Yohuru Williams, history professor and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas, recently spoke with The Associated Press about the top Black Republican candidate in the presidential primary.
From the story:
“He’s a Black man who rejects the idea of systemic racism, which is very popular in Republican circles,” said Christine Matthews, a national political pollster who has worked for Republican candidates. “It absolutely resonates more.”
But Yohuru Williams, founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, said Scott is deliberately trying to appeal to voters who want to believe that racism is not a serious problem.
“He’s glossing it over and saying he’s achieved all these things because he’s taken advantage of every opportunity and worked hard,” Williams said. “It creates this kind of powerful, yet flawed, narrative that it’s grievance politics on the left that are solely responsible for economic inequality, for continued police brutality, for housing inequality.”
“But it buys him points with that GOP base that says, ‘Finally, someone who sounds like me who is a Black person which proves I’m not racist,’” he said.
