The California recall election’s Republican front-runner, Larry Elder, has built a career as a Black radio talk show host who isn’t afraid to deny the reality of systemic racism by maligning Black people. In some cases, the bogus data come directly from Jared Taylor, a leading white supremacist Elder has repeatedly cited in his articles and books. “He would be a violent ricochet backwards for California and the country,” Sydney Kamlager, a California state senator and vice chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, told me. The suggestion that Black people are exceptionally violent humans is rooted in a eugenics-era belief in racial differences and discredited race science. If elected, his views on race and marginalized people would be front and center, driving state policy for some 40 million Californians.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 18, 2021 23:15 UTC