Kansas GOP has a racism problem beyond Politico text scandal | Opinion
As regular readers of this column know, I’m a big fan of irony.
And it doesn’t get much more ironic than watching Kansas Republican Party leaders tripping over each other in a race to denounce the racist and borderline neo-Nazi text messages that leaders of their Young Republicans Club were sending to each other in a private group chat.
The chat, thousands of messages deep, was exposed Tuesday by the online news organization Politico.
Amidst the message traffic, the president of the Kansas Young Republicans, Alex Dwyer, left a heart emoji reaction on a comment reading “We gotta pretend that we like them. “Hey, come on in. Take a nice shower and relax”. Boom - they’re dead.”
That was part of a discussion of what to do about Young Republicans who didn’t vote for Peter Giunta, then chairman of the New York Young Republicans, to become the national president of the organization. It began with Giunta commenting “Everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber. And everyone that endorsed but then votes for us is going to the gas chamber.”
The two messages immediately preceding the one Dwyer reacted to were: “Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic,” and “I’m ready to watch people burn now.”
Dwyer was also quoted in the Politico report sending a message to Giunta saying that the Michigan delegation to the Young Republicans had promised to ”vote for the most right wing person” to lead the national organization.
Giunta responded “Great. I love Hitler.” Dwyer reacted with a smiley face emoji.
Also prominent in the Politico report was William Hendrix, the vice chairman of the Kansas Young Republicans, who used the n-word more than a dozen times (although he ended it with a “ga” or “guh” instead of “ger”).
He also was quoted as invoking racist tropes when discussing a Black person: “Bro is at a chicken restaurant ordering his food. Would he like some watermelon and kool aid with that?”
The Kansas GOP was quick to respond. They revoked the Young Republicans charter as a party organ and Danedri Herbert, the chairwoman of the state party, issued a statement denouncing the offensive comments:
“Kansas Republican Party leadership is disgusted by the comments by young Kansas Republicans mentioned in the Politico story. Their comments do not reflect the beliefs of Republicans and certainly not of Kansas Republicans at large, who elected a Black chair a few months ago. Republicans believe that all people are created in the image of God. In fact, our platform clearly states, ‘We welcome Kansans of every ethnicity into our party as we work together to preserve our heritage of political equality, religious freedom and strong moral values. We strive to eliminate racism and we condemn all racist acts and groups.’ As of today, the Kansas Young Republicans organization is inactive.”
I included the entire statement because there’s a lot to unpack here.
First off, the “Black chair” Herbert refers to is herself. That’s a weird flex. Kind of like blackfriending yourself.
Second, the party she heads thought it was hilarious two weeks ago to mock Mexicans by posting a Photoshopped picture of Gov. Laura Kelly in a sombrero, serape and Pancho Villa mustache, and following it up with a GIF image of Kelly’s Children and Families services Director Laura Howard morphing into a Lucha Libre wrestler.
But here’s the really weird part: Hendrix (the n-word and fried chicken and watermelon guy) got fired from his job over his comments in the chat.
He was a member of the communications staff of Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach. In her day job, Herbert is Kobach’s communications director, so presumably, Hendrix’s boss.
I guess this proves it’s not nearly as much fun to be the target of racist crap as it is to dish it out on someone else. Right, Danedri?
Meanwhile, Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson of Andover is backpedaling furiously, trying to explain away a photograph of himself on a stage grinning and giving a thumbs-up next to Dwyer and Hendrix, who are holding signs supporting his candidacy for governor.
“I categorically deny any association with William Hendrix or Alex Dwyer,” Masterson said in a statement, in which he also accuses political rivals of circulating the photo to try to damage his campaign.
The truth is that the Republican Party, in Kansas and nationally, has been cultivating racial animus for years.
Their ongoing attacks on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and cheerleading for the brutal treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration have been and continue to be thinly veiled appeals to the kind of under-the-table racism that laid the foundation for guys like Dwyer and Hendrix to rise to positions of influence.
But let’s close this out with some reaction from the Sedgwick County Republican Party:
“The Sedgwick County Republican Party leadership team is outraged and dismayed by the remarks attributed to the former Kansas Young Republicans, as reported in today’s Politico story. These remarks are in direct conflict with the principles of the Republican Party, do not align with the views of Kansas Republicans, and we condemn them in the strongest terms possible.”
When I wrote my column calling out the blatantly racist tropes represented by the Kansas GOP’s sombrero and Lucha Libre posts, Sedgwick County Republican Chairman John Whitmer asked me in a Facebook comment “You have no sense of humor do you Dion?”
Actually I do, John. I’m LMAO today watching you and your friends try to run away from this mess.
