South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who recently threw his hat into the rink in the GOP primary battle. To whip up some controversy that buoys his campaign, Senator Scott appeared for an interview on ABC’s “The View,” in which he argued with the hosts, particularly Sunny Hostin, about race in America.
That began with Sunny Hostin asking him about his stance on systemic racism and why he doesn’t think it’s a real thing. “You have indicated that you don’t believe in systemic racism. What is your definition of systemic racism?” Hostin asked.
Responding, Senator Scott gave a lengthy answer in which he spoke about the success of black people in modern America if they work hard, giving anecdotal examples of his talking points.
Beginning, he said the typical message promulgated by leftists about black people always failing unless they’re the exception is a terrible one that holds people back and is, in any case, untrue. He said, “Let me answer the question that you’ve answered. Or does it even exist in your mind? Let me answer the question this way. One of the things I think about, and one of the reasons why I’m on the show is because of the comments that were made, frankly, on this show that the only way for a young African American kid to be successful in this country is to be the exception and not the rule. That is a dangerous, offensive, disgusting message to send to our young people today that the only way to succeed is by being the exception.”
Continuing, he gave examples of black success in American political life, pointing to himself, President Obama, Condoleeza Rice, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Collin Powell. In his words: “I will tell you that if my life is the exception, I can’t imagine I can’t is … so, the fact of the matter is we’ve had an African American president, African American vice president, we’ve had two African Americans to be secretaries of state.”
He then gave some examples from his hometown in South Carolina, pointing to different positions of authority and noting that black men fill them, saying, “In my home city, the police chief is an African American who’s now running for mayor, the head of the highway patrol for South Carolina is African American.”
Continuing, he pointed. to the general improvements in black economic life, since the disastrous 19070s, saying, “In 19, in 1975, there was about 15% employment in the African American community for the first time in the history of the country is under 5%.”
Sen. Scott then, using those examples from all areas of life, noted that there has been a substantial amount of improvement in American in the past decades, saying, “I’m going to suggest the fact of the matter is that progress in America is palpable. It can be measured in generations, I look back at the fact that my grandfather, born in 1921, and Sally, South Carolina, when he was on a on a sidewalk, a white person was coming, he had to step off and not make eye contact.”
Continuing with that story of America from decades ago to make his point about how much America has changed, Sen. Scott said, “That man believed then with some doubt, now in the goodness of America, because he believed that faith in God, faith in himself, and faith in what the future could hold for his kids would unleash opportunities in ways that you you cannot imagine, every kid today can look, just change the stations and see how much progress has been made in this country.”
Continuing, Sen. Scott claimed that the increasing number of non-whites on cable channels shows American improvement, telling Hostin, “ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, CNN, Fox News all have African American and Hispanic hosts. So what I’m suggesting is that the yesterday’s exception is today’s rule. And for us, it has met its promise, no, of course, the the concept of America is that we are going to become a more perfect union. But in fact, the challenges that we face 50 years ago and 60 years ago, should not be the same challenges that we face today.”
He then turned to African American educational achievement as compared to the early 1900s, saying, “And here’s the way that you measure that. Well, my mother was born, about 10% of African Americans got a high school degree diploma. Today it’s over 90%. When you look at the income when you look at the income success, and we found HBCU stat Wilson HBCUs app is a good one because one of the reasons why I took the funding for HBCUs to the highest level in the history of the country. And then I helped make it permanent is because I believe that education is the closest thing to magic in America.”
Tweeting about his appearance on “The View” later, Sen. Scott said, “Had a constructive conversation with the ladies on The View, even the producers can’t stop me. The principles of our conservative message prevail everywhere.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
