Black GOP Rep Blasts Voter ID Law Critics, Flips the 'Racism' Script in Brutally Devious Way
My positionality in American culture, as the woke might say, is that I’m a cisgendered white male conservative. That’s why I don’t get a lot of things involving race, I’m told.
Now, I’ll grant that it’s true this means I don’t know what it’s like to be black. I’ve never experienced racism firsthand and I can’t speak directly to the obloquies visited upon the melanated. Thus, there were a lot of questions I apparently just didn’t know the answer to — including why, as Democrats insist, it’s more difficult for a black person to get an ID.
Because remember, this is the reason voter ID laws are described as voter suppression. It’s not about election security or voter eligibility. Nosiree. It’s white conservatives trying to disenfranchise black voters because black voters can’t get an ID.
Why? If you even have to ask, you’re obviously a clueless white person.
Or GOP Rep. Burgess Owens — who, despite being black, wasn’t let in on why it’s particularly difficult for him to secure identification.
The fun began with this tweet by Owens, who represents Utah’s 4th Congressional District, regarding the racist history of gun control:
Want to see some serious racism? Study the history of how gun control laws have been used.
— Burgess Owens (@BurgessOwens) March 11, 2021
This is actually a fun and enlightening subject, but one for another day. Owens received a response from a Twitter user who goes by the name Adam Morgan, a man whose Twitter feed is chock full of vitriolic and thought-free condemnations of any voter law that puts restrictions on any individual, so much so one suspects he might let my 6-month-old vote if she had a “Dukakis/Bentsen ’88” onesie on.
Morgan came up with this rejoinder:
“Want to see some serious racism? Study the history of how voter id laws have been used,” he tweeted on Thursday. “This game is fun. You’re pro racism one way, anti-racism the other. Your bias is showing. Universal background checks affect everyone. It is trivial to write it so it isn’t a racial thing.”
Want to see some serious racism? Study the history of how voter id laws have been used.
This game is fun. You’re pro racism one way, anti-racism the other. Your bias is showing. Universal background checks affect everyone. It is trivial to write it so it isn’t a racial thing.
— Adam Morgan (@mycroft16) March 11, 2021
It’s good to see a man who appears to be a white guy calling a black man racist because of liberal wrongthink. This also likely didn’t happen in a vacuum; Owens is a vocal critic of HR 1, the Democrats’ “voting rights” bill that’s basically a federal takeover of elections designed to favor the party sponsoring the bill.
“H.R.1 has nothing to do with the people and nothing to do with fortifying our country’s election system. Taxpayer-funded political campaigns, nullified voter I.D. laws, and nationalized elections are not a successful recipe for restoring faith in our democracy or protecting the voice of American voters,” Owens said in a statement.
“Not to mention, the proposed changes would drastically re-engineer our federal form of government by centralizing power in Washington. Our elections should be free and fair, not bureaucratized power grabs that benefit only the Democratic majority.”
Anyway, as Mr. Morgan pointed out, this game is indeed fun.
“You know what’s racist? Assuming because I’m black that ‘I just don’t have the capability of getting an I-D.’ Disclaimer: We are capable of getting [an] I-D (and even using the internet!),” Owens responded, referencing President Joe Biden’s remarks last month about minorities’ supposed struggles with technology.
You know what’s racist? Assuming because I’m black that “I just don’t have the capability of getting an I-D.”
Disclaimer: We are capable of getting and I-D (and even using the internet!) https://t.co/WpF2zQ4KYX
— Burgess Owens (@BurgessOwens) March 11, 2021
“I use my I.D. to drive a car, to get a job, to board a plane, pick up prescriptions, and virtually everything else in life,” the congressman continued.
“So tell me again, why is showing an I.D. ‘voter suppression’?”
I use my I.D. to drive a car, to get a job, to board a plane, pick up prescriptions, and virtually everything else in life…
So tell me again, why is showing an I.D. “voter suppression”?
— Burgess Owens (@BurgessOwens) March 11, 2021
Morgan didn’t respond to that, nearest I can tell.
He did, however, express surprise his musings ended up in a Washington Examiner story about the Twitter war of words:
Wasn’t expecting to get quoted in a news article.https://t.co/vVpsnfM6kf
— Adam Morgan (@mycroft16) March 15, 2021
And now you’re quoted in a commentary article about a white man telling a black man how he apparently can’t get an ID. Good work!
So now that Burgess Owens has asked it, I think it’s fair for me to chime in: What, exactly, makes it difficult for a black person to get voter ID? Why do white liberals constantly feel the need to infantilize minorities? And why do they need to codify it as part of HR 1?
My positionality may make it difficult for me to understand, I’m told. But then again, Owens is supposed to know the pain of getting a government-issued identification if you’re not white, and he doesn’t seem to get it, either.
An ID costs roughly $20 to replace. If the Biden administration and Democratic lawmakers are so concerned about this, given $1.9 trillion in stimulus money, I think they can eat the cost of it if they want election security.
But then, my guess is that’s not what this is about — and our tweeter, as well as plenty of other liberals, knows this.
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