Lt. Gov. Robinson, Sen. Rabon Blast “Social Justice” Group for Implying a Qualified Black Man Gained His Position By Corrupt Means
Southern Coalition for Social Justice, without evidence, implied former Sen. Joel Ford was appointed to the Board of Governors via some corrupt bargain
In court yesterday, SCSJ’s lawyers engaged in dog whistles to intimate that Sen. Ford wasn’t capable of speaking for himself
FLASHBACK: Democratic Party orgs targeted group of all black legislators as “Disloyal Dems” for not towing party line in 2019
Raleigh, N.C. — The Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ), which purports to fight against “structural racism and oppression,” yesterday attempted to smear an African American former legislator, Joel Ford, over his support for voter ID.
The group implied Sen. Ford earned his position on the UNC Board of Governors via a corrupt bargain, and the group’s lawyers engaged in dog whistles to imply that Sen. Ford was incapable of speaking for himself and relied on white Republicans to speak for him.
Former Sen. Ford sponsored voter ID legislation three years ago, in 2018, which SCSJ is currently challenging in court.
Last month, by a vote of 45–3, the North Carolina Senate appointed former Sen. Ford to serve on the UNC Board of Governors.
In a tweet yesterday and in the courtroom, SCSJ and its lawyers intimated that former Sen. Ford, who is a qualified African American man with a distinguished resume, gained his appointment via some corrupt bargain.
A white Democratic member of the N.C. House of Representatives piled on, openly alleging Sen. Ford engaged in a corrupt bargain and that he’s “the clearest example of how we’re willingly compromising the UNC system in exchange for partisan, political gain.”
The overwhelming decision of the North Carolina Senate to appoint Sen. Ford, who attended an HBCU, to the UNC Board of Governors has no relevance whatsoever to a bill that passed three years prior, and SCSJ offered no evidence to support its attempted smear.
The SCSJ lawyers also tried to belittle Sen. Ford for working with a staff member for Senate leadership to draft an op-ed about his position on voter ID. It is common practice for legislators to work with staff on first drafts of public communications.
The lawyers implied that Sen. Ford was incapable of thinking or speaking for himself, calling out a passage in the op-ed that read: “I have always been my own man with my own thoughts and my own opinions.”
The lawyer badgered Sen. Ford for several minutes, at one point asking, “If we look back at [the draft op-ed], that language about you being your own man with your thoughts and your own opinions, that came directly out of [the staffer’s] draft, right?”
Sen. Ford again repeated what he’d said multiple times, “That came from my words…I’ve always been my own man with my own thoughts and my own opinions. Those are my words.”
The attack on an African American legislator is reminiscent of a website created by Democratic Party groups to shame “Disloyal Dems” who didn’t tow the party line.
In 2019, the Democratic Party-aligned groups launched the “Disloyal Dems” website to publicly shame legislators who didn’t buy into the agenda set by the governor and state party chair, both of whom were white men.
At one time, every legislator listed on the Disloyal Dems website was black.
Lt. Gov. Robinson said, “It’s disgusting for a purported ‘social justice’ organization to imply a qualified black man earned his position through some corrupt bargain and that he’s incapable of thinking for himself. These ‘social justice’ groups will go to any length to impose a far-left agenda on North Carolina.”
Sen. Rabon said, “These shameful attacks on a good man are reminiscent of the Democratic Party-aligned website of shame, which contained a group of only black legislators who refused to tow the line set by the party’s white leaders.”
