8/28/13, "CNN Guest: Why Should ‘Appointed’ Sen. Tim Scott Have Been Invited to MLK Anniversary?" MediaIte, Noah Rothman
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| DeWayne Wickham |
A discussion about the impact of the Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech anniversary event veered into politics when the guests began to wonder why so few Republicans attended the event and none spoke....
When asked why the only sitting black senator in the upper chamber of Congress was also not in attendance, USA Today columnist DeWayne Wickham said there was no real reason for him to be there in the first place.
“And he should have been invited why?” Wickham asked. “He should have been invited to speak for what reason?”
“He’s one of 50 Senators,” Wickham said. “And he’s appointed not elected.”
Scott said that he was not invited to speak, but added that the day should be about remembering MLK and Rep. John Lewis (D-GA). And there are 100 U.S. Senators."...
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| Senator Tim Scott R-SC |
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Senator Tim Scott has been elected twice in a former slave state and is descended from slaves. He grew up poor, was raised by a single mother, didn't attend a predominantly white, elite private school in Hawaii, and as an adult started his own business and employed people. As Senator Scott said, the day was for Dr. King, Rep. John Lewis, and many others.
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8/28/13, "Sen. Tim Scott wasn’t invited to event commemorating MLK march on Washington," Washington Examiner, Joel Gehrke
"Sen. Tim Scott, R.-S.C., the only African American serving in the United States Senate, wasn't invited to the event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's march on Washington, though a host of Democratic luminaries spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
“Senator Scott was not invited to speak at the event,” Greg Blair, a spokesman for the South Carolina lawmaker, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The senator believes today is a day to remember the extraordinary accomplishments and sacrifices of Dr. King, Congressman John Lewis, and an entire generation of black leaders. Today’s anniversary should simply serve as an opportunity to reflect upon how their actions moved our country forward in a remarkable way.”
The event organizers didn't completely exclude Republicans from the event — former President George W. Bush, for instance, received an invitation, but he couldn't attend as he is recovering from surgery — but the slate of speakers was filled with names such as former President Clinton, Gov. Martin O'Malley, D-Md., Oprah Winfrey, Jamie Foxx and others.
President Obama was the keynote speaker of the event, of course, which is held in honor of the achievements of Dr. King and other civil rights leaders. Wouldn't it have made sense to have the first black president joined by the first black senator from South Carolina, which was a Jim Crow state when the original march on Washington took place?
The Washington Examiner contacted MLK Dream 50 to ask why Scott wasn’t invited, but didn’t hear back in time for publication."
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2012 NY Times interview with So. Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Gov. Haley is the Indian-American Governor who appointed sitting South Carolina Congressman Tim Scott to the Senate. As a child she was disqualified from a beauty pageant because she was neither black nor white:
4/4/12, "A Conversation With: Nikki Haley," NY Times India blogs, by Shivani Vora
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"Q. The story where you and your sister were disqualified from a beauty
pageant in Bamberg as kids because you were neither black nor white is
well known. Can you share another story about discrimination you dealt
with?
A. Another story that I talk about in the book is when I was playing
kickball, the other kids wouldn’t play with me unless I picked a team,
which basically meant picking a race: Am I black or am I white? Issues
like that kept coming up throughout my childhood and into adulthood. A
white legislature would call me a “raghead,” and a black legislature
would call me a “conservative with a tan.” But I can say I am proud of
the fact that South Carolina rose above that and that I’m in a state
that elected a 38 year-old Indian-American female for governor."...
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Further on the "conservative with a tan" slur: The black lawmaker who called her a "conservative with a tan" of course says she didn't mean it as racist, which is quite possible. But the statement was made in a public forum, a magazine article, meaning it's a permanent record. That's not the best place to make a racial slur even if you don't intend it as such:
4/15/12, "SC governor's memoir under fire," thestate.com, Gina Smith
"Haley also calls out another caucus member, state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, for referring to Haley as a “conservative women with a tan” in a magazine article.
“Unbelievable. The politics of race are ugly, no matter who practices them,” Haley wrote in her book.
Cobb-Hunter said Thursday that her quote was taken out of context. She was not being racist. She was being serious.
“The comment referenced by the governor was in response to the question about South Carolina electing a woman of color as governor, to which I responded, ‘A lot of South Carolinians didn’t know she was a woman of color. They thought she was a nice, conservative woman with a tan,’” Cobb-Hunter said."...
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More on Senator Tim Scott who began in elective office in 1995, was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2010 and re-elected in 2012:
12/21/12, "Tim Scott: Meet the New Senator From South Carolina," Stephen Moore, member of Wall St. Journal editorial board
"Growing up in North Charleston, he attended a mostly white but desegregated high school and was elected president of the senior class. After graduating from Charleston Southern University in 1988, he went into the insurance business and shortly thereafter hung out his own shingle as Tim Scott Allstate, which grew to 3,000 customers. He was elected to state offices beginning in 1995, then in 2010—the year of the tea party—he ran for Congress and defeated Strom Thurmond's son. In the House, his first act was to sponsor a bill to overturn ObamaCare.
Despite his storybook rise—"I never even imagined being in the United States Senate, it was never part of the plan"—Mr. Scott has felt the personal sting of racism and has had doors shut on him. In high school and college he was bullied and "sometimes I got hate-filled notes with racial slurs attached to my locker."
It was made worse, he recalls, because "I was a kind of an oddball. Had three pair of pants and two pair of shoes. And you know, you rotate them and you got made fun of. I had buck teeth, they were going in two different directions. It was a challenging time." The barriers, he is convinced, "only made my will to succeed even stronger."
The two guiding influences of his life have been his mother, who always worked two jobs ("I'm living her American dream," he says proudly) and the man he calls "my mentor," John Moniz, a white Christian and one of the first franchise owners of Chick-fil-A restaurants. "He took me under his wing and for three or four years he was telling me that as a poor kid in North Charleston, that I could think my way out of poverty. I didn't have to play football. I didn't have to become an entertainer."...
Then he tells a story: "I put together a group of mostly black pastors and thinkers in the new part of my district, near Hilton Head. I told them, 'I don't expect you to vote for me in November. I don't know that you will vote for me ever. But we're going to start a relationship today. And it's not about the election. It's about life. It's about changing the course of history for kids who are coming behind us.' " He notes that one of the pastors in the meeting called him after his appointment to the Senate to celebrate the news."...
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This should really tick off haters like DeWayne Wickham:
7/13/2010, "Tim Scott Statement on NAACP Resolution Condemning Tea Party as “Racist”"
"Tim Scott, Republican candidate for Congress in South Carolina’s First Congressional District, issued the following statement today:
“I understand that the NAACP, at its annual conference in Kansas City, will vote today on a resolution condemning the Tea Party movement as “racist”. I believe that the NAACP is making a grave mistake in stereotyping a diverse group of Americans who care deeply about their country and who contribute their time, energy and resources to make a difference.”
“As I campaign in South Carolina, I participate in numerous events sponsored by the Tea Party, 9/12, Patriot, and other like-minded groups, and I have had the opportunity to get to know many of the men and women who make up these energetic grassroots organizations.
Americans need to know that the Tea Party is a color-blind movement that has principled differences with many of the leaders in Washington, both Democrats and Republicans. Their aim is to support the strongest candidates – regardless of color or background – who will fight to return our country to its Constitutional roots of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free markets.”"
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