Laura Loomer’s racist tirade against five college-educated Black women occupying some of the most powerful political positions in the country takes a page from an old playbook: weaponize ugly stereotypes to distract from and degrade policy differences.
Loomer, a political influencer and particularly vitriolic megaphone for Donald Trump’s “great replacement” movement, posted divisive comments targeted at U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Democratic Congresswomen Angie Nixon, Florida, Ilhan Omar, Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts, and Cori Bush, Missouri.
Significance. Last week, Loomer posted a video clip on her X account attacking the five Black female politicians, calling them “ghetto Black b******” among other hateful labels for pushing legislation that she disagrees with.
Her justification was that these “stereotypes exist for a reason,” and she doubled down on her offensive comments in a recent post on Monday.
Nixon initially responded on X and further said, “I’ve been called a dog, which is what she called me. I’ve been called a monkey, an ape, a gorilla. Dumb, ignorant, stupid. I’ve been threatened,” in an interview with Newsweek.
“But that’s what happens when you have people like Donald Trump and Ashley Moody (a Floridian senator) that are spewing hateful, harmful rhetoric designed to divide us. And so, I am going to keep speaking truth to power, and pushing back against all of the hate and division, and am asking people to just come together.”
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who previously used her position as a representative from Georgia to amplify harmful views and rhetoric, responded to Loomer on social media, igniting an X feud.
“I’m not a Democrat, and I’m not supporting Angie Nixon, but the Republican Party and President Trump own Laura Loomer and her nonstop vitriol,” Taylor Greene wrote on her X account.
“When will the President and the Republican Party reject her and her hateful racist behavior? They refuse to, which tells you everything you need to know.”
Overlooked angle. Loomer is right. Stereotypes do exist for a reason.
In attacking the Supreme Court Justice and congresswomen, Loomer was perpetuating age-old stereotypes about Black women as “loud” or “angry,” which came from propaganda used during slavery to dehumanize and control. Those stereotypes were further perpetuated through minstrel performances and, years later, popularized in literature, film and television.
Loomer’s rant mixes in a heavy dose of misogynoir, which scholar Moya Bailey sees as a very particular type of oppression blending misogyny (as exemplified by her use of the word b******) and anti-Black racism.
Then there is the term “ghetto.”
The word’s initial meaning derived from “ghettos,” or neighborhoods that had predominantly lower-income residents, including Jews, the Irish, Italians, and, eventually, Black and Brown people. These neighborhoods often faced government neglect and poor infrastructure and were seen as less desirable places to live. Throughout history, many different ethnicities and immigrant groups have occupied these neighborhoods due to forced residential segregation. And practices like redlining ensured this form of de facto apartheid in housing remained the status quo.
In the 1960s and 70s, on the heels of desegregation in large swaths of the country, the term started to be used to describe Black and Brown people to suggest they behaved in a “low-class manner.” Often in an insult, the term insinuated stereotypes that characterized Black and Brown people as low-income, dirty, and loud. The definition of the term as an adjective and these characteristics were associated with experiences growing up in low-income neighborhoods.
The power structure. Some consider calling someone “ghetto” an offensive and almost derogatory word, especially when using it as an insult to others. Furthermore, it is typically used as an insult by someone of a higher socioeconomic status to shame the other into feeling embarrassed about their lack of wealth and enforce a racial caste system.
What experts say. “This implication of inferiority should be viewed as particularly detrimental for those who may find themselves on the receiving end of being labeled ghetto because of the possibility of such a label prompting the belief in racialized stereotypes which in turn may contribute to instances of racial bias and discrimination against marginalized group members,” said Shaun Richardson and Amey Donley, two sociology scholars from the University of Central Florida in a 2018 study.
Scholar and author Ta-Nehisi Coates once famously wrote in his essay “The Ghetto Is Public Policy,” that “The wealth gap is not a mistake. It is the logical outcome of policy and democratic will.”
