Just When You Think He Can’t Go Lower

I’m “off” today from my own substack as I work on a piece for The Big Picture, but I wanted to say just a few words about what we saw from ex-president Trump yesterday as he divisively called Kamala Harris’s race into doubt.

The power of white men to categorize, determine and assign race has a long and painful history, not just here in America but in places like South Africa, which I recently visited with my sister. On the Freedom Walk tour, we learned details about the racial caste system imposed under Apartheid, in which the government laid out scores of bizarre criteria to determine if someone was “Black African,” “Coloured” or “White.” While that methodology was itself flawed and in many ways absurd, the assignment by race carried life-long consequences, including what schools you could attend and whom you could date or marry.

Those of us here in America, like myself, who have mixed race extended families understand the deeply personal journeys of racial identity that children, and often even adults later in life, undertake as an important part of self-discovery and a deeper sense of belonging.

When we hear a racist like Trump dole out his ignorant and hateful judgments on race, our response is understandably visceral. “How dare he” was the response I felt well up inside immediately.

We must not be afraid to confront this type of racism head on. That means the press needs to do better than simply repeat Trump’s attack. The New York Times led with this headline, for example:

Under pressure for normalizing this behavior, the Times ultimately changed the headline to something much better, proving we can shift the narrative if we raise awareness and call the media out.

The Times wasn’t alone in its journalistic malpractice. The Washington Post ran this headline, somehow putting the onus on Harris to face a “pivotal moment” while Trump “questions her identity.”

No. It is Trump who should face a “pivotal moment” for questioning Harris’s racial identity. Harris was raised in a Black neighborhood, went to a historically Black college, and joined a Black sorority. Harris is bi-racial, just like former president Barack Obama. But minorities understand what it is to grow up and live in America as a person of color, and someone like Harris owes no obligation to explain anything to someone like Trump, whose father wouldn’t have even rented to someone like her.

If I sound outraged, it is because I am. But I take consolation in the fact that Trump’s attacks and behavior during his ill-fated session with the National Association of Black Journalists will weaken him among undecided voters and with whatever Trump-curious minorities that his campaign has spent years cultivating.

Okay, back to writing for The Big Picture. Today, I am focusing on JD Vance but also on the tech billionaires who put him one step away from the possible next presidency. Here’s a teaser:

When Donald Trump chose Senator JD Vance to be his Vice Presidential running mate, it was a victory for wealthy conservative tech bros like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. Indeed, Thiel has been bankrolling Vance for years, grooming him for his elevation into the halls of power.

But now after a string of embarrassing and weird comments Vance made about women have resurfaced, it is not going so well for this “broligarchy.”

With endless money and the ability to put their tech thumbs on our political scales, it’s time to take a closer look at Vance’s wealthy backers and what they are hoping to achieve with puppets like him.

Be sure you’re subscribed to The Big Picture to receive my piece in your inbox later today! I’ve spent considerable time researching it, and what I found may raise more than a few eyebrows.

I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Jay