MAGA and Trump show many ‘continue to see Black people as second-class citizens’
A pair of professors recently called out Fox News host Laura Ingraham and contributor Raymond Arroyo for their “racist tropes” against Democratic U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett.
HuffPost’s Kimberley Richards notes the FNC pundits respectively referred to Texas’s Crockett as “street” and the “Madea of Capitol Hill,” the latter a reference to Tyler Perry’s “famous boisterous Southern [black] character.”
Ingraham noted Crockett “had communicated in a ‘very different’ way with her during a past interview,” but now talks like “’I’ma do this, and I’ma do’ — it all seems like just a TikTok challenge or something […] it’s very odd.”
The FNC host appeared to base her comments on a viral video (below) showing Crockett speaking quite differently in a past interview than she does now in Congress.
Northwestern University’s Tabitha Bonilla, a political science professor whose work deals with “how messaging polarizes attitudes” or “bridge[s] attitudinal divides with substantive focuses on important topics in American politics,” said Ingraham’s and Arroyo’s remarks “feel overtly racist.”
Unearthed video shows Jasmine Crockett talking with a much different accent than the one she has now in Congress.
Interesting. pic.twitter.com/HzI16Gbjqg
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 6, 2025
MORE: Black studies prof calls GOP congresswoman ‘racist’ over pronunciation of VP’s name
“Dog whistles tend to be subtle — you only understand them if you know what to listen for,” Bonilla said, but noted the FNC hosts weren’t subtle.
She accused “many in conservative media” of “invok[ing] tropes and belittl[ing] the people who disagree with them rather than engaging with the substance of the disagreement.”
Too much contemporary dialogue has “decreased in substance,” and “has increasingly invoked more ‘discriminatory and demeaning language,’” Bonilla said.
Case Western Reserve University’s Deepak Sarma went a bit further, saying “There is no question in my mind that Ingraham and Arroyo are inciting racial stereotypes.”
Sarma (pictured), whose faculty bio indicates usage of “they/them” pronouns, said Ingraham and Arroyo “are, quite obviously, stoking the fears of their (already biased) viewers […] I am not surprised and it is similar to the rhetoric put forth by [President Donald] Trump to dehumanize people who are not ‘white.’”
“By focusing on her expressions they are exemplifying just how deeply entrenched their historically dominant language game, which, is being threatened,” Sarma said about those criticizing the way Crockett speaks.
“Crockett’s critics are offended by her very existence, and her language is just one part of this,” he later continued. “The rise of MAGA and Trump have revealed that many Americans continue to see Black people as second-class citizens. Blacks in public and prominent positions threaten these derogatory stereotypes.”
Sarma pointed out that former President Barack Obama was often scrutinized for his “skill at code-switching.”
According to “their” faculty page, Sarma “has wondered if experiences are real or not and if perceptions are merely projections on an underlying undifferentiated and real substrate.” Sarma’s “own congenital epistemic confusion, compounded by a TBI in 1995, led to reflections about mysticism, consciousness and psychedelics.”
“They” currently research topics such as psychedelics, cultural theory, post-colonial studies, museology, and the Grateful Dead.
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IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: Jasmine Crockett looks skeptical; Gateway Pundit/X. INTERIOR IMAGE: Case Western Reserve U.
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