The chairwoman of the Michigan Democratic Party dismissed every Trump supporter as “racist” and called them the “reason” black people are murdered in the United States.
“If you support Donald Trump, you are a racist,” Lavora Barnes said in a statement posted to the group’s website. “Here is where it gets tricky and uncomfortable. Donald Trump is a racist, and if being a racist is not a dealbreaker for you, you are the reason Black people are being murdered for being Black.”
Barnes then laid out what she wants to see from law enforcement in America going forward.
“Here is what I want to see: I want the economic oppression of Black communities to stop, including holding the oppressors accountable,” she explained. “I want meaningful criminal justice reform. And I want law enforcement to actually do their jobs and prosecute hate crimes, and when law enforcement participates in racist conduct I want them held accountable — not by the prosecutors and colleagues they work with every day, but by an independent body, that they hold no sway over.”
Barnes was rebuked by the Michigan Republican Party, whose leader accused her of “fanning the flames.”
“Let’s be perfectly clear: There is nothing good about racism. It is a form of pure evil, and calling someone a racist is akin to calling that person evil. Lavora Barnes’ remarks claim that millions of Michiganders are evil,” Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox said. “It implies that they cannot be reasoned with and that our differences cannot be resolved peacefully through discourse and not violence.”
“I refuse to accept this inflammatory statement from my counterpart,” Cox continued. “As leaders in our state at this trying time, I believe it is imperative that we forge a path forward to better circumstances for every American. Fanning the flames that are burning our cities down does not accomplish that.”
Protests and demonstrations erupted across the country, including in Barnes’s home state of Michigan, following the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minnesota. The white police officer, who was shown in a viral video kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder.
