You’ve probably heard Touré’s latest rant on MSNBC’s “The Cycle.” If not, he implies Republicans are generally racist — and that conservative policies are, too. This, of course, is cheap and absurd.
But Touré also notes that Republicans seem all too eager to embrace “black friends” in order to “make themselves feel not racist.”
This is highly controversial, but I’m not sure he’s entirely wrong.
Many conservatives do seem obsessed with trying to prove they aren’t racists. They are utterly (and understandably) frustrated that the Party of Lincoln has somehow been cast as the “racist party,” while the Party of the KKK (see Robert C. Byrd) has been greeted as liberators. And so, perhaps conservatives are too eager to prove they aren’t prejudiced.
Unfortunately, this usually makes them look like George Castanza — who also tried to become friends with a black man to prove he wasn’t a racist.
The case of Dr. Ben Carson (whom even Touré’ concedes is “a brilliant medical thinker”) is merely the latest example. His rise has been nothing short of meteoric. The 2016 presidential talk is, of course, ridiculous. And the fact that an unelected leader (whom few had heard of a month prior) would be included on CPAC’s presidential straw poll speaks for itself.
None of this is his fault. But I fear that conservatives are actually doing Dr. Carson no favors by immediately granting him rock star status. Sure, he’s a brilliant doctor, but politics is different from everything else. No matter how smart you are, it takes time to grow into a political career as a politician or a pundit. And sadly, Dr. Carson has been deprived of that.