Why Did the DeSantis Campaign Ban a Respected Black Journalist from an Event?
Let's dig into it...
Watching the video of my friend Ty Rushing, Chief Political Correspondent for the Iowa Starting Line and one of his colleagues being escorted by Shelby County Deputies away from a DeSantis campaign event in Harlin on August 11 is disconcerting on a number of levels. First, Ty is an Emmy-nominated journalist widely respected in his field by reporters and the public alike. Not that it should matter. The treatment Ty received shouldn’t have been extended to any journalist. So why was it? And why Ty?
I’ve been to hundreds of caucus events over the years, and I’ve never seen law enforcement escort a reporter from an event. First, and foremost there is no need for law enforcement to get involved; a teenage campaign intern could have told Ty, me, or any other reporter I know that we weren’t welcome. Most of us would have responded like Ty did, questioning the decision at first, then complying.
The guy behind the law enforcement officer is a DeSantis staffer. He said, “Sorry guys, it’s a private event.”
Ty told him that he and the other Starting Line reporter were registered for the event, to which the staffer gave a thumbs up, and said, “That’s OK,” which apparently meant he didn’t care what Ty had to say. It’s also ambiguous. “That’s OK,” what? Come in? Get out?
Below is Ty’s registration information:
But what the staffer did then was significant. Rather than telling Ty himself he wasn’t welcome, he engaged law enforcement to do it for him. The law enforcement officer then instructed Ty to leave, saying “They don’t want you.”
Why did the staffer engage law enforcement when he could have done it himself?
As a provocation.
But Ty didn’t respond negatively to the provocation. Most of us wouldn’t have been as clever as Ty at de-escalating the situation by asking where ice cream could be found.
Ty was registered for the event, as you can see above. Perhaps he didn’t identify himself as a member of the press. It doesn’t matter. I don’t know how many times I have registered for candidate events as a member of the press and never heard anything back. The bigger organizations like the Des Moines Register, the Iowa Capital Dispatch, the Gazette, IPR, KCCI, WHO, WOI, and Radio Iowa seem to be better at getting press passes than we in the smaller media are. Or at least I was.
As a consequence, I often register both as a member of the press and as a member of the audience to gain access. If I don’t get a press pass, I observe as a member of the public, as do many others in small-town media. But unlike Ty, I’m an old white guy.
Some might say that Ty wasn’t allowed in because of the liberal slant of the Iowa Starting Line and its funding sources. That’s a red herring. Fox News goes anywhere it wants to, as does all the conservative media.
Was the interaction racist? Of course, it was. Racism is at the core of DeSantis’ anti-woke campaign that bans the teaching of important aspects of American history referencing the Black experience, often historically horrific with effects that linger to this day. DeSantis banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory in Florida, which at its core illustrates the historical truth that there was systemic racism in America in the past, also constitutes proof that systemic racism exists today.
Let me put this another way—DeSantis banning Critical Race Theory from being taught IS systemic, institutional racism.
It was also interesting that it wasn’t just one law enforcement officer, it was several who confronted Ty. It was a show of force when it wasn’t needed. Why do that? As a provocation. The DeSantis campaign apparently hoped Ty would resist, providing them a narrative that not only a member of the press, but a Black member of the press was a problem, fulfilling a MAGA storyline.
How Ty was treated was also humiliating. I haven’t asked Ty how he felt about it, but I know human nature. Ty and his colleague were treated as lesser beings than his peers in the press, and also the general public.
The rejection itself was humiliating enough, but having to be overly nice and compliant with the police until they treat you respectfully compounds that humiliation.
What do humiliated people sometimes do? Strike back. It was a provocation.
I’m not being critical of law enforcement here. I’m being critical of their training. Instead of sending an intern, DeSantis’s staff sent the deputies. Why? Because they could. Why did the deputies involve themselves? Because they are used to responding affirmatively to those in power. The law enforcement officer said in response when Ty asked why he wasn’t admitted was, “I don’t know, I don’t work for them.
Of course, he worked for them. He volunteered and interceded on their behalf even when there was no need, potentially escalating a benign situation into a potentially confrontational one. It was a provocation.
The DeSantis campaign also used the confrontation with Ty as a “dog whistle.”
In politics, a dog whistle is the use of coded or suggestive language in political messaging to garner support from a particular group without provoking opposition. The concept is named after ultrasonic dog whistles, which are audible to dogs but not humans. Dog whistles use language that appears normal to the majority but communicates specific things to intended audiences. They are generally used to convey messages on issues likely to provoke controversy without attracting negative attention.
Provoking Ty was a dog whistle to the MAGA base.
Ty’s response was pure Jackie Robinson. Pure class.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era. Robinson's character, his use of nonviolence, and his talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation that had then marked many other aspects of American life.
Good for Ty.
But this also begs the question, why does every Black person have to be like Jackie Robinson when so many white people are MAGA racist assholes?
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Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Columnists:
Bingo! Either Trump or DeSantis will be detrimental to our country if either would be president - I’ve been very surprised when I’ve visited Florida in the past couple years how many Floridians like him & his views…..
Speaking of race and dog whistles, I hope people have had a chance to listen to Senator Scott's attacks on Pres. Johnson programs and his claims that those programs increased poverty levels. Scott could have questioned welfare programs in a different way, but he chose to dog whistle. Scott's comments are dangerous because he endorses anti government beliefs and reinforces other stereotypes.