Racial Stereotyping Is So Lame

Sen. Stephen Huffman: so wrong... on so many levels

In 1969, my girlfriend Martha and I were driving my VW van through a remote mountainous region of northeastern Morocco, far from the tourist destinations of Marrakech, Fès and Agadir. It was the dangerous bandit-infested, kif-growing Rif region in Al Hoceïma Province near Ketama. We saw 2 American hitchhikers and picked them up, thinking 4 of us would be safer than just the two of us. Once they ascertained we were, like them, from New York City, they almost immediately started telling offensive racist jokes. Just as immediately, Martha signaled she wanted them out of the van. She was far less tolerant of that kind of thing than I was-- and I felt badly about dumping them out in such a dangerous region. She she was adamant. So I told them a racist joke of my own-- except one that was anti-Semitic. They were horrified and demanded I stop the van and let them out. Problem solved.

Yesterday, writing for Bloomberg News, Timothy O'Brien recalled how in 2005 Señor Trumpanzee "proposed producing a season of The Apprentice that would pit white contestants against black contestants. "Trump said on his own syndicated radio show in 2005 that although the idea was 'fairly controversial,' he wanted to host 'a team of successful African-Americans versus a team of successful whites. Whether people like that idea or not, it is somewhat reflective of our very vicious world.' ... [During a Howard Stern show] he also explored the possibility of airing white-against-black competition on The Apprentice... 'And it would be nine blacks against nine whites, all highly educated, very smart, strong, beautiful. Do you like it?' Stern said he did. Stern’s African-American co-host, Robin Quivers, had a different response: 'Well, I think you’re gonna have a riot.'"

“It would be the highest-rated show on television,” Trump replied.

Stern prodded the future president for more information: “Very dark blacks, or light-skinned blacks?”

“Assortment, against whites,” Trump said, adding that he wanted all of the white contestants to be blondes.

“Wouldn’t that set off a racial war?” Stern asked.

“Actually, I don’t think it would,” responded Trump. “I think it would be handled very beautifully by me. Because, as you know, I’m very diplomatic. … Also, I think you’d have 35 million people a night watching.”

Stephen Huffman is a Jewish Republican living in Tipp City, Ohio. The whole idea of Jews being members of fascist and, more recently, neo-fascist organizations has always perplexed me. Maybe I-- like Huffman-- need to stop thinking in terms of ethnic stereotypes. One stereotype about Jews is that they're more intelligent than other groups. Huffman is the personification of the fallacy of that one. A graduate of the University of Toledo and a physician, Huffman is a clod who began his political career as the Miami County Coroner.

Because the Ohio Democratic Party is the very worst Democratic Party in America-- sorry Florida, sorry New Jersey, sorry all of you who make valid cases about how excruciatingly incompetent and venal your state's Democratic Party is, there is literally nothing like Ohio-- Huffman is a state senator in a D+6 district that includes all of Miami and Preble counties and some of Darke and Montgomery counties (including the whole of solidly blue Dayton, where most of the voters live).

Huffman ran for the state House in 2014 when a seat opened up with a retirement. He won a three-way primary with 45% of the vote and 4 years later a state Senate seat for SD-5 opened up the same way and he ran in the more competitive district., The 5th district had been a Democratic stronghold until 2010, as the state party was in the process of disintegrating and Huffman beat Paul Bradley, 53% to 47%.

Huffman's first brush with national notoriety came last year when he "wrote" an OpEd for a local paper, the Sidney Daily News, savaging Medicare-for-All. Huffman became a laughing stock when he was forced to admit it didn't write the OpEd, which was actually penned by a lobbyist Kathleen DeLand who was being paid by a Big PhRMA front group, Partnership for America’s Health Care Future. Huffman was never charged with taking a bribe and was instead made vice chair of the Ohio Senate's Healthcare Committee.

This week, Huffman was back in the news-- with some racial stereotyping that made it into the national news for a racist remark he made on Tuesday about "colored people" getting more COVID-19 because they don't their hands: "Could it just be that African-Americans or the colored population do not wash their hands as well as other groups or wear a mask or do not socially distance themselves? Could that be the explanation of why the higher incidence?"

Two days later, TeamHealth, the crooked firm which employed Huffman as an emergency room doctor, fired him for the remarks and Ohio's Republican governor, Mike DeWine, put out a statement saying Huffman's "words were inappropriate and hurtful to so many Ohioans. Words do matter. So do actions. He is a doctor and is in a unique position because of that to play a significant role in the legislature to work to change this serious health disparity. I hope that he will." Most others hope that he won't. State Senator Hearcel Craig (D-Columbus), a member of the Legislative Black Caucus, called the remarks an example of systemic racism at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected African-Americans. "Senator Huffman also needs to understand why 'colored' is offensive. Our nation has faced a painful segregationist history of 'colored only' restrooms and water fountains, just to cite two examples. These practices were reprehensible and so many fought to remove them from our culture." Black Caucus President Stephanie Howse added that "The fact that a well-educated legislator-- a Vice Chair of the Health Committee and a practicing medical doctor-- would, in a public setting, nonchalantly use such antiquated terminology paired with a hurtful, racist stereotype all in one breath reflects how unconscious this problem of racism is for too many."

Trip Gabriel: "Among Ohio’s 38,837 reported coronavirus cases as of Monday, 56.3 percent of patients are white and 27.3 percent are black, according to Cleveland.com, which cited the state health department. Ohio’s population is 82 percent white and 13 percent black. The death rate has more closely tracked the state’s population. Of the deaths in which race was reported, 78.8 percent were white, and 18 percent were black."