White-supremacist ideology is harmful to all, especially the naive and defenseless minds of youth.
The day after Glenn Youngkin won the Virginia governor’s race last November, a Wall Street Journal headline declared: “Youngkin Makes the GOP the Parents’ Party.” Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio exulted in this new party line on Twitter: “The Republican Party is the party of parents.”
Polling data showed this new branding to be as misleading as the GOP’s framing of critical race theory.
The Republican Party is clearly not the party of parents. The Republican Party is certainly not the party of parents of color. But is the Republican Party even the party of white parents?
This new branding is a myth, a great myth. It is as fictitious and dangerous as the great lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.
It represents a Trump Tower of GOP propaganda, built over the past year on four hugely false conceptual building blocks:
- Republican politicians care about white children.
- Anti-racist education is harmful to white children.
- Republican politicians are protecting white children by banning anti-racist education.
- The Republican Party is the party of white parents because it is protecting white children.
Every great myth is built on a foundational assumption, a fallacy widely assumed to be true. The foundational assumption of this great myth is that Republican politicians care about white children.
Instead of focusing on this very real threat, Republican politicians—to justify Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law—have cited QAnon conspiracy theories about public schools being overrun by child predators who are “grooming” children to be gay. A spokesperson for Governor Ron DeSantis reframed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill as an “anti-grooming” bill. But if QAnon Republicans really cared about white children, then they would be worried about white-supremacist grooming. This is the grooming that parents of all children should be worried about.
Grooming white kids—usually males—in white supremacy can involve inciting them to commit acts of physical and verbal violence. Against kids of color. Against girls. Against Jewish kids. Against Muslim kids. Against trans kids. Against queer kids. Against other white kids. Defending kids against white-supremacist grooming keeps all kids safe.