Read on Twitter
I was trying to work today...but a reporter called to let me know that @CoryBooker was trending on Twitter because Trump was throwing shade. As a scholar of #deracialization, I now have to weigh in--even though I'd rather be grading something right now:
1. @realDonaldTrump has been trying to paint @joebiden as a cypher of the radical Left for weeks now. Some of the strategy involves time-honored tactics like pairing him with the most polarizing Democrats in an attempt to woo his own base...
2. But Trump is also doubling down on that point by trying to telegraph a future Biden Cabinet. Because @CoryBooker came to national prominence in @CityofNewarkNJ, @realDonaldTrump thinks Booker would be #HUD Secretary in a #BidenHarris Administration.
3. Having made #LawAndOrder and appeals to the #suburbs a key part of his campaign strategy, @realDonaldTrump is trying to other @CoryBooker by implying that his work as councilman and mayor of NJ's largest city makes him threatening to #SuburbanWomen. Oh yeah, & he's Black, too.
4. Here's the problem with trying to portray @CoryBooker as some kind of scary puppetmaster of @JoeBiden: Booker has spent his entire career cultivating a political brand that is the exact opposite of scary and radical:
4a. Political scientists call the strategy "deracialization." To sum it up, Booker has carefully crafted a non-threatening, conciliatory image precisely to increase his support among non-Black voters and to make them comfortable with his Blackness.
4b. That @realDonaldTrump ignored @CoryBooker's "Happy Warrior" persona and deployed him in an attempt to scare White voters shows how much race matters, if we didn't know that already...
4c. @realDonaldTrump didn't even consider @CoryBooker's innate niceness when levying this attack, showing that in this case, the color of the skin matters more than the content of the character.
4d. We've long known that deracialized strategies don't spare Black politicians from racist attacks, so deracialized politicians should always remember this...
4e. There's also a lesson for everyone else. For all the #RNCConvention's talk re: not treating Blacks as a monolith, this attack against @CoryBooker falls into the category of painting Black Democrats with broad brushstrokes, over and above the sheer racist nature of the attack
5. For further reading, check out my two books on deracialized Black politicians: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010TIIKAE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
