'America is not racist' becomes a GOP 2024 mantra

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Democrats made structural racism a centerpiece of the 2020 presidential primary.

Now the Republican rebuttal is emerging as an early plank of the 2024 GOP contest: America is not a racist country.

The mantra, used by nearly all of the Republican contenders, is unavoidable in the earliest stages of the GOP’s nominating campaign. At the annual Family Leadership Summit in Iowa this month, all three potential presidential prospects on stage — former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — took turns joining in the refrain, in one form or another.

Top Democrats, including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, have said publicly they don’t believe America is a racist country. But Republicans are hoping to portray the party as out of step with the thinking of mainstream America. And by attempting to harness lightning-rod issues such as critical race theory and “defund the police,” the GOP is signaling race will again be at the center of the 2024 campaign.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/america-is-not-racist-becomes-a-gop-2024-mantra/ar-AAMEaso

Then the GOP needs to stop the dog whistles.

[Lovie777]

1. OMG ...

republicans are so out of touch with reality. Majority of the "sane" Americans have come to the conclusion that they are quite racists.

Why? Just listen to them and watch their actions.

[PortTack]

3. ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️

[leftstreet]

2. Mosts racists say they aren't racist n/t

[MurrayDelph]

6. If someone were to ask me if I'm racist,

my most-likely response would be "I hope not."

Merely denying guilt does not make you guilty.

Feeling the need to declare it however...

[texasfiddler]

4. Along with "COVID is a hoax" 2022 Mantra.

[Caliman73]

5. The danger of stupid language is real.

America is not a "racist country". How can a country be racist? That is a vague term that says nothing.

American society, founded in the 17th and 18th centuries as a product of British, Spanish, French, and other societies was founded in the midst of the age when an entire continent of people were classified as subhuman for the purposes of enslaving them and using them as forced laborers. Slavery existed prior to that period of time, and I am sure it was brutal and inhumane, but it was not typically racialized. It typically involved warfare and capture, and it was not typically hereditary.

"Race" became a thing in the 15th and 16th centuries, when Portuguese slave traders were asked by the King of Portugal for a basic justification for beginning the Atlantic Slave trade. Even during the "Enlightenment" and emergence of an accepted "scientific method" all of those tools were used to make race and racial superiority an thing.

America was born in this time period, under the belief that certain peoples were inferior because of the color of their skin and that White people (a vague term even back then) were to be afforded advantages. Those advantages were baked into our constitution and it took a war and more than 600,000 people dying to even start to change it. It wasn't until 100 years after that bloody war that legal rights were acknowledged. Even today, despite those laws, practices and norms still promote the superiority of one "race" over all others.

America isn't a racist country, but we sure as hell still have a lot or racism enmeshed into the fabric of our society.

The fact that the GOP is relying on this strategy to try to win back their position at the head of government, and the fact that it may be a winning strategy, just shows how much racism still exists.

If we truly were not racist, there would be no need for the defensiveness. It would be obvious that there was no truth to the claims. Yet they are so threatened by the examination of American History from a perspective that is not glorifying and mythologizing to us as a nation that has done "no wrong" or which has addressed those issues when it is clear that we have, and that we have not addressed the legacy of slavery and racism.

Curious that "defund the police" is thrown into the discussion of race. Why would that be unless policing had something to do with race and racism in the first place right?

[bahboo]

7. I think they just might be fighting the last war....

times are changing (I hope). Of course their rabid base will support them...but who else...

[-misanthroptimist]

8. Democratic Answer: "No, America isn't racist. Republicans are."

"Don't vote for racists!"

[Aristus]

9. It's like the old: "I dislike segregation, but this is how God ordained it" bullshit.