She shared this gem from her previous experience as a school teacher to explain how and why minorities make less money than Whites:
“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”
The incredulity of this anecdote is only matched by her audacity. It is highly unlikely that any young student would utter such nonsense but Kern is arrogant enough and sure enough of her audience that she uses it to make her racist point.
Her bigotry, of course, is not limited towards minorities or Blacks. There are sites dedicated to her attacks against the enemies of her tribe (White, straight, Christian, etc.) and follow her putrid bigotry.
What is surprising is that she is unperturbed in expressing them so loudly. And she is not the only one:
- California's Marilyn Davenport sent around an e-mail depicting President Obama and his parents as monkeys.
- Donald Trump began his presidential campaign exploration with a tirade against President Obama's birth place and his eligibility to study at Ivy League schools.
And these are only over the past month. Few can claim that this show of bigotry is new. However, what is new is how audacious Republican politicians have become in their use of racially charged, divisive talk in public. Talk that has, so far, been limited to Republican media personalities such as Hannity, Limbaugh, and Beck. Is the election of the first African American to the presidency a trigger that has opened the door for Republican politician to express publicly what they would otherwise limit to their circles? Is this the 21st century’s Southern Strategy?
These politicians are using racially divisive language to enforce race as a wedge issue, gaining much needed votes, amongst White voters. The Republican party has used this quite successfully in the midterm elections of 2010. Every Southern state, except Arkansas, has elected or re-elected a Republican governor. Racial rhetoric and accusations of using the ‘race card’ have escalated by both politicians and Republican news outlets.
President Obama’s ethnicity, religion, birthplace, his very Americanism have been called into question relentlessly since his election in 2008. Racial overtones were used in the analysis of voting patterns with conservative pundits emphasizing America’s post-racial status at the same time.
The Tea Party’s emergence and heavy use of racial and ethnic rhetoric drew media attention and managed to lead one of theirs, Rand Paul, to become a United States senator for Kentucky. Unsurprisingly, Paul has claimed that the government should not force private businesses to abide by civil rights’ law.
It all sounds like a very successful application of the Southern Strategy.
The escalation of racial and ethnic rhetoric over the past 3 years indicates that the Strategy is in effect and unlikely to abate. As we head to presidential elections, the coming 18 months will demonstrate greater reliance of the Republican party on the use of race as its primary wedge issue to gather support and votes.
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