The left's hatred of minority conservatives

Guy Benson:

Remember, it isn't "progress" unless the Left approves.  On Monday, I wondered how race-obsessed liberals would react to a conservative, Indian-American, female governor appointing a conservative, African-American product of a single-parent home to the US Senate.  In the South.  To great fanfare and virtually universal applause on the Right.  In short, not well.  From today's repulsive New York Times column by Ivy League professor Adolph Reed, Jr:
 

When Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina announced on Monday that she would name Representative Tim Scott to the Senate, it seemed like another milestone for African-Americans. Mr. Scott will complete the term of Senator Jim DeMint, who is leaving to run Heritage Foundation. He will be the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction; the first black Republican senator since 1979, when Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts retired; and, indeed, only the seventh African-American ever to serve in the chamber. But this “first black” rhetoric tends to interpret African-American political successes — including that of President Obama — as part of a morality play that dramatizes “how far we have come.” It obscures the fact that modern black Republicans have been more tokens than signs of progress.

Reed briefly acknowledges Governor Haley and Senator-designate Scott's remarkable life stories before arguing that their inspiring biographies aren't relevant:
 

Mrs. Haley — a daughter of Sikh immigrants from Punjab, India — is the first female and first nonwhite governor of South Carolina, the home to white supremacists like John C. Calhoun, Preston S. Brooks, Ben Tillman and Strom Thurmond. Mr. Scott’s background is also striking: raised by a poor single mother, he defeated, with Tea Party backing, two white men in a 2010 Republican primary: a son of Thurmond and a son of former Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr. But his politics, like those of the archconservative Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, are utterly at odds with the preferences of most black Americans. Mr. Scott has been staunchly anti-tax, anti-union and anti-abortion.

Even if the Republicans managed to distance themselves from the thinly veiled racism of the Tea Party adherents who have moved the party rightward, they wouldn’t do much better among black voters than they do now. I suspect that appointments like Mr. Scott’s are directed less at blacks — whom they know they aren’t going to win in any significant numbers — than at whites who are inclined to vote Republican but don’t want to have to think of themselves, or be thought of by others, as racist.  

If you're struggling to keep your racial politics scorecard up to date, Reed is arguing that Tea Partiers propelled Scott to his 2010 victory over two white guys in order to mask their own "thinly veiled racism."  (Wouldn't this broad conspiracy at least qualify as thickly veiled racism?)  It doesn't seem to occur to this erudite professor that conservative voters might simply support dynamic conservative candidates, regardless of skin color.  This would be the opposite of racism, of course, so ulterior motives must be assigned.  Allow me to circle back to the "thinly veiled racism" line for a moment.  I poked fun at it above, but it's no laughing matter.  Reed is casually smearing millions of his fellow citizens via lazy, malicious assertion.  The Tea Party's primary messages are "we're taxed enough already," and "stop bankrupting the country."  Are these racist ideas?  These Americans have enthusiastically backed candidates -- ranging from Sen. Ron Johnson to Sen. Marco Rubio to Sen. Ted Cruz to Rep. Tim Scott -- who share these principles.  They've also worked hard to support Rep. Allen West and Mia Love, both of whom were defeated by white male liberals.  Meanwhile, their contempt has been directed at everyone from the president (black) to the Senate Majority Leader (white) to the former House Speaker (white) to some members of the Republican establishment (overwhelmingly white).  How these facts reveal some barely-concealed racial animus isn't readily obvious, and Reed doesn't even attempt to explain himself.  In academia and the pages of the Times, it's just a given.  

... 

In the twisted mind of liberals if you are not a liberal you are a racist.  And when you demonstrate you are not a racist by electing minorities, it is just a cynical attempt to try to fool people into thinking you are not a racist.  This kind of bigotry defies common sense   Conservative minorities will be subjected to much more abuse than any liberal minority and that abuse will be heaped on them by liberals.  When will the rest of minorities learn that liberals are just using them.  They don't really respect them.