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You are here: Home / Archives for Race

Trump Has Made GOP Complicit In White Supremacism

July 31, 2020 at 7:29 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Michael Gerson: “In Trump’s approach to politics, all is flexible, all is negotiable, except the driving instinct of us vs. them. And it is not just a coincidence that the us is overwhelmingly White. Trump’s most consistent, defining goal has been the preservation of white supremacy against growing diversity. As we now see fully, he holds out the promise of a suburban, segregated promised land.”

“Those who dismiss this criticism as ‘playing the race card’ must ignore Trump’s constant employment of the racism card. Those who dismiss these concerns as ‘identity politics’ must somehow overlook the White identity politics that drives his public appeal. Trump’s approach is apostasy from the American ideal. It is the kind of thing that can lead to the breaking of nations.”

Filed Under: Race

Alabama Lawmaker Celebrates KKK Founder

July 28, 2020 at 12:51 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Alabama state Rep. Will Dismukes (R) posted a photo of himself to Facebook celebrating KKK founder Nathan Beford Forrest’s birthday in Selma at the same time the late Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a civil rights legend, was being honored in the town following his death, the Birmingham News reports.

The post has since been deleted.

Filed Under: Race, State House

Red Sox Embrace Black Lives Matter

July 23, 2020 at 7:50 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Boston Red Sox, who were the last major league baseball team to integrate, unveiled a 252-foot billboard outside Fenway Park saying: “Black Lives Matter.”

Said Red Sox president Sam Kennedy in a statement: “Silence in the face of injustice is unacceptable.”

Filed Under: Race

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day

July 22, 2020 at 5:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Trump wants to instigate a race war. He wants to have Black folks fighting white folks. So he can rise up and say, ‘I’m the real Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and I’m the president. Reelect me. That’s what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to play to the fears, to the racial animus that exists among certain white people, and he will do everything and anything to do that because he wants to be reelected at all costs.”

— Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL), quoted by The Hill.

Filed Under: 2020 Campaign, Race

Big Majority Support Black Lives Matter

July 21, 2020 at 6:19 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, a majority of Americans support the Black Lives Matter movement and a record 69% say black people and other minorities are not treated as equal to white people in the criminal justice system.

But the public generally opposes calls to shift some police funding to social services or remove statues of Confederate generals or presidents who enslaved people.

A new Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll finds 56% holds the view that American society is racist.

Nearly three-quarters of Americans, 71%, believe that race relations are either very or fairly bad, a 16-point increase since February.

Filed Under: Race

John Lewis’s America

July 20, 2020 at 6:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal editorial: “We had differences with Lewis on policy, not least his opposition to the 1996 welfare reform when he predicted a catastrophe for the poor. The reform, passed by a GOP Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton, is the most successful bipartisan reform of the last 30 years.

“But these differences are trivial compared to the significance of Lewis’s life and contribution to America. He famously forgave George Wallace, Alabama’s segregationist Governor in the 1960s, in an example of reconciliation all of us should emulate. He never gave up his belief in nonviolence, despite the violence used against him. He never lost faith in the capacity of American democracy, despite its flaws, to strive for a more perfect union.”

Filed Under: Race

John Lewis Is Dead

July 18, 2020 at 7:08 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights leader who preached nonviolence while enduring beatings and jailings during seminal front-line confrontations of the 1960s and later spent more than three decades in Congress defending the crucial gains he had helped achieve for people of color, has died, the Washington Post reports.

He was 80 years old.

Barack Obama: “He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise. And through the decades, he not only gave all of himself to the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired generations that followed to try to live up to his example.”

Filed Under: House of Representatives, Race

Redskins to Retire Team Name

July 13, 2020 at 6:15 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Washington Redskins plan to announce Monday morning that they will change their team name, the Washington Post reports.

The team is not expected to reveal a new name until a later date.

Filed Under: Race

Governor Wants Bust of KKK Leader Removed

July 9, 2020 at 11:47 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) said the bust of a Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader should be relocated to the state museum, marking the first time Lee has explicitly called for the removal of the monument of Nathan Bedford Forrest inside Tennessee’s Capitol, the Tennessean reports.

Filed Under: Race, State House

NYC to Start Trump Tower Black Lives Matter Mural

July 9, 2020 at 6:51 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York City will start painting “Black Lives Matter” on Fifth Avenue directly in front of Trump Tower on Thursday, picking up a delayed project that President Trump blasted as a “symbol of hate,” NBC New York reports.

Filed Under: City Hall, Race

Loeffler Opposes ‘Black Lives Matter’ Warmup Jerseys

July 7, 2020 at 3:34 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), a co-owner of Atlanta’s WNBA franchise, objected to the league’s plans to honor the Black Lives Matter movement, warning that subscribing to a “particular political agenda undermines the potential of the sport and sends a message of exclusion,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

Filed Under: Celebrities, Race

Trump Stokes White Fear and Resentment

July 7, 2020 at 6:34 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “Almost every day in the last two weeks, Mr. Trump has sought to stoke white fear and resentment, portraying himself as a protector of an old order that polls show much of America believes perpetuates entrenched racism and wants to move beyond.”

Filed Under: Race

Woman Faces Charges After Calling Police on Black Man

July 6, 2020 at 2:21 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Amy Cooper, the white woman who called the police and falsely accused a Black man of threatening her life in Central Park, will face misdemeanor charges, the New York Times reports.

Filed Under: Race

‘Is the Statue Shit Going to Work?’

July 6, 2020 at 11:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Two individuals close to the president told the Daily Beast last week that they believe devoting so much time and energy to defending lifeless statues—a kick that started with sticking up for ones honoring racist dead Confederates—will likely fail to help rejuvenate his sagging 2020 campaign and close the wide polling deficits that former Vice President Biden has opened up.”

“Both sources independently said they intended to gently implore Trump to take a different approach. One of the sources said they had already told Trump in recent days that making statue fetishization a cornerstone of the re-election pitch amounted to a ‘distraction’ that wouldn’t help move the necessary votes into the president’s column by the election in November.”

Said one: “The question now is: Is the statue shit going to work?”

Filed Under: 2020 Campaign, Race

GOP Powerbroker to Texas Governor: ‘Shoot to Kill’

July 6, 2020 at 7:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In the days after George Floyd’s killing in police custody in Minneapolis last month, as massive protests against police brutality spread across Texas and other states, conservative power broker Steve Hotze of Houston called Gov. Greg Abbott’s chief of staff to pass along a message,” the Texas Tribune reports.

Said Hotze: “I want you to give a message to the governor. I want to make sure that he has National Guard down here and they have the order to shoot to kill if any of these son-of-a-bitch people start rioting like they have in Dallas, start tearing down businesses — shoot to kill the son of a bitches. That’s the only way you restore order. Kill ’em. Thank you.”

Filed Under: Race, State House

The Politics of Race Is Shifting

July 6, 2020 at 6:36 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Dan Balz: “When 2 in 3 Americans now say they support the Black Lives Matter movement; when thousands upon thousands of Americans march in the streets of big cities and small towns; when the National Football League reverses its position on players’ kneeling during the national anthem; when Mississippi eliminates the Confederate symbol from its flag; there seems little question that for now, this is a materially different moment.”

“What will come of the gathering call for action? The civil rights movement produced landmark legislation, but black people continue to face discrimination in virtually all aspects of life. Economic gains for many black Americans are undeniable, yet huge disparities in jobs, housing, income and wealth still exist.”

“Under President Trump, who has used racist messaging continually as president and before, Republicans are ill-positioned to respond fully to the moment that has arisen this summer. The party is captive to his rhetoric and actions, which exacerbate rather than reduce tensions. A part of the GOP coalition has moved in a more progressive direction on issues of race, but overall the party is on the wrong side of public opinion and stymied as to how far it can go.”

Filed Under: Race

Trump’s Push to Amplify Racism Unnerves GOP

July 4, 2020 at 1:56 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump’s unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of white domination, crystallized by his harsh denunciation of the racial justice movement Friday night at Mount Rushmore, has unnerved Republicans who have long enabled him but now fear losing power and forever associating their party with his racial animus,” the Washington Post reports.

“Although amplifying racism and stoking culture wars have been mainstays of Trump’s public identity for decades, they have been particularly pronounced this summer as the president has reacted to the national reckoning over systemic discrimination by seeking to weaponize the anger and resentment of some white Americans for his own political gain.”

Filed Under: Race

Redskins, Indians Consider Changing Team Names

July 4, 2020 at 7:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Washington Redskins football team is conducting a “thorough review” of its name, an apparent break from the NFL franchise’s longtime resistance to consider such a move, NPR reports.

A short time later, Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians said it would consider the “best path forward with regard to our team name.”

Filed Under: Race

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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