual outcome has dozens of factors contributing to it. Solving these problems will require different discussions, and they will be more complex than their preferred method of solving past discrimination with discrimination in the present and the future. Senator Scott knows this and is willing to have difficult conversations about complex problems.

Scott’s speech demonstrates that he can speak about racial issues clearly and in language we can all understand rather than woke-speak. Hopefully, Americans can rally around a youthful leader who speaks as Martin Luther King Jr. did of marching forward together to make real and meaningful improvements rather than the ones that have picked up the Black Panthers’ mantle and just want to burn it all down. It seems even Vice President Harris may agree that Scott’s path is the better one.

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Stacey Lennox is a recovering Fortune 500 executive and healthcare professional. Busting the COVID-19 narrative under the VIP tab to avoid the censors. PJ Media readers can hear Stacey on the weekly Loftus Party podcast with comedian Michael Loftus and multiple shows a week on KLRN Radio.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2021/04/29/senator-tim-scott-creates-a-unifying-message-that-even-kamala-harris-can-agree-with-n1443649