It appears that Rand Paul had his little fee-fees hurt over the blowback from his attempt to whitesplain African American history to students at Howard University. Now he's suggesting that it's because...wait for it...racism against white people. No, really:
Paul acknowledged criticism for the speech he gave at Howard University Wednesday, saying, “I think some think a white person is not allowed to talk about black history ... which I think is unfair.”
Please. The students at Howard University didn't confront you because you were white, they did it because you were disingenuous and wrong.
he talked about how blacks once registered in large numbers as Republicans, how Democrats in Kentucky opposed constitutional amendments that gave African Americans expanded rights and how Henry Watterson, editor of The Courier-Journal from its creation in 1868 until 1919, opposed letting black people vote.
“Much of the public doesn’t know that anymore, and part of my reason for bringing it out was that so people know Republicans aren’t hostile to civil rights or somehow to African Americans,” he said.
Um...facts are inconvenient things, I know. But let me throw out a few chapters Paul neglected in his history lesson: Dixiecrats. The Southern Strategy. Lee Atwater. Ronald Reagan. Paul assumed because he elided through these telling chapters that these college students -- most of whom have had to deal with the effects of racism their entire lives -- would be ignorant of them. Again, that's not racist, that's just stupid and arrogant. Ta-Nehisi Coates:
Rand Paul went to Howard University, lied, and then got his ass kicked. That's not so bad. I got my ass kicked regularly at Howard. That was the reason my parents sent me there. But having gotten his ass kicked, his answer is to not to reflect but to make an allegation of racial discrimination.
One of the things I try to do in my work is -- in general -- take people at their word. It's very hard to communicate about anything without good faith. This, of course, assumes that communication is the goal. That was my assumption about Rand Paul. I was clearly wrong.
