Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) cheers on Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks during an election night watch party at the State Fairgrounds on February 24, 2024, in Columbia, South Carolina. | Source: Win McNamee / Getty
The only reason many people know the name Sen. Tim Scott is that the South Carolina GOP’s only Black senator—also the only Black senator in the state’s 225-year history of having senators—has dedicated his political platform to declaring that “America is not a racist country,” and denying the existence of systemic racism, data be damned. Why, then, does Scott always seem to invoke systemic anti-Black racism whenever he needs an allegory for what Republicans laughably perceive to be the persecution of conservatives by a rogue criminal justice system?
On Tuesday, Scott sat down for an interview with Breitbart News, during which he cried orangey-white tears on behalf of ex-President Donald Trump, who had just attended the second day of his criminal trial in Manhattan, where he faces 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business documents to cover up payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Scott—who just can’t seem to stop himself from publicly gushing over the commander-in-criminal-indictments—claimed the “prejudiced” trial against Trump wouldn’t be happening if he weren’t running for president. Then Scott pivoted to an erroneous hypothetical about a thing he has claimed doesn’t exist in reality: A Black person being treated unfairly in court.
“Imagine if this was not about the red party versus the blue party; imagine that this was a racial issue,” Scott suggested to Breitbart. “Put a Black person in the position where the legal system is coming after them because of the color of their skin and because of what they represent for hope in America.”
Now, look: If a person wants to believe that Trump being charged with crimes in New York and elsewhere is only happening as a political strategy to sabotage his latest presidential bid, then that’s what they’re going to believe. By making this argument, Scott is simply doing his job as a Republican during an election year. However, by making this absurd comparison to anti-Black racism in the courtroom—a thing that has been thoroughly documented throughout the nation’s history—Scott is playing the role reserved for all of the GOP’s prominent Black friends, which is to pretend to be the Republican conservative bridge to Black America.
But Donald Trump is not Black America.
Trump is a supposed billionaire who came from a wealthy family and has arguably gotten the VIP treatment throughout all of his criminal proceedings while he has persistently ignored gag orders, mocked and denigrated prosecutors and other legal officials, and even reportedly appeared to fall asleep during his first Manhattan court appearance on Monday. (But “Speepy Joe,” amirite?) Trump’s trials should be case studies on how rich, white male privilege plays out in the courtroom, and to compare it to the unjust treatment of Black defendants is to play around in Black people’s faces while purporting to appeal to us.
There’s a false narrative that says Black conservatives are the good Black people who don’t play the victim, but the truth is, Black Republicans like Scott—who has compared the treatment of Republicans to anti-Black racism in the past—actually do play the victim routinely; they just play the victim on behalf of white people.
And they do it because, really, that’s all they’re there for.
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