Over the past week, there have been at least two glorious instances of hilariously racist rhetoric.
Last week, Arizona Rep. Trent Franks suggested that African-Americans were better off under slavery, given the abortion rate in black communities. Shani deals with the problems inherent in that argument in her piece for the American Prospect. I’ll just leave you with the quote:
FRANK: In this country, we had slavery for God knows how long. And now we look back on it and we say “How brave were they? What was the matter with them? You know, I can’t believe, you know, four million slaves. This is incredible.” And we’re right, we’re right. We should look back on that with criticism. It is a crushing mark on America’s soul. And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by policies of slavery. And I think, What does it take to get us to wake up?
And today’s example of the racism-that-doesn’t-exist-in-the-conservative-movement comes by way of Lawrence Verga, one of Rep. Tom Perriello’s potential challengers in Virginia’s 5th District:
Verga said the biggest threat is the Americans who voted the Obama administration into office. “That was political correctness gone awry,” Verga said.
This actually puts Verga in a proud tradition of 5th District conservatives that say outrageously racist things. See former Rep. Virgil Goode’s thoughts on Keith Ellison’s 2006 election in Minnesota:
The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office…
Stay tuned for more. And I assure you, there will be more.