(ThyBlackMan.com) The easiest thing in the world for me to do is call Republican Mississippi senator, Roger Wicker, a racist. But then the conversation ends there. I believe in the principle of constructive engagement in both politics and foreign affairs.
The principle is simple, always try to have an open line of communication with those you vehemently disagree with.
I am reminded of what King Solomon once told me in Proverbs 4:7: “Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding.”
In this column, I will attempt to get understanding from Sen. Wicker for the stupid things he said on The Gallo Radio Show in Mississippi. Go to the 14:25 timestamp.
Let me begin by asking a simple question. Roger, what the hell where you thinking? You honestly can’t be that tone deaf or that ignorant, can you?
Paul Gallo, the host of the above radio show asked Wicker to comment on Biden’s promise to name a Black woman to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
Wicker’s less than intelligent response was, “We going to go from a nice stately left wing liberal [Breyer] to someone whose probably more in the style of Sonia Sotomayor [another Supreme Court Justice]…I guarantee you this Paul, this new Justice will probably not get a single Republican vote…The irony is that the Supreme Court is at the very same time hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota…The majority of the court may be saying writ large it’s unconstitutional. We’ll see how that irony works out.”
Wow, there is so much ignorance or some might say racism to unpack here.
Sen. Wicker, did you really mean to imply that because Biden’s pick is supposed to be a Black woman, somehow they can’t be “nice and stately” like Breyer? You also have a law degree and yet you confidently state that the nominee won’t get a single Republican vote. Please, sir, tell me how can you make such a declarative statement when there is no nominee to make that type of judgement on?
I thought the standard for senators was not to prejudge; to look at a person’s record and then make a determination about confirmation or not? But, since there is no nominee, how can that be possible?
Affirmative action law specifically prohibits quotas. But of course you being from Mississippi, you knew exactly what you were doing by the words you chose!
And speaking of affirmative action, Sen. Wicker, my Godfather actually wrote the law that we now know as affirmative action. His name was Art Fletcher, one of the highest-ranking Blacks to serve in the Nixon administration. It started out as the Philadelphia Plan and morphed into the national affirmative action plan that we now have.
I had the honor to sit at the feet of Fletcher for several decades to hear directly from the mouth of history how and why affirmative action came into being. Mr. Wicker, I am more than happy to share some of this history with you in person if you so desire.
Sen. Wicker, because your forefathers would not acknowledge the rights of Blacks that the constitution had already granted us; President Nixon’s affirmative action plan was created to attempt to correct the injustices unleased on the Black community by your ancestors.
You and your family have enjoyed well over two hundred years of “white” affirmative action off the backs of Blacks and you had nothing to say. Now, that President Biden wants to further diversify the U.S. Supreme Court, suddenly you can’t stop talking.
You want to talk about affirmative action? Let’s talk about affirmative action.
How about you being admitted to Ole Miss’ School of Law; yeah the same school that your father attended. How about the country club your father helped to create in Mississippi; do they have any Black members who are “nice and stately”?
Did you have any Black staffers on your last campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2018? What about your congressional campaigns when you were in the U.S. House of Representatives? Do you have any Blacks on your senate staff or have you ever? If so, did they have the courage to chastise you both publicly and privately about your idiotic comments about affirmative action?
Are you a “colorblind” conservative or just blind to people of color, i.e., Black folks? You do realize that Blacks are 37% of the vote in Mississippi?
Sen. Wicker, I have been in this party for a long time and I am stunned by the words you uttered on Gallo’s radio show last week. I think you are so blinded by your white privilege that you really can’t understand why the Black community, both liberal and conservative, are deeply offended by your words.
Former senate majority leader, Trent Lott, former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour and current Mississippi governor, Tate Reeves are dear friends of mine; and I can’t, in my wildest dreams, imagine them uttering such words publicly or privately.
Your kind of language and behavior is what has turned Blacks away from the conservative movement.
If you had spoken these words with intention and forethought, I could accept your words; but the mere fact that you seemingly don’t understand the harm caused by your words is very troubling.
As a proponent of constructive engagement, I am more than willing to meet with you to discuss these issues if you truly have any interest in helping America become a more perfect union.
And remember, “with all thy getting, get understanding.”
Staff Writer; Raynard Jackson
This talented brother is a Pulitzer Award nominated columnist and founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org. You can follow Raynard on Twitter; RealRaynardJ.