By now, everyone has heard about the racist comments Bo French made this weekend on Twitter. It’s not even the most racist thing Bo French has ever said. The Republican candidate for Railroad Commissioner has a long history of being extremely racist and extremely offensive. He won the GOP primary anyway, because that’s who GOP primary voters are.
But none of this is new for Bo French. He’s been a proud and out white supremacist for many years. What’s new is the sudden chorus of pearl-clutching by Texas Republicans, who claim to be “outraged” at his statement. Except every single one of those pearl-clutchers has their own history of racism. Yes, I have receipts.
And considering we’re only like 50 days away from an election Republicans are expected to lose BIG, it’s easy to presume their outrage is completely performative.
Let’s start with the Texas House.
Each one of these Republicans responded to French’s racism, implying that they weren’t okay with his brand of white supremacy.
Wouldn’t that be nice if they actually meant it?
Let’s look up who voted for the RACIST mid-decade redistricting, intentionally to strip Black political representation out of power in Texas.
So, Lacey Hull, Jeff Leach, Drew Darby, Dustin Burrows, Matt Shaheen, and Jared Patterson are perfectly fine with stripping Black Texans of political representation. But they think that racism should be done quietly, procedurally.
A few ex-House members even jumped in on the pear-clutching.
But all of these ex-members became ex-members by pushing the House to the right, then acting shocked when they lost their seats to fascists.
In the 88th Legislature, Republicans passed the “Show Me Your Papers” bill. A RACIST bill that gave law enforcement the authority to stop any brown person in the state of Texas and demand to see their legal paperwork. It’s legal racial profiling.
And wouldn’t you know? Every single pearl-clutcher is also on that bill, voting for out-and-out racism, Lacey Hull, Jeff Leach, Drew Darby, Dustin Burrows, Matt Shaheen, and Jared Patterson. Even the ex-members Glenn Rogers and Justin Holland. And since Dade Phelan was the Speaker at the time, he was the one who even let it get to the floor.
Every single current and previous House Rep who claimed outrage at Bo French was talking about UT students’ skin color also voted to legalize racial profiling in the state of Texas. And that’s why their outrage isn’t real. That’s why their outrage is performative. Because we’re so close to the election, and many of them might lose.
I’m not done.
Also, in the 88th Session, Republicans voted to kill diversity offices, diversity hiring statements, and mandatory diversity training in public universities. Want to guess which of these pearl clutchers voted in favor of it?
All of them again. (Except Shaheen, who was absent that day.)
In the 87th Legislature, Republicans restricted how race and racism in US history can be taught and banned teaching the 1619 Project.
And once again, every single Republican who claimed to be outraged at French’s racism voted for this racist bill to erase American history and teach Texas schoolchildren a whitewashed version of America.
Bo French tweets his racism because he’s a rage-baiting failson with a blue checkmark and no impulse control.
Lacey Hull, Jeff Leach, Drew Darby, Dustin Burrows, Matt Shaheen, and Jared Patterson do their racism in committee rooms, in bill language, in floor votes that take thirty seconds and get buried under a hundred other line items nobody’s paying attention to (well, I do).
That’s the only difference. Bo French’s racism gets a screenshot and a news cycle. Theirs gets a bill number and the force of law behind it.
And if we’re being honest about which version is worse, it’s not the guy running for Railroad Commissioner who can’t stop posting. But it gets worse if he’s elected.
It’s the six people who sat in the Texas House and voted to strip Black Texans out of their own congressional districts, to profile brown Texans on the side of the road, to scrub the history of white supremacy out of an eighth grader’s textbook, and then had the nerve to clutch their pearls at a tweet. Bo French says the quiet part loud. These six say the loud part quiet, then go home and tell their donors they’re the reasonable ones. That’s a PR strategy. And Texans keep falling for it because it comes wrapped in a suit instead of a Twitter avatar.
Texas is only 39% white. Which means it’s 61% non-white. It’s LONG past time to get these white supremacists and their sympathizers out of office, whether their racism is quiet or loud.
Vote against Bo French in November. Please vote for Jon Rosenthal. He’s actually qualified for the job. And while you’re at it, give him money, if you have any.
And all those phony pearl-clutchers have opponents, too:
HD66: Matt Shaheen < Sandeep Srivastava
HD67: Jeff Leach < Jordan Wheatley
HD72: Drew Darby < Shiloh Salazar
HD83: Dustin Burrows < Malik Williams
HD106: Jared Patterson < Joe Mayes
HD138: Lacey Hull < Tyler Smith
Bo French is one guy with a blue checkmark. These six have votes, committee seats, and a Speaker’s gavel. Vote them all out.
50 days until the November election!
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Righteous. And in addition, as Progress Texas points out this morning, it really costs them nothing. Rosenthal, if elected, will be outnumbered by Republicans on the RR Commission. They are probably hearing from their O&G donors as well who would rather have someone who is well-qualified like Rosenthal rather than an idiot like French.
The "falls below conservative standards" comment from Matt Shaheen cracked me up. It sounded like he meant "this fell below our normally non-existent threshold" for racism. Thanks, Michelle, for bringing the receipts.