Post by ck4829 on Feb 16, 2022 18:14:11 GMT
From "crack pipes" to "critical race theory": GOP's 2022 midterm strategy is overt racism
Nothing speaks more to how the modern GOP is centered around tickling the racist lizard brains of white conservative Boomers than the sudden reemergence of the term "crack pipe." The actual crack epidemic wound down literally decades ago, back when Donald Trump was still divorcing his first wife. But the audience for Republican propaganda is still stuck in the 1980s, the last time many of them had a full head of hair, and so here we are, with the term "crack pipe" suddenly exploding all over social media, search algorithms, and, because this really is the worst timeline, a grossly named federal bill.
The situation, which I regret even having to write about, is as idiotic as it is disturbing. As Jon Skolnik reported for Salon, Health and Human Services was planning on passing out a paltry "$30 million to nonprofit groups nationwide as part of a plan to reduce drug-related harm," mainly by preventing opioid overdoses. The opioid epidemic is affecting rural white communities as much as anyone else, making it impossible to turn into a racist moral panic. So instead, Republicans seized on a minor provision allowing clinics to provide "safe smoking kits," which can be used for many different drugs, including opioids. But, because of racism, the right-wing press ran with the outdated term "crack pipe," and, in case you are too dense to hear the dog whistle, most even insisted that the provision was there to "advance racial equity," which is a flat out lie.
Their audience loves any excuse for racist jokes, so Republicans ran with it, with odious Fox News segments falsely claiming President Joe Biden wants to close the "crack gap." And it wasn't just the usual suspects in right-wing media, either. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., usually pretends at being more moderate and open-minded — remember when he used to pretend he liked hip-hop? But in a fit of racist exploitation, he rushed forward with the Cutting off Rampant Access to crack Kits (crack) Act. It should be noted that Rubio's leading Democratic opponent is Rep. Val Demmings, a Black woman and the first female head of the Orlando Police Department.
Welcome to what promises to be the next 8 months of culture war politics. Donald Trump made naked racism popular in the GOP again, but somehow things have gotten even less subtle since he lost the 2020 election. It's as if, without Trump on the ticket, Republicans feel that they need to announce "WE ARE INCREDIBLY RACIST" in 20-foot letters, lest their voters, not known to be fans of subtle rhetoric, miss the point. Usually, the needle that the right likes to thread is to signal racist intent while propping up some plausible deniability so they can act all huffy and outraged when liberals point out that they're being racist. But in recent weeks there's been a real eff-it approach in GOP circles, with the subtext and insinuation being abandoned for in-your-face racism
www.salon.com/2022/02/11/from-crack-pipes-to-critical-race-theory-gops-2022-midterm-strategy-is-overt/
Nothing speaks more to how the modern GOP is centered around tickling the racist lizard brains of white conservative Boomers than the sudden reemergence of the term "crack pipe." The actual crack epidemic wound down literally decades ago, back when Donald Trump was still divorcing his first wife. But the audience for Republican propaganda is still stuck in the 1980s, the last time many of them had a full head of hair, and so here we are, with the term "crack pipe" suddenly exploding all over social media, search algorithms, and, because this really is the worst timeline, a grossly named federal bill.
The situation, which I regret even having to write about, is as idiotic as it is disturbing. As Jon Skolnik reported for Salon, Health and Human Services was planning on passing out a paltry "$30 million to nonprofit groups nationwide as part of a plan to reduce drug-related harm," mainly by preventing opioid overdoses. The opioid epidemic is affecting rural white communities as much as anyone else, making it impossible to turn into a racist moral panic. So instead, Republicans seized on a minor provision allowing clinics to provide "safe smoking kits," which can be used for many different drugs, including opioids. But, because of racism, the right-wing press ran with the outdated term "crack pipe," and, in case you are too dense to hear the dog whistle, most even insisted that the provision was there to "advance racial equity," which is a flat out lie.
Their audience loves any excuse for racist jokes, so Republicans ran with it, with odious Fox News segments falsely claiming President Joe Biden wants to close the "crack gap." And it wasn't just the usual suspects in right-wing media, either. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., usually pretends at being more moderate and open-minded — remember when he used to pretend he liked hip-hop? But in a fit of racist exploitation, he rushed forward with the Cutting off Rampant Access to crack Kits (crack) Act. It should be noted that Rubio's leading Democratic opponent is Rep. Val Demmings, a Black woman and the first female head of the Orlando Police Department.
Welcome to what promises to be the next 8 months of culture war politics. Donald Trump made naked racism popular in the GOP again, but somehow things have gotten even less subtle since he lost the 2020 election. It's as if, without Trump on the ticket, Republicans feel that they need to announce "WE ARE INCREDIBLY RACIST" in 20-foot letters, lest their voters, not known to be fans of subtle rhetoric, miss the point. Usually, the needle that the right likes to thread is to signal racist intent while propping up some plausible deniability so they can act all huffy and outraged when liberals point out that they're being racist. But in recent weeks there's been a real eff-it approach in GOP circles, with the subtext and insinuation being abandoned for in-your-face racism
www.salon.com/2022/02/11/from-crack-pipes-to-critical-race-theory-gops-2022-midterm-strategy-is-overt/