Welcome to post-racial America. Here, in his own words (and a few of mine), is a Republican Maryland state legislator and local radio host, Patrick McDonough, who Lee Fang reports has
some interesting ideas about protest, government assistance allocation, and academic research:
McDonough’s food stamps comment came in response to a caller who asked, if protesters are “too young, why can’t they take away benefits from families, from like the parents who are collecting welfare.”
“That’s an idea and that could be legislation,” replied McDonough. “I think that you could make the case that there is a failure to do proper parenting and allowing this stuff to happen, is there an opportunity for a month to take away your food stamps?”
Yes, let's make people go hungry. No possibility for abuse there ... suddenly every peaceful protester in the state is accused of rioting in hopes of starving them into submission. This suggestion coming from someone who I'm going to guess doesn't think police officers should have their jobs, let alone their freedom, taken away for killing a man.
At one point, discussing the possibility of a “scientific study” on “police relationships with the black community,” he said such an effort is necessary because there has never been research by “brilliant, honest, objective people” on “this community, this culture, this thug nation.”
“These young people, they’re violent, they’re brutal, their mindset is dysfunctional to a point of being dangerous,” he said, noting that he does not want to “put them in a test tube or cage.” But, McDonough added, “We have got to study, investigate, and really look at what this is all about,” calling it a problem “that prevails the nation from Los Angeles to Baltimore to Baltimore County.”
Yes, a "scientific study" beginning with the totally objective premise that what's being studied is a "thug nation," and not at all involving test tubes or cages, he swears. (This may be one of those "If you have to
say you don't want test tubes or cages ..." situations.)
Actually, of course, there's a ton of research—on race, on racism, on poor black communities, on policing and mass incarceration—by brilliant, honest people who know there's no such thing as objectivity. But somehow I don't think McDonough would be interested in hearing from Michelle Alexander or Alice Goffman or Devah Pager or Elijah Anderson or Nikki Jones or Bruce Western or, gosh, a whole bunch of other noted scholars. In fact, I'm pretty sure that to him, "honest" means what others would call "openly racist."
Is Patrick McDonough the most influential member of the Republican Party? No. But he's an elected official. He's given a voice on the radio. He can't just be dismissed as an individual racist crackpot.