'Feeding their denial like a servant': Ramaswamy slammed by scholar he called 'modern KKK' wizard
28 August 2023
Biotech entrepreneur and 2024 GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, during a recent Iowa appearance, referred to author, historian and scholar Dr. Ibram X. Kendi as a modern-day KKK grand wizard.
According to NBC News, the Republican candidate quoted Kendi's bestselling book "How To Be Anti-Racist," saying, "Here's what it says. Opening lines: 'The remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination."
Ramaswamy went on to say, "These are the words of the modern grand wizards of the modern KKK."
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During Monday's episode of MSNBC's The Reid Out, host Joy Reid interviewed Kendi, saying, Ramaswamy is "basically saying anti-racism is the reason for racist incidents. He named you. Your thoughts?"
Kendi replied, "It is a very old white supremacist talking point. White supremacists have been saying for decades that anti racist's code for anti white. What is also ironic is the only reason why we're even talking about him, the only reason why he even has political standing is because he has brown skin, he's attacking black people. That is really his job. It is the job of Republican candidates of color to go out to white republicans and say they are not racist and the real racists are the people who are challenging them. so, he is doing his job. He's feeding their denial like a servant."
United States Representative Ayanna Presley (D-MA), who Reid interviewed along with Kendi, was also criticized by Ramaswamy during the same Iowa appearance.
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When a voter asked the GOP hopeful whether "critics would blame him for white supremacy or call him part of white supremacy," NBC notes, Ramaswamy replied, "Ayanna Pressley, she's in the Congress today. She's a member of 'the squad.' Her words, not mine: 'We don't want any more black faces that don't want to be a black voice. We don't want any more brown faces that don't want to be a brown voice.'"
According to The Hill, Presley spoke with Reverend Al Sharpton earlier this week, saying, "The verbal assault lobbied against myself and Dr. Kendi is shameful. It is deeply offensive. And it is dangerous. It is not that long ago that we were besieged by images of white supremacists carrying tiki torches in Charlottesville. It was not that long ago that a white supremacist mob seized the Capitol, waving Confederate flags and erecting nooses on the West Lawn of the Capitol."
Watch the video below or at this link.
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NBC's full report is available at this link. The Hill's report is here.