Yesterday, National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry used the N-word to describe Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio during an interview with Megyn Kelly.
But Lowry denies he said what we all heard and is essentially arguing, "Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying ears?"
Lowry's NR colleague Andrew McCarthy claimed that Lowry was mashing up the word migrant (with a long i) and immigrant (with a short i) and Lowry went along it claiming he had mispronounced the word migrants.
It makes me wonder how often Lowry, McCarthy and other NR colleagues have described former President Obama or Viee-President Kamala Harris as a migrant.
Now for those of you who might be unaware, I contributed a few articles to National Review Online between 2017 and 2020. I have never met Rich Lowry, exchanged emails with him or spoke with him on the phone. But had I heard him utter the N-word, I surely would have not bothered making a submission to his magazine.
The fact that Lowry and McCarthy would make this claim demonstrates the legacy of Trumpism and what it has inflicted upon National Review and other conservative and libertarian entities. One of the key legacies of Trumpism is the virtue of lying and continuing to repeat the lie even in the face of overwhelming evidence and facts to the contrary.
How else does one explain J.D. Vance's promulgation of the lie that a) Haitian immigrants in Springfield were stealing cats and dogs to eat them and b) that they were there illegally? Indeed, The Wall Street Journal ran a story this morning with the headline, "How the Trump Campaign Ran With Rumors About Pet-Eating Migrants - After Being Told They Weren't True?"
For his part, Lowry didn't buy into the pet eating story. But he has plenty of concerns about Haitians in Ohio:
To be clear, Haitian immigrants (many permitted here legally under Biden policy) didn't begin showing up in Springfield hoping to filch unsuspecting domestic short hairs. Rather, they were looking for work in a city that was seeing something of an economic revival. That's all well and good, but people are more than cogs to be plugged into warehouses or manufacturing operations.
They come with families and with needs for housing, health care and education. They have pre-existing cultural predilections different from ours (Haiti and the United States are very different places), and if they don't speak the language, that makes everything even more difficult.
Nor are resources unlimited. Health care facilities, schools and the housing stock have all been strained in Springfield.
Yet the same could be said of every immigrant community which has come to the United States - Irish, Italians, Germans, Cubans, Vietnamese boat people among many others. The same challenges were present when they came to this country and yet their presence made the American experience better. What makes the Haitians so different? Lowry's slip of the tongue certainly clarifies matters.
It is revealing that Lowry made a point of actually writing, "The Haitians also tend to be poor drivers." The death of 11-year-old Aiden Clark was horrific but it does not mean Haitians are any better or any worse drivers than anyone else. The Lowry made a point of saying so makes his verbal excretion less surprising.
In a different age, Lowry would have already stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of National Review. Today, being a racist is a badge of honor in MAGA world.
If the folks at NRO, Trump, Vance and in MAGA world want to tell us to Rich Lowry used the M-word instead of the N-word then all they are doing is telling us exactly who they are and demonstrating why they deserve our contempt.
No comments:
Post a Comment