Seb Gorka: We Had a ‘Racist America’ When Obama Was President as He Only Saw ‘Skin Color’

Seb Gorka: We Had a ‘Racist America’ When Obama Was President as He Only Saw ‘Skin Color’

One-time Trump advisor and terrible car parker Sebastian Gorka told a C-SPAN audience on Sunday that Barack Obama, not Donald Trump, is the real racist.

https://youtu.be/ChlK3b-74Lo

While taking call-in questions on Washington Journal, Gorka was faced with a caller’s convoluted rant encompassing the harm done to cities thanks to white flight. The caller asked Gorka if he would talk about “white farmers being ruined and put on welfare” with the same denigration with which he talks about inner-city families on welfare.

Gorka, trademark smirk plastered on his face, responded:

“The idea that we have a racist America right now — no, we had a racist America when Obama was commander-in-chief. He saw only his fellow Americans based upon their skin color and divided us.”

Citation needed! It was not offered because this argument that Obama divided America by being racist towards white people is such a shibboleth of conservative rhetoric that examples aren’t needed. It’s just something that people on the right know in their bones happened.

Gorka went on:

“Henry couldn’t care less. This is all Democrat talking points. We have the lowest unemployment for black Americans in generations. We have the lowest for Hispanics since record-keeping began.”

Speaking of talking points. As always, it must be pointed out that African-American unemployment has been on a generally downward trend since the height of the Great Recession in 2009-10. If one is going to give a president credit for it, then Trump is riding a wave that Obama began for him. Same for Hispanic unemployment rates.

Gorka’s argument would only make sense if all these gains in employment for people of color had come at the expense of whites. But unemployment for whites over the last decade has followed the same general pattern as that for Hispanics and African-Americans. And white unemployment has generally remained lower than that of blacks, as has been true for pretty much all of American history.

The argument in favor of Trump’s racism really has nothing to do with employment rates. Gorka is never going to try and have that argument.

Watch the video above, via C-SPAN.

Gary Legum

Gary Legum has written about politics and culture for Independent Journal Review, Salon, The Daily Beast, Wonkette, AlterNet and McSweeney's, among others. He currently lives in his native state of Virginia.

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