BBW Tea Party: Collecting Tokens

I wasn't even paying close attention to the Michael Cohen hearings because I knew it was going to be yet another parade of insanity in this circus that is supposed to be our government lately. It started on an off-note of procedural nonsense that foretold how quickly the rest of the day would descend into utter madness. By the time Rep. Rashida Tlaib got her chance to give her opening statement, I was no longer watching (listening in on the radio), but I heard the exasperation in her voice--a mix of impatience and frustration over the stunt pulled by Rep. Mark Meadows earlier in the day. Because this scene was abso-fucking ridiculous:

And I knew that the backlash would be swift. Because a woman of color who calls out racism is bound to be branded as racist herself, especially when the person offended by her statement has Black people in his family to prove otherwise. (And also because Tlaib and at least two of her colleagues, Reps. Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have targets on their backs, so everything they say gets parsed in a concerted effort to discredit them. But we shall address that at another time.)

But seriously, let's talk about tokenism and how it differs from affirmative action, diversity initiatives, interracial marriage, trans-racial adoption, non-traditional casting, voting for Barack Obama, and every other effort that white people have made in the past to prove that racism officially ended. I don't know the year of its official demise, but according to all of the sociologists who know these things and use Twitter to enlighten the masses of their folly, racism only exists because Blacks and other marginalized people refuse to take their word for it.

Thus, trotting out a Black woman who supports the current President is perfectly acceptable to counter the claim that he is racist because the best way to prove that unicorns exists is to produce a unicorn, right? It is racist, however, to notice that this Black woman was asked to stand in front of America as proof that the current President isn't racist, despite ALL of the evidence to the contrary...

I don't know Lynne Patton personally (thereby debunking another assumption about Black people all knowing each other), so I won't speak for her or try to understand why she agreed to do this. I'm guessing the conversation that preceded her appearance at this hearing went something like this:

Meadows: Hey Lynne, what are you doing tomorrow?
Patton: Oh, I'll be at work, making America great again. How about you?
Meadows: Me too. Say, do you want to grab coffee and maybe stand up at this hearing tomorrow where I plan to use you as proof that Donald Trump isn't a racist?
Patton: Sure, Mike. Do you need me to prepare testimony or bring any evidence?
Meadows: Nah, just wear your good hair.

Now how is her existence as one of the few remaining Black women whom Trump has yet to insult any different than all of the aforementioned efforts that white people have made at fixing racism? Doesn't affirmative action, which seeks to redress exclusionary admission and hiring practices, assure us that folks like Ms. Patton are qualified to be in the position she holds in the Administration? Don't we like the diversity initiatives that promote random Black people from within the Trump Organization to become visible members of the GOP? When Mark Meadows references his family members, we believe that he loves them because love conquers all, even the irrational birtherism that propelled him to office. And we already know how electing this nation's first Black President practically erased every vestige of systematic racism and oppression...

So where do we get off calling her a token?

And why are we so skeptical of well-meaning efforts to debunk the persistence of racism? In the post-Obama era, overt displays of racism are practically unheard of, so why are we making so much hay of the subtler, inadvertent microaggressions? Lynne Patton came voluntarily and stood there silently because she wanted to be there, and we should take her word for it. If she was in any way objectified, our being offended on her behalf is just wasted energy. She has the right to stand up on that auction block stage like an NAACP Image Award because the fact that she chose to be there is progress.