Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the US Senate, has made his view that America is not a racist country central to his pitch for the presidency, and on Monday, even went on The View to debate the idea.
Scott’s stance on race is a central part of a strategy that differentiates him from his fellow presidential hopefuls, one centered on an optimistic vision rather than on the country’s political and cultural divides. The question is whether Scott’s optimism can break through what is already proving to be an ugly primary, with former President Donald Trump lobbing insults at his biggest rivals and some of his once-closest allies going on the attack.
Scott, a senator for South Carolina, is currently at the back of the pack: He’s polling at under 2 percentage points on average, behind even right-wing activist Vivek Ramaswamy, who has never held elected office. But that hasn’t stopped Scott from staying on message.
Monday, Scott told The View hosts that they had wrongfully advanced the notion “that the only way for a young African American kid to be successful in this country is to be the exception and not the rule,” adding, “That’s a dangerous, offensive, disgusting message to send.” And when pressed to acknowledge that Republican policies have hurt Black Americans, he said that “Both sides of the aisle can do a better job on the issue of race.”
Scott has long pushed back against the concept of systemic racism — that racism is deeply embedded throughout society and its institutions in a way that disadvantages people of color — despite mountains of evidence to prove its existence. While he’s said he’s been subject to racial discrimination at times, including at the hands of police, he maintains that racism occurs at the individual level. More than 40 percent of Americans agree with him, according to a November 2022 survey by US News and World Report and the Harris Poll.
His decision to put those views front and center in…
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