It’s safe to say that racial tensions in the United States are at their most toxic levels in recent memory — perhaps since the Civil Rights era. For Americans born after this period, 2017 may very well represent the downfall of relative racial harmony in America.
Images like the one to the left certainly don’t help. Yesterday, liberal Facebook page The Other 98% posted this image to poke fun at House Speaker Paul Ryan’s response to the racially-charged events in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Using an old image that made rounds across the meme-o-sphere not long ago, the picture implies that Paul Ryan is effectively racist for photographing himself alongside his overwhelmingly white staff. Apparently, not having a single black American in view is the same as hating blacks altogether.
The first problem here is obvious: the United States is a white-majority country, and the Republican Party tends to enjoy lukewarm support from blacks to begin with. Last we checked, Congressmen aren’t obligated to uphold any racial quota with respect to their own staff, so Ryan’s picture shouldn’t seem that surprising or even insulting.
Images like help spread the baseless argument that the Republican Party is an active enemy to racial harmony in America.
~ Facts Not Memes
