The New York Times’ Mara Gay said Tuesday that it was “disturbing” to see “dozens of American flags” on display in Long Island, New York.
Gay joined MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to discuss the possibility of a Jan. 6 commission that would dig into the events and intelligence leading up to the riot on Capitol Hill, and she argued that the American flag was being flown by former President Donald Trump’s supporters who could not separate their vision of America from “whiteness.” (RELATED: The New York Times’ Mara Gay: US Seems To Be ‘Invested In The Spectacle Of Black Death’)
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Gay began by saying that she believed Democrats should go ahead and form a commission without Republican support, arguing that was the only way to begin to get Trump’s influence out of American politics.
“The reality is here that we have a large percentage of the American population — I don’t know how big it is, but we have tens of millions of Trump voters who continue to believe that their rights as citizens are under threat by simple virtue of having to share the democracy with others,” Gay continued, arguing that Trump’s supporters viewed “Americanness” and “whiteness” as one and the same.
“We have to figure out how to get every American a place at the table in this democracy, but how to separate Americanness, America, from whiteness,” Gay said, going on to use a recent trip to Long Island to bolster her point.
“I was on Long Island this weekend, visiting a really dear friend. And I was really disturbed. I saw, you know, dozens and dozens of pickup trucks with expletives against Joe Biden on the back of them, Trump flags, and in some cases, just dozens of American flags, which is also just disturbing,” Gay recalled, arguing, “Essentially the message was clear, this is my country. This is not your country. I own this.”
Gay concluded by saying that her real concern was the journalists who were ready to let the issue drop because they could simply marginalize the fringe Trump voters.
“But if we don’t take the threat seriously, then I think we’re all in really bad shape,” she said.
Following the interview, critics reportedly flooded Gay’s timeline with American flags — prompting a quick response from her.
I see I’m being trolled with the American flag this morning. Trolling a Black journalist with the American flag is not the own some people think it is.
— Mara Gay (@MaraGay) June 8, 2021
“I see I’m being trolled with the American flag this morning. Trolling a Black journalist with the American flag is not the own some people think it is,” she tweeted.