Racism is no longer a deal breaker — in life or in politics.

It’s a tough truth to face, especially, I admit, for someone whose family members used nonviolence to fight dangerous civil rights battles, forcing a resistant America to live up to its ideals.

But it’s a truth that must be faced. The problem is, not too many are willing to call the backsliding out for what it is. We live in a world where racist words and actions are couched in euphemisms like “racially insensitive” or “racially tinged,” when those words or actions are noticed at all.

Maybe if we all close our eyes and pretend, racism will disappear, as Supreme Court Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asserted when he wrote the majority opinion eviscerating the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the 2013 Shelby decision: “Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions.”

Remembering that as a young attorney in 1982, Roberts wrote that the landmark act represented “the most intrusive interference imaginable by federal courts into state and local processes,” it seems he was just playing the long game.

Today, being called a racist is worse than actual racism.

Consider Vice President JD Vance’s well-received speech at the recent Republican convention/Trump rally in Texas, with reports essentially proclaiming “A GOP Star Is Born.” 

His applause line — “We were tired of being called racists for noticing that our country was becoming dirtier and poorer and less safe and less prosperous” — was couched in the language of policy........

© Roll Call