The Left Is Obsessed With Herschel Walker's Blackness Because He's Not the Black Man They Want Him to Be

The 2022 midterm elections have brought some specific races into the spotlight, and one of them is in my home state of Georgia, where football great Herschel Walker is running a tight race against incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).

One of the biggest complaints that the left (and some on the right) has leveled against Walker is that he’s dumb, but that’s simply not true. He may not have the silver tongue of some candidates — including Warnock, who uses his oratorical skills to advocate for policies that fly in the face of his pastoral duties — but Walker isn’t unintelligent.

Another aspect of Walker’s life that the left loves to comment on is the fact that he’s black. Left-wing writers talk out of both sides of their mouths about Walker’s blackness. One writer at USA Today (so it’s no shock that she’s of the left) complained about how Walker’s past reflects the wrong stereotypes about black men.

Njeri Mathis Rutledge reveals her bias early on in her piece when she opines that the GOP is on board with “any warm body that can be used as a pawn.” Rutledge trots out Walker’s past sins — some of which he has owned up to, others he has vehemently denied — but she loves to use the word “embarrassment” extensively to describe Walker.

Here’s the thing: Walker has some baggage in his past, and he says he has been redeemed and overcome the sins of his earlier days. (As a pastor, Warnock should appreciate that story of redemption, but he doesn’t because his true religion is wokeness.) On the other hand, Warnock has tried to bury the skeletons in his more recent past, ensuring that the court sealed his nasty divorce records. Warnock also has a record as senator that is troubling for anyone who’s not beholden to the woke mob.

Most of all, Rutledge sees Walker as a potential tool for racists — naturally.

“If Walker is elevated to political office, he could become a useful cautionary tale for racists to illustrate why politicians of color are a bad idea,” she writes. “Of course, recruiting a minority candidate to run against another with the implicit goal of siphoning off votes is not a novel idea – in some ways it’s pure evil genius that is repeated because it’s effective.”

Wait, what?

Related: Decision Desk HQ Labels Georgia Senate Race a ‘Toss Up’

In the eyes of leftists like Rutledge, Walker is the wrong kind of black man, in spite of his story of redemption. For other leftists, Walker doesn’t seem to be black enough.

Earlier this month, the New York Times sent a white reporter to Walker’s hometown of Wrightsville, Ga., to talk to residents about the candidate. Apparently, the only people reporter John Branch spoke to were Democrats, many of whom “spoke only under the condition of anonymity.”

One man who didn’t speak anonymously threw out the accusation that Walker is “not part of the Black community” because he’s running as a Republican.

Democrats want to have it both ways when it comes to black candidates. A black Republican can both be a stereotype that leftists project onto him or her, yet, at the same time, the candidate can fail to be “black enough” because he or she sees different solutions for the issues plaguing our nation.

At the end of the day, Walker isn’t necessarily the ideal candidate, but he’s the one we’ve got here in Georgia. And conservative voters aren’t going to examine Herschel Walker the black man; instead, they’ll decide whether to vote for Herschel Walker the man.