The GOP is not even trying to disguise its racism anymore

This week, Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) played up White victim mentality during the confirmation hearing for attorney general nominee Merrick Garland. Kennedy took issue with Garland’s use of the term “implicit bias,” arguing that it meant he (and presumably his supporters) were being called racists. Garland patiently explained that implicit bias is endemic in the human condition.

In retrospect, Garland’s right response may have been: If the shoe fits, senator.

Just days later Kennedy, echoing the disgraced ex-president’s call for members of the Squad to “go back" to the countries from which they are from (even though they are all American citizens), attacked Neera Tanden, President Biden’s nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, declaring that her “allegiance is not to America and it’s not to President Biden, it’s to Secretary [Hillary] Clinton.” The Indian American, you see, is not loyal to this country.

That is a message that many Republicans have been telling us about women of color, although not always as overtly. The Post reports, “Many of the president’s Black, Latino, Asian and Native American nominees are encountering more political turbulence than their White counterparts, further drawing out the process of staffing the federal government.” When someone like Tanden is treated so differently — accusing her of disloyalty and making up a new standard never employed for Republicans or White males (mean tweets) — that “turbulence” becomes indistinguishable from racism.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/25/gop-is-not-even-trying-disguise-its-racism-anymore/