*We reported earlier that Republican Winsome Sears, a gun-toting ex-marine, has been elected as Virginia’s new lieutenant governor. She made history by becoming the first woman and the first Black woman to serve in the position.
“I am at a loss for words for the first time in my life,” Sears said in an address to supporters on election night. “…What you are looking at is the American dream. The American dream.”
Sears, 57, who was born in Jamaica, previously served in Virginia’s House of Delegates. CBS News writes: “she was the first Black Republican woman, first female veteran and first “legal immigrant” woman elected to that position, she says on her campaign website.”
Political pundit Jemele Hill tweeted on election night Tuesday that the victories by Republicans in the state, including Glenn Youngkin who defeated former Governor Terry McAuliffe, were wins for white supremacy.
Meet Winsome Sears, Virginia’s new Lieutenant Governor.
She is a black woman who immigrated from Jamaica, served in the Marines, has a Masters degree, ran a women’s homeless shelter, raised 3 kids— and now she has made history. pic.twitter.com/AFPdR0jSG0
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) November 3, 2021
Some conservatives have touted that Sears’ win is evidence that racism was not a factor in the Virginia elections. On MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” host Joy Reid said Virginia’s Republican voters shouldn’t get credit for electing Sears.
“What Republicans are now doing is they basically demand credit any time any of them ever voted for anybody Black or if there’s a Black guy on the Supreme Court that’s conservative,” said Reid. “Any Black conservative is supposedly or the Black president having ever been elected, right? The fact that he was elected, period, means there’s no racism.”
She continued, “The two choices voters had in Virginia were a Black woman who shares my daughter’s name and Jamaican heritage, and an Afro-Latina who is part Lebanese. So you had a choice of two Brown/Black people and you picked one of them. Do you get credit? Do you get special credit? It’s like I had ice cream or cake adds two options, but I want credit for lowering my calorie count because I picked ice cream. You had two choices and they were both Black!”
Reid’s guest, Michael Eric Dyson, agreed, saying:
They want credit for having hair in the morning or getting up and brushing their teeth. ‘Look, I’ve made an achievement that should be noteworthy.’ No. You are doing what all political figures what must do: make choices. The problem is here they want — they want White supremacy by ventriloquist effect. There is a Black mouth moving but a White idea through the — running on the runway of the tongue of a figure who justifies and legitimates the White supremacist practices. We know that we can internalize in our own minds, in our own subconscious, in our own bodies the very principles that are undoing us. So to have a Black face speaking in behalf of a White supremacist legacy is nothing new. And it is to the chagrin of those of us who study race that the White folk on the other side and the right wingers the other side don’t understand.
He added, “If you tell Black people, ‘Look, I support a Negro. Look! There is a person of color that I am in favor of,’ and that person of color happens to undermine and undercut and subvert the very principles about which we are concerned, you do yourself no service by pointing to them as an example of your racial progressivism.”
In response to the accusations that she is a bootlick for white supremacy, Sears has called on Reid to invite her on “The Reid Out.”
“I wish Joy Reid would invite me on her show — let’s see if she’s woman enough to do that — I’d go in a heartbeat and we’d have a real discussion without Joy speaking about me behind my back, if you will,” Sears said during an appearance on Fox News.
“[Reid] talks about white supremacy,” Sears added. “Does she know that I ran against a white supremacist? I mean Joy come on. Get your facts straight and then come talk to me. I’m waiting for you.”
