On Comrade Tuckums

I encountered this photo on Twitter today. Call me crazy, but I think Tucker Carlson is the most powerful proof available that, when it comes to issues of meritocracy and fairness in employment, it only matters to a lot of white people when people of color are hired or appointed to positions of respect and value.

Look at how the entire leadership of the Republican Party—at least in the Senate which, ostensibly, is the more deliberative and balanced chamber in Congress—treated Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearings for an appointment to the Supreme Court.

Despite her being the most qualified person EVER in the history of the Court, with the notable exception of three Republican Senators, the entire Republican Senate voted against her being confirmed.

Then we have Tuckums (my favorite name for him, thank you Joy Ann Reid) whose full, working class name is Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson. Tuckums would appear to only be qualified for his position at Fox News due to his bright, shiny whiteness. He’s done absolutely nothing other than bleat out the knuckle-dragging hatefulness that characterizes today’s so-called conservatives.

True to form for a group that has perfected the art of gaslighting and projection, it’s Comrade Tuckums who is the beneficiary of affirmative action; the same kind of affirmative action white folk have been complaining about for decades, all the while benefiting from its unfair application to them and theirs. I’m hopeful someday he will be seen for the fraud he is.