Tim Scott and Cornel West PHOTOS COURTESY OF YOUTUBE.COM AND WIKIPEDIA

While everyone is getting overly excited…maybe excited is not the right word to use right here…irritated might work. Let’s try this again. While everyone was irritated with Senator Tim Scott’s (R-SC) hopscotch performance on “The View,” something else very interesting happened. Not that what the good senator from the state of South Carolina was saying was not important and not worth taking a gander at. My great grandmother Annie Mae would have loved what I did right there. That line was very Southern of me.

Back to Sen. Tim Scott. Another Southerner. Born and raised in South Carolina. When he evoked his grandfather in his story telling on “The View,” my ancestors stood up around me as well. I am sure that ancestors aplenty tilted their heads just a little bit at his rhetoric. Rhetoric. That is exactly what it is. Tim Scott is a parrot. He literally spews the same rhetoric every campaign season he finds himself a part of. The whole systemic racism does not exist because America has had a Black president, a Black vice president, a Black secretary of state, and less than a dozen of Black senators in the past twenty-five years is laughable. It is the very same rhetoric that Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) has used, and it is a tired, racist, trope.

It is true that like the old Virginia Slims ad used to say, ‘you’ve come a long way, Baby’ Black America has integrated into most areas of American society. But it is the integrational process that is the problem. The integrational process has not been without substantial hurdles and bumps and bruises. Black America has been pushing to integrate and White America in many sectors has continued to push back. Black Americans must place achievement on top of achievement and stack them up to get an ounce of recognition from their White counterparts. Is that progress? Tim Scott would rather America, Black America in particular, focus on the inches that White America has so begrudgingly extended and not pay attention to the insidious roadblocks and walls that are being built to keep us from going further without expressed consent.

What were Scott’s feelings regarding state representative Jeff Neely (R-NC) last month? Neely, who is White, asked his fellow state representative, Abe Jones, (D-NC) who is Black, just how did he manage to get into Harvard? Did his race and athleticism have something to do with receiving a Harvard acceptance? Why did it even matter how Rep. Jones entered the hallow halls of Harvard University? It mattered because Rep. Neely and people like him still do not believe that we belong in principle, sacred, and venerated White established institutions regardless of the credentials we may have earned to be there. That is what systemic racism means. The system or organization of how America functions. And America functions on systemic racism. Rep. Jones said later about the exchange that “I think we aren’t as far ahead on race and gender issues as sometimes we take credit for. And I think when something like this occurs, we get to reflect with ourselves and among ourselves about the issue. And we still have a little work to do. That’s what it tells me."

Tim Scott’s appearance on “The View” once again just highlights the fact that he is nothing more than the proverbial Steppin Fetchit for the Republican party. He is interested in garnering favor from the White North Carolinians that put campaign coins in his coffers to retain a seat at the table of White supremacy. In essence, he is doing the same thing that he claims his grandfather had to do back on the streets of North Carolina: cross the street with eyes cast downward when a White person approaches. That pretty much sums up Tim Scott and those like him. So much for progress.

On the other hand, in the same moment, lauded scholar, historian, author and Ivy League professor Dr. Cornel West made a big announcement. “I am running for truth and justice and as a candidate for the president of the United States,” West said on Twitter Monday. “I enter for the quest for truth. I enter for the quest of justice. And the presidency is just one vehicle we pursue that truth and justice.” Dr. West is a surprise candidate that has entered the national discussion on who should sit in the top job in the White House.

Running on the People’s Party platform that purports itself as a political party for independent voters, Dr. West noted in an interview the day of his official candidacy that America is due for a “spiritual awakening and moral reckoning in the face of organized greed and institutionalized hatred.” Of course, Dr. Cornel West more than likely will not make it to the primaries, the debate stage, or the general election. But he could very well be the shot in the arm that may stimulate the Black voter who stalls at the polls to rethink their position. Will Dr. West be an impediment for Democrats, split the vote and possibly harm President Joe Biden’s chances in 2024? Some critics believe that West could be a brown version of Ross Perot. That is highly unlikely. Strategically what Dr. Cornel West has done is elevate the conversation. On one hand, we have a Tim Scott who parrots the “Everything is okay, Massa” line, the “We HAVE overcome” bold face lie that doesn’t jive with most Black Americans, and on the other hand a Dr. Cornel West who has made a definitive case in behalf of Black people, the underprivileged, the LGBTQI community, and the African Diaspora the majority of his public persona. Which conversation will Black America and her allies be more engaged in? Maybe Dr. West is doing something here. Giving America something real to chew on. Could this be the beginning of what democracy could evolve into?