Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican who is currently serving as a U.S. senator, is coming under fire from the left for leading the fight against the minimum wage hike – and when an MSNBC host criticized him for his conservative views and called him a "token," he declared that the focus on being “woke” is just as harmful as white supremacy.
The term “woke” was originally used to denote an awareness of certain social and racial injustices, but its use is now typically tied to political correctness and the cancel culture. We’ve seen a slew of popular products, TV shows, and ad campaigns get the ax after complaints from the “woke” crowd in recent months, even if their potential to offend is quite weak.
While appearing on Fox News Primetime, Sen. Scott told host Trey Gowdy: “Woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy. We need to take that seriously." He also encouraged people to read a bible verse about loving their enemies.
Sen. Scott’s comments came as Gowdy took MSNBC host Joy Reid to task for her attacks on Scott because of his support for conservative policies. Reid made the insulting suggestion that Scott only attended a press conference opposing increasing the minimum wage to create what she called a “patina of diversity.”
Gowdy, a former Republican congressman from South Carolina, said: “Tim Scott is too good a man to respond to this. I am not.” He added that Scott was chosen to work on tax reform legislation because he was an expert on the matter, not because he happens to be black.
He added that “when she calls a United States Senator who's a subject matter expert a prop, a token, or a superficial covering, that's personal and that's wrong and she should be held to account.”
Gowdy also pointed out that the fact that Reid sees a black man as a prop says more about her than it does about Scott. Reid has a history of criticizing black conservatives for their positions and for being Republicans.
Even liberal hero Obama has issues with woke attitude
The danger Scott is likely referring to with his metaphor is the idea that many people who self-identify as being “woke” feel like they are somehow superior to everyone else and deserve to be in charge of society – and they are using this exaggerated “outrage” to stifle conservative voices and ensure that only liberal viewpoints dominate social media and popular culture.
Even President Obama took issue with the idea of woke supremacy, saying in a 2019 interview: “[There is] this idea of purity and you’re never compromised, and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff. You should get over that quickly. The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws.”
Obama is a hero to much of the “woke” crowd, but they clearly aren’t getting the message. He said that the danger of being overly judgmental of people is rampant on college campuses and “accelerated by social media.”
He added that just being “woke” is not enough to effect change, stating: “There is this sense sometimes, of the way of me making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people and that’s enough. Like, if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or use the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself because ‘Man, you see how woke I was? I called you out.’”
He pointed out that this type of behavior is not activism and does not spur change.
Once again, Reid’s comments remind us that it’s the left that is truly racist here. The idea that blacks can only adopt liberal viewpoints is an inherently racist generalization, but then again, what do we expect from the same party that supports abortion, which murders millions of black babies?
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