directed a revealing question to Rep. Abe Jones<\/a>, a Black Democrat, during a debate about private school vouchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBefore he was cut off McNeely said: \u201cI understand that you went into public schools and you went to Harvard and Harvard Law. And the question I guess, is, would you have been able to maybe achieve this if you were not an athlete or a minority or any of these things, but you were a student trapped in a school that the slowest \u2014 you know, in the wild we\u2019ll say the slowest gazelle does not survive, but yet the herd moves at that pace. So the brightest child sometimes is held back in order \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man McNeely questioned is the son of a Saint Augustine\u2019s University professor, the first Black member of the student council at Enloe High School, and a man who served for nearly two decades as a N.C. Superior Court Judge and has a Harvard Law degree. But to McNeely, Jones was little more than his skin color and athletic ability. Jones also ran track at Harvard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m certain McNeely does not think himself racist or see himself as a knuckle-dragger. Maybe that\u2019s why he later apologized to McNeely, as did many Republicans, after being heavily criticized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to deeply apologize to Rep. Jones and to this entire body,\u201d McNeely said. \u201cI respect Rep. Jones. I think he\u2019s a great legislator. I think he\u2019s a great man.\u201d McNeely added: \u201cWhat I tried to ask or say did not come out right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, but it did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McNeely is part of a political movement tearing down the New South to reinstall the Old South, particularly in our region of the country. McNeely and others like him in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia are uprooting the right of women to have control over their own bodies by implementing barbaric laws that make pregnancies more dangerous. They are conjuring up ways to dilute the Black vote with unconstitutional gerrymanders to hold onto power that far exceeds their support from the public. They\u2019ve demonized and scapegoated transgender people to scare white moderates into remaining loyal to the GOP no matter how anti-democratic the party becomes. They\u2019ve advocated egregious censorship laws and veritable book bans, what in effect amounts to a Lost Cause 2.0. They\u2019d rather bury than grapple with the reality of how we came to be. They prefer an arrogant ignorance over a discomforting truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And they\u2019ve done it all with a smile on their faces and self-righteousness in their hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They don\u2019t wear hoods. They are more likely to be caught praising Jesus than spouting racial epithets. In moments such as the one this past week between McNeely and Jones on the House floor, they are even willing to sound humbled and apologize to a Black colleague they had demeaned with a racial stereotype often deployed to put Black people back in their place. Not even Black men as accomplished as Jones can avoid such belittling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t you dare refer to men like McNeely, and others trying to embed white-minority rule in a rapidly diversifying nation, as racist. Or uncaring. They are God-fearing men and women. They are just parents concerned about the plight of their children. They are the real<\/em> Americans trying to serve their communities, save their state and the nation like the white patriots of old.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI believe McNeely did not intend to say what he said, which was in essence calling Jones \u201cboy\u201d the way white men once routinely referred to Black men despite their age or station in life. But the thoughts that led to McNeely\u2019s considered remarks didn\u2019t materialize out of nothing. They are evidence of what was in his head, rooted in his heart. We shall be known by our fruits, remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McNeely\u2019s words weren\u2019t a one-off. They are indicative of what his party has become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Issac Bailey is a McClatchy Opinion writer based in Myrtle Beach, SC., and is the James K. Batten Professor of Public Policy at Davidson College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is the face of the Old South and the mindset they live with today. Not only are they out of touch in fashion, but also in keeping up with civilization. North Carolina Rep. Jeff McNeely had a Freudian slip on the N.C. House floor this past week because what he said was perfectly emblematic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/proliberation.com\/underthesun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/proliberation.com\/underthesun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/proliberation.com\/underthesun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proliberation.com\/underthesun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proliberation.com\/underthesun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/proliberation.com\/underthesun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1446,"href":"https:\/\/proliberation.com\/underthesun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1444\/revisions\/1446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proliberation.com\/underthesun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/proliberation.com\/underthesun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proliberation.com\/underthesun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proliberation.com\/underthesun\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}