Republicans selected Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to give the response to President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress. He spoke convincingly and sincerely on issues of race currently dominating the culture. Of course, only one line from his entire segment on the topic is making the rounds, which I have highlighted in his full remarks on the subject:
I have experienced the pain of discrimination. I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason. To be followed around the store while I am shopping. I remember every morning at the kitchen table, my grandfather would open the newspaper and read it, I thought. But later I realized he had never learned to read it. He just wanted to set the right example.
I’ve also experienced a different kind of intolerance. I get called Uncle Tom and the n-word by progressives. By liberals. Just last week, a national newspaper suggested my family’s poverty was actually privilege. Because a relative owned land generations before my time.
Believe me, I know firsthand our healing is not finished. in 2015 after the shooting of Walter Scott I wrote a bill to fund body cameras. Last year after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, I built an even bigger police reform proposal.
But my Democratic colleagues blocked it. I extended an olive branch. I offered amendments. But Democrats used a filibuster to block the debate from even happening. My friends across the aisle seem to want the issue more than they wanted a solution. But I’m still working. I’m hopeful that this will be different.
When America comes together, we’ve made tremendous progress. But powerful forces want to pull us apart. One hundred years ago, kids in classrooms were taught the color of their skin was their most important characteristic. And if they looked a certain way, they were inferior. Today kids are being taught the color of their skin defines them again. And if they look a certain way, they’re an oppressor.
From colleges to corporations to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven’t made any progress at all. By doubling down on the divisions we’ve worked so hard to heal. You know this stuff is wrong. Hear me clearly, America is not a racist country. it’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination. And it’s wrong to try and use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.
Out of all that passionate, personal, sincere, and even personally painful prose from Scott, five words are all the corporate media cares about. That is how much the activist commentariat relies on racial divisions to distract and divide us on behalf of their political party. Predictably, Vice President Kamala Harris was asked to comment. Keep in mind that Harris was raised by two Ph.D.s in one of the country’s most liberal cities and spent a large portion of her childhood in Canada. A single mother raised Tim Scott in the South.
On Good Morning America, Clinton hack George Stephanopoulos posed the question to Harris:
Stephanopoulos: [Senator Tim Scott said] last night that America is not a racist country. Do you agree with that? And what do you make of his warning against fighting discrimination with more discrimination?
Harris: I believe that we need to adj… well, first of all… no. I don’t think America is a racist country, but we also do have to speak truth about the history of racism in our country and its existence today. And I applaud the president for always having the ability and the courage frankly to speak the truth about it.
Sure. The guy whom Harris, for all intents and purposes, accused of racism during the primary, speaks the truth and has courage on issues of race. They make quite a pair. Their policies incarcerated thousands of young black men for lengthy sentences on minor, non-violent crimes between the two of them. After Harris bailed on the primary, writers acknowledged that black voters did not trust her because of her record as a prosecutor. She had little black support in the primary. Others said they just didn’t identify with her. It is still a mystery how Biden got a pass with black voters, given his history.
Still, Harris let the cat out of the bag. America is not a racist country. There is no way to put that toothpaste back in the tube. Her caveat is ridiculous, since, as you can see above, Scott acknowledges the history and current presence of racism in personal and cultural terms. His approach is different. He considers the problem to be one that afflicts individuals and does not require a fundamental change to our entire system of government, education, and policing. Instead, he advocates incremental change through targeted reforms to policing and school choice.
Just because Democrats can point to a disparity in outcomes between the races does not mean they have evidence of discrimination. It is the only evidence they point to for “systemic racism” when any individual outcome has dozens of factors contributing to it. Solving these problems will require different discussions, and they will be more complex than their preferred method of solving past discrimination with discrimination in the present and the future. Senator Scott knows this and is willing to have difficult conversations about complex problems.
Scott’s speech demonstrates that he can speak about racial issues clearly and in language we can all understand rather than woke-speak. Hopefully, Americans can rally around a youthful leader who speaks as Martin Luther King Jr. did of marching forward together to make real and meaningful improvements rather than the ones that have picked up the Black Panthers’ mantle and just want to burn it all down. It seems even Vice President Harris may agree that Scott’s path is the better one.
WATCH: Vice President Kamala Harris agrees with Senator Tim Scott:
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