Analysis: How conversations about race and friendship shaped the Cohen hearing
By Eugene Scott Eugene Scott Reporter covering identity politics for The Fix Email Bio Follow March 1 at 1:54 PM On Thursday afternoon, Reps. Mark Meadows and Rashida Tlaib chatted and hugged on the House floor — an act that many interpreted as a truce following a day of news-cycle-dominating conversations about the intersection of racism, politics and friendship. In an interview, Meadows said the hug was about “civility.
With those comments, Meadows was drawing on a dangerous cliche. Throughout history, individual members of marginalized communities have been held up as “proof” against accusations of discrimination, as if hiring a nonwhite employee automatically means a person doesn’t hold racist views. Meadows responded forcefully. “There is nothing more personal to me than my relationships — my nieces and nephews are people of color,” he said. “... And to indicate that I asked someone who is a personal friend of the Trump family … that she’s coming in to be a prop; it’s racist to suggest that I asked her to come in here for that reason.”
The Washington Post’s Wesley Lowery, who often writes about racism in American institutions, explained it this way on Twitter: “Tlaib/Meadows thing is a great example of the plight of the minority professional in majority white spaces . A colleague did something racist. Tlaib politely pointed it out — and has now had to spend 24 hours reassuring her white colleague that’s not a bad person.”
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