During a panel discussion Tuesday at an event for conservative moms in Pennsylvania, JD Vance recounted a story about his mother that offers a window into his personal views on race.
In recent weeks, the Republican presidential campaign has sought to woo women voters, a task complicated by the well-documented history of sexist remarks by Vance and Donald Trump and their attacks on reproductive freedom. Vance’s appearance at the MomVote town hall just outside Philadelphia was an effort to make some key inroads as early voting gets underway. Ultimately, Vance used the opportunity to peddle the same bigoted schlock he and Trump push at their rallies, albeit in his indoor voice.
In one example, Vance made some eye-opening remarks about his family’s racial makeup, when he responded to a question about education and critical race theory with a story about his mother’s anger over his children being identified as biracial. He noted that his wife, Usha, was born to immigrant Indian parents but then claimed that because he and his wife had grown up in the 1990s, they “were taught to think about people as people and not as whatever artificial, superficial skin color they had.”
Then the Ohio senator made the remarks about his mom:
My mom made this point to me. And I think it’s — you know, Mom is so smart. She’s just one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. And she said, ‘You know, I get really mad at all these people talking about your biracial children, you know, whether they’re white or whether they’re Indian, or what their background is.’ She’s like, ‘They’re just our babies.’
This sounded a lot like the “I don’t see color” nonsense we hear from some white people who seem to think any reference to racial or ethnic identity is inherently bad. Perhaps because the lens through which they view these things is a largely negative one.
This sounded a lot like the “I don’t see color” nonsense we hear from some white people who seem to think any reference to racial or ethnic identity is inherently bad.
In reality, it’s perfectly fine — I’d argue essential — for children of mixed racial or ethnic backgrounds to identify with that heritage and take pride in it. And acknowledging that background doesn’t make these children any less American. Mama Vance — despite being one of the smartest people her son knows — seemed clueless about this simple fact.
Nonetheless, the anecdote does help explain how JD Vance came to become a card-carrying member of the party whose members proclaim “diversity is not our strength.” A party that has become maniacally obsessed with rooting out references to diversity in schools and private workplaces.
And lest you believe that Vance was making some plea for national unity here, he followed this story up by saying that he wants children to see themselves as Americans “first and foremost,” a goal he said will be accomplished by going after “very radical curriculums” and defunding schools that teach CRT, which he referred to as “crap” that nobody actually wants their kids to be taught.
This is not a call for unity. This is a call for indoctrination. One evidently inspired, at least in part, by Vance’s mom’s ignorance.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.