‘Woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy’ is shameful statement
Dear Sen. Tim Scott:
Sadly, it is no longer much of a surprise when an official of your party says some racially offensive thing. From calling Barack Obama “uppity” and “boy,” to decrying an imaginary “war on whites,” to declaring the world’s Black and brown nations “sh—hole countries,” racial offense has become the Republican brand, as much an identifier of the GOP as elephants in straw hats.
But even at that, the thing you said last week was remarkable. It came — where else? — on Fox “News” in response to MSNBC host Joy Reid saying that you, the only AfricanAmerican senator in the party, gave it “a patina of diversity.”
After defending you himself, host Trey Gowdy made a point of saying he wouldn’t even ask you to comment. But tellingly, you went out of your way to do just that.
“Woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy,” you declared. “We need to take that seriously.”
Lord, have mercy.
And here, I’m obligated to establish the blindingly obvious, yet somehow still necessary. Which is that what you said was profoundly stupid and flat-out wrong.
In the first place, what even is “woke supremacy?” In the second place, and more substantially, can you show me please, where these “woke supremacists” of yours have enslaved anyone or filled Southern trees with strange fruit as white supremacists notoriously did? Or if that’s too high a bar, please show me how they imprisoned generations of people in squalid slums by drawing red lines on maps, or how they erected a social pipeline to funnel children directly from schools to cells. As, again, white supremacists did.
“Woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy.”
It would be wrong if anybody said it. But yes, it is more wrong because you said it. Your ancestry, your biography and the very color of your skin tell us that you know better. Yet you said it anyway.
You said it as Georgia and other states plot to suppress the African-American vote.
You said it as trial begins in the case of the white cop who killed George Floyd by pressing a knee against his neck for nearly nine minutes. You said it two months after a white-supremacist insurrection at the very building where you work.
You said it. Brother, are you out of your damn mind?
Reid’s point, as I take it, was that your party uses you — more accurately, your skin color — as a fig leaf covering not simply its lack of Black officials, but its hostility toward Black people. And in disputing that point, you neatly confirmed it.
Republicans love to style themselves as victims oppressed by a culture that is strangling their prerogatives as Christian, heterosexual white women and men. Of course, the only thing of which they are victims is change, the fact that LGBTQ people and so-called “minorities” are on the rise. And the only thing by which they are oppressed is the fact that 1948 is long gone and will not be resurrected, despite their best efforts.
These things terrify them. So they who still sit at the top of the privilege ladder, who still have better health, more wealth and little to fear from police, go about moaning how very hard things are for them. Nobody knows the trouble they’ve seen.
Bad enough that’s what they think. But for you to act as a human shield for such ignorance? Unbelievable.
“Woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy.”
You absolutely know better. What you said was contemptible, irresponsible, shameful.
And you know that, too.
If you are like me, garden planning happens well before the snow melts. Typically, my plans are more of a wish list, because I know the chances of everything blooming is small.
But if gardeners can’t dream big in March, then when?
Over the years, when wandering around yards on official garden tours I always appreciated the grandiose gardens; but I developed a soft spot for small gardens. I noticed that most people never give these little gardens a second look. I know it sounds odd; but it bothered me to see that these little gardens were ignored. So I decided to take a stand by turning a small patch of dirt on the side of our house into a shade garden.
But, why create a garden that almost nobody will see? One reason is that I love the countless shades of green that nature gives us. This patch is perfect to showcase some of those hues. But as the garden was established, nobody oooohed or ahhhhed at my little shade garden — like it didn’t matter. One day Robert, my husband, asked me why I was putting so much effort into such an obscure patch.
A one-word answer uncovered the real reason for this little garden: “Fringe,” I told him.
Just because nobody takes a second look at my tiny garden doesn’t mean it is unimportant. And then my mind took off.
Every time I tend that garden, I think about the souls in fringe communities. I think about the struggling families Robert and I met when dropping off donations to multiple nonprofits — many within five miles of our porch. Challenged people were visible everywhere, right when we walked in the door.
Permanent solutions for these families in need — not to mention the countless stray animals living on the fringes, also desperate for food or trapped in tenuous circumstances — can feel out of reach. They are focused on making it through the day and already worried about the next day.
It is easy to forget about these seemingly invisible souls. So my smallest garden is my big way to honor their struggles. When I’m tending it, I think about and pray for them.
Gardening can be a quiet hobby. It’s a good time to think about what’s bothering your heart. My shade garden helps me keep those ousted souls in the forefront of my heart. Robert even decided to construct a sign “lest we forget.” Maybe that sign will get noticed during the next informal garden tour prompting a discussion about those on the fringe. We all need reminders to extend ourselves; mine just happens to be a lonely garden.
During this month when we conjure up Summer Dreams, maybe think about a touchstone in your yard that can prompt a few important questions including why some souls land in the fringes and how we can help ease their burdens. But the reality is the sum total for many people’s extension is only a prayer because they, understandably, simply don’t have any extra time, energy or money.
But, if prayer is all you have, then talking to God about easing their difficulties is everything, and something you can do when you are in your own little sweet patch.