POLITICS + HISTORY
Civil Rights Worse Than Slavery? What a Preposterous Notion
Some Senator Tim Scott claimed Lyndon Johnson had it wrong
Just when you thought you’d seen it all when it comes to debates about racial policy positions, you come across a statement so preposterous that it takes the cake. For instance, Tim Scott, a Black South Carolina Republican, recently claimed the civil rights movement was more harmful to Black Americans than chattel slavery. This logic is reminiscent of anti-vaxxers, who claimed during the height of the pandemic that this preventative measure was just as harmful, if not more so, than the ailment. To understand how Scott or anyone could endorse this worldview, consider how conservativism functions in American society.
Conservatives often oppose domestic government spending and believe the federal government does not have a responsibility to provide a social safety net to ensure citizens have enough food to eat and homes to live in. Instead, they believe our society, rooted in capitalism, should be a dog-eat-dog nation, a Darwinian “survival of the fittest” perspective that ignores our common welfare. Despite Americans paying taxes that fund the government, conservatives like Scott believe they are not entitled to a dime and that providing aid to people is actually…
