BET's Cord Jefferson says it made perfect sense for the black Utah Republican to get into politics, but when it comes to her assessment of the president, she's dead wrong.
"President Obama's version of America is a divided one, pitting us against each other based on our income level, gender and social status," she said in her speech. "His policies have failed. We are not better off than we were four years ago, and no rhetoric, bumper sticker or campaign ad can change that."
Love is free to believe and say whatever she wants about the president, but the intentions of a speech like that, from a Black woman, are pretty transparent. The GOP constantly bristles when people note, rightfully, that it's a party dedicated primarily to the interests of wealthy white men. Republicans say that kind of dialogue is "divisive," but their protestations are pretty toothless when they come from — you guessed it — wealthy white men. With people like Davis and Love speaking at the convention, the Republican establishment now has a small number of African-Americans on its side to lend credence to its claim that the Obama administration has been trying to tear America apart.
President Obama isn't trying to divide America, of course, and he never was. But when it's only white Republicans saying it, the charge is a lot less weighty than when a Black woman like Love is saying it, too. Alas, it's become a talking point among Republicans that if you mention inequality at all, you're trying to cause a rift in society. But the rift is already there, and it's made of income inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia and any number of other oppressions. Pointing out that rift isn't the same as creating that rift, no matter how much Republicans like to believe their own hype.
Read Cord Jefferson's entire piece at BET.
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