The cast of CBS Mornings invited racial provocateur Wesley Lowery onto their Tuesday program to hype his new book American Whitelash which allegedly shows how there has been pushback to racial progress in America. In reality, Lowery and his interviewers only showed that not everybody likes Barack Obama, high crime, or supports gender ideology.
Speaking about Obama’s 2008 election, co-host Gayle King led Lowery by recalling, “you said ‘a white supremacist force was being unleashed that very night’ and that research has come to show that while many people believe, yes, there is some anti-black bias, but there are also people that believe that, a lot of white people felt that, that they had been, that they were discriminated against, too, which I thought was a very interesting premise.”
Lowery used this to go after the top two GOP presidential candidates, “It starts to explain why we have the success of a movement like the movement that elects the former president, Donald Trump. It helps explain why politicians use things like the appeal yesterday by Ron DeSantis to ban birthright citizenship.”
Instead of asking what birthright citizenship has to do with racial progress, King urged Lowery on, “Now Wesley, you say some leaders allow this fear to be weaponized knowing it can result in tragedy and that we have to speak up and acknowledge that this is happening.”
For Lowery, only demographic groups usually associated with the Democratic Party are being targeted, “What we see time and time again in this era is actual violence. It that's violence against Jewish people, Muslims, black people, immigrants.”
Lowery then utterly beclowned himself when he attributed violence to people who “talk about crime and gender and sexuality, that people out there really do get scare and those of us from the minority groups, it could cost us our life.”
Again, absurd assertions were ignored as co-host Vladimir Duthiers lamented that people use the examples of Obama and Sen. Tim Scott to say “I reject the notion that this is a racist society because we’ve had a black president, because we having a black Republican running for the presidency.”
Lowery agreed and recalled how some people do cite examples like Duthiers mentioned and “don’t feel particularly privileged,” but:
What we have to remember is that when we talk about race, when we talk about whiteness, we're not talking about biology, right? … But we're talking about a social construct in that whiteness in an American sense is not even about skin color, but it's about the idea and concept of who is truly America and when we see these political appeals to let's go back to how things used to be and the good old days.
The country is thus in a no-win situation. Even if both parties elect black people, it doesn’t matter, because Lowery won’t allow himself to see people as anything other than racists.
Again, Lowery’s ridiculous assertions went unchallenged as Duthiers interrupted and decided to add another non-white presidential candidate into the list of problematic Republicans, “We saw that from Nikki Haley.”
Alternatively, it is just a Republican criticizing a Democrat, but ultimately, King asked “So, we break this cycle how, Wesley?”
Ignoring the fact that he was on to urge people to buy a book, Lowrey claimed “Well I think, if I really knew the answer, I wouldn't be here. I'd be making millions of dollars and fixing society, right?”
He also claimed institutions have to stop being so nice to people like Trump, “it demands of us to treat it more responsibly, to call out people who do it. Not to play silly games or what is this an appeal to or we don't know or how is it. I think so often in the Trump years our institutions needed to be bolder and clearer.”
Duthiers interrupted again to specifically chide the media, “Our journalistic institutions.”
And the media wonders why their approval ratings are so low.
This segment was sponsored by Kia.
Here is a transcript for the June 27 show:
CBS Mornings
6/27/2023
9:18 AM ET
GAYLE KING: Yeah, you called it, you said “a white supremacist force was being unleashed that very night” and that research has come to show that while many people believe, yes, there is some anti-black bias, but there are also people that believe that, a lot of white people felt that, that they had been, that they were discriminated against, too, which I thought was a very interesting premise.
WESLEY LOWERY: The polling showed that Americans were divided by how much progress the election of a black president represented, that actually white Americans believed it represented more progress than black Americans did.
KING: Yeah.
LOWERY: And by the end of the Obama Administration, a majority of white Americans believed they were racially discriminated against. Why does this matter? Because it starts to explain why we have the success of a movement like the movement that elects the former president, Donald Trump. It helps explain why politicians use things like the appeal yesterday by Ron DeSantis to ban birthright citizenship, for example, these plays to, kind of, the nativist feeling of the country is changing, things are different, a reactionary movement that's very powerful but, as I lay out, is not just political rhetoric but lays out real life consequences—
KING: Consequences
LOWERY: -- for real people.
KING: Now Wesley, you say some leaders allow this fear to be weaponized knowing it can result in tragedy and that we have to speak up and acknowledge that this is happening.
LOWERY: That what we see time and time again in this era is actual violence. It that's violence against Jewish people, Muslims, black people, immigrants, and that violence we think about it through our political lens very often but we have to think about it through our human lens that when we demonize groups of people, whoever those people are: immigrants, refugees, black Americans, you talk about crime and gender and sexuality, that people out there really do get scare and those of us from the minority groups, it could cost us our life.
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: You do write about the alienation that white Americans feel, that they feel they're being discriminated against. And by the same token they point to people like Barack Obama or even Senator Tim Scott, a black Republican, and say I reject the notion that this is a racist society because we’ve had a black president, because we having a black Republican running for the presidency.
LOWERY: Of course, and what’s interesting is that there's always been the ability to try to use whether it be individual cases or individual folks to deflect these bigger societal criticisms or people who say, well, “I don't feel this experience. I don't feel particularly privileged; I don’t feel particularly in a better position than other people.”
What we have to remember is that when we talk about race, when we talk about whiteness, we're not talking about biology, right? We know there's no biological race. We're all humans around the table.
KING: Right.
LOWREY: But we're talking about a social construct in that whiteness in an American sense is not even about skin color, but it's about the idea and concept of who is truly American—
KING: Yes.
LOWREY: -- and when we see these political appeals to let's go back to how things used to be and the good old days--
DUTHIERS: We saw that from Nikki Haley.
LOWREY: -- Make America Great Again or America First, right? That, that appeals to people's sense of this country's changing and shifting and it being different and perhaps they'll end up being the losers in history.
KING: So, we break this cycle how, Wesley?
LOWREY: Well I think, if I really knew the answer, I wouldn't be here. I'd be making millions of dollars and fixing society, right, but I do think a huge part of this –
KING: You have some thoughts.
LOWREY: I do have some thoughts.
KING: You have some thoughts.
LOWREY: I think we have to be willing to look some things in the eye and call them what they are, right, because when we accept that this type of political rhetoric has real life consequences, it demands of us to treat it more responsibly, to call out people who do it. Not to play silly games or what is this an appeal to or we don't know or how is it. I think so often in the Trump years our institutions needed to be bolder and clearer.
DUTHIERS: Our journalistic institutions, you’re talking about.
LOWREY: Our liberal—and all of our institutions.
