Shot in the Dark

Narrowly Focused Diversity

The US Senate has one black member – Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina.

Naturally, he wasn’t invited to yesterday’s 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech:

“Senator Scott was not invited to speak at the event,” Greg Blair, a spokesman for the South Carolina lawmaker, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The senator believes today is a day to remember the extraordinary accomplishments and sacrifices of Dr. King, Congressman John Lewis, and an entire generation of black leaders. Today’s anniversary should simply serve as an opportunity to reflect upon how their actions moved our country forward in a remarkable way.”

The event organizers didn’t completely exclude Republicans from the event — former President George W. Bush, for instance, received an invitation, but he couldn’t attend as he is recovering from surgery — but the slate of speakers was filled with names such as former President Clinton, Gov. Martin O’Malley, D-Md., Oprah Winfrey, Jamie Foxx and others.

Showing the lefties a white Republican doesn’t violate the narrative.

A SCOTUS justice?  A Senator like Scott elected the hard way (wonder if Ryan WInkler thinks he’s an “Uncle Tom?)?  A black conservative woman like Condi Rice?

That violates the narrative.

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Mitch Berg

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16 responses to “Narrowly Focused Diversity”

  1. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    Dr. Ben Carson?

  2. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    It’s a refusal to acknowledge that a person can be both legitimately black and legitimately conservative.
    This will get Emery’s hackles up, but a nazi comparison is apt.
    In the Third Reich, one of the things the nazis did was to expunge the WWI military rolls of Jews, and revoke any awards or citations they had received. You couldn’t be both a Jew and a patriotic German, as far the nazis were concerned, and any evidence that a German soldier was a Jew had to be destroyed.

  3. bubbasan Avatar
    bubbasan

    Professor Walter Williams and Dr. Thomas Sowell?

    Nope, gotta keep the narrative right, gotta allow Dear Leader to pretend that somehow, he’s not at fault in part for the horrible economic situation of American blacks.

  4. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    I certainly hope that a staunch republican like Colon Powell was not excluded. After all, doesn’t diversity demand it?

    I wonder how much the MLK family made from this event? The family received $800,000 in licensing fees for the use of the trademark for the MLK statue on the National Mall. Something of this magnititude, like a crisis, should not have been left to waste.

    However, even I, at a young age in the 218 area code when he was killed, felt a strong sense of loss when he died. However, MLK really made an impression on me. I say this more out of surprise than as an attempt at self aggradizement; and I was (am) pretty oblivious to everything important back then. The nuns were quite hip to the civil rights movement, so maybe they did it to me. In any event, count me among the many who think that Dr. King’s survival would have given us a far better society in terms of race than we have today. A “Christmas Carol”/ “It’s a Wonderful Life”- style revised retrospective of how things might have been had he lived would be quite dramatic. Well worth the price of admission.

  5. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    Just to deprive Jesse Jackson of a bloody shirt would be a great benefit. Not to say that he still wouldn’t find one.

  6. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Senator Tim Scott Turned Down Invitation to 50th Anniversary of MLK Speech

    “..Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), told Roll Call through a spokesperson that he had not been invited, but the paper reported, Thursday afternoon, that an email confirms that Sen. Scott’s office declined an invitation to the event earlier this month. The Senate’s only black lawmaker wasn’t invited to speak at Wednesday’s 50th anniversary March on Washington, because Tim Scott’s office declined an invitation to attend the ceremony as a spectator, according to a source connected to the event.Much of the speaking program was created based on those who were able to confirm availability to attend the event, and thus were able to speak at the event.”

    Within a day, Rachel Shelbourne, a staff assistant to Scott, had replied to the email with the following message:

    “Thank you for extending to Senator Tim Scott the invitation to the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington on August 28th. Unfortunately, the Senator will be in South Carolina during this time, so he will be unable to attend the event. Please do, however, keep him in mind for future events you may be hosting.”

    http://blogs.rollcall.com/goppers/boehner-cantor-turned-down-chance-to-speak-at-march-anniversary/

  7. Mr. D Avatar
    Mr. D

    Wrong link, Emery. Here’s the link:

    http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/tim-scott-declined-invite-to-attend-march-as-spectator/

    Although you might note that the link you do provide says the following:

    Cantor’s decision to turn down the invitation to speak is especially striking given his stated commitment to passing a rewrite of the Voting Rights Act in the 113th Congress, and the many opportunities he has taken over the past several weeks to publicly reflect on the experience of traveling with Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., to Selma, Ala.

    “The Leader hopes it’s an outstanding event fitting of the incredible legacy of Dr. King and is honored to have had the ability to honor that legacy earlier this year” with Lewis, said Cantor spokesman Rory Cooper.

    While Cantor and Boehner were among the Republicans who were invited, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the only African-American in the Senate, was not invited, his office told CQ Roll Call.

    Invited as a spectator is not the same as invited to speak. As a sitting United States Senator, he should have been invited to speak. There’s no evidence that he was.

  8. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/senator-tim-scott-turned-down-invitation-to-50th-anniversary-of-mlk-speech/

  9. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Mr. D
    Which is it? Was he not invited, or did he turn the invitation down because: “Unfortunately, the Senator will be in South Carolina during this time, so he will be unable to attend the event?”

  10. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    “The invitation, sent Aug. 8 from the Coalition for the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, appears to have been a form letter to all members of Congress, with invitees listed as “Representative” rather than by name.”
    http://www.mediaite.com/online/senator-tim-scott-turned-down-invitation-to-50th-anniversary-of-mlk-speech/
    So I guess Scott got the same form-letter invite as Michelle Bachmann.

  11. Mr. D Avatar
    Mr. D

    Emery, your second link refers back to the original link that you (apparently) meant to post. And see what PM pulled from it. He’s the only African-American in the United States Senate, and he got a form letter inviting him to attend an event that was open to the public, for goodness sake.

  12. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    PM and Mr.D seem to ignore the fact that Senator Tim Scott was unable to attend by his own choice. (due to prior commitments in SC?)

    ‘Rachel Shelbourne, a staff assistant to Scott, had replied to the email with the following message:
    “Thank you for extending to Senator Tim Scott the invitation [“form letter”] to the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington on August 28th. Unfortunately, the Senator will be in South Carolina during this time, so he will be unable to attend the event.”

    This particular blog post is factually inaccurate.

  13. Tim in StP Avatar
    Tim in StP

    “This particular blog post is factually inaccurate.”

    Ha ha, you think that actually matters around here? It’s all about context, in this case the context being the story isn’t true: http://t.co/PCRKgrcePy

    “The speaking program was created based on those who were able to attend, and thus were able to speak at the event”

    But no matter. Shoot that resume off to Breitbart (attn: Ben “Friends of Hamas” Shapiro) post-haste Mitch, you’ve got a bright future over there.

  14. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Emery,

    The details are still very much in question. Scott was apparently invited…to sit in the audience. Nowhere near the podium. The point of my post – that Big Civil Rights will never recognize the achievements of blacks who deviate from the Jackson/Sharpton axis, by the likes of Scott, Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice or Thomas Sowell – is undisturbed.

    As usual.

    Tim,

    I do try to stay civil. And I eschew the logical fallacy – so I normally avoid the ad hominem in argument.

    But I’m not arguing with you, Tim; I’m diagnosing. You are the single dumbest person ever to pop up in this comment section.

    A trip back through your history of being factually pimp-slapped in this comment section – i.e., every single time you’ve popped up – would take a while. But have at it.

  15. bubbasan Avatar
    bubbasan

    You mean that Senator Scott turned down the opportunity to be lectured by a string of left-liberals while sitting in the August sun? And the liberals who think he should have come can’t figure out the difference between being invited to attend, and being invited to speak.

    Knock me out with a feather, I am SO stunned.

  16. jpmn Avatar
    jpmn

    This event turned out to be much like the Wellstone funeral. I think Republicans invited or not, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, Native American or other were or would have been well advised to steer clear of this hijacked legacy.

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