Senate hopeful Eric Hovde steps in it while talking Black culture

Senate hopeful Eric Hovde has run a gaffe-prone campaign in Wisconsin, to put it mildly. Republicans are counting on him to defeat Sen. Tammy Baldwin as they try to win back the Senate. But Hovde certainly hasn’t made that mission easy.

His false claims about being a self-made businessman, the viral clip of him flubbing the Pledge of Allegiance and his cruel comments about older voters have put Hovde’s awkwardness and inability to connect with voters in the spotlight. And a new clip making the rounds on social media adds more fuel to the fire.

The video, recorded at a Juneteenth event in Wisconsin last week, shows Hovde trying to loosen up a bit during an interview with Torey Lowe, a Trump-aligned activist who is Black. That is, before the conversation takes an awkward turn.

When one of Lowe’s co-hosts asked what knowledge about Black culture Hovde planned to take away from the event that he hadn’t already known, Hovde responded by listing his purported bona fides:

Look, I’ve spent a lot of time in Black culture, and as Torey knows, I’ve spent a lot of time in places like Africa because I have homeless shelters for abandoned kids and rescuing kids out of the streets. And I’ve been involved in schooling — charter schools and things of that nature.

That was a tortured introduction to Hovde’s real answer to the question, which was that he apparently learned that slavery had occurred in Wisconsin during the 19th century.

These remarks were reductive and ignorant of the array of Black experiences. Visiting “places like Africa” doesn’t necessarily make one familiar with Black American culture (which is what was being celebrated at this Juneteenth event). And the implication that one understands Black culture by virtue of their work with homeless shelters, abandoned kids or charter schools reeks of stereotype and white paternalism.

So here we have yet another example of Eric Hovde’s mouth landing him in a bit of hot water. And Wisconsin Democrats are already happy to highlight it.