GOP Lawmaker A ‘True American’ Because He Knows Slavery Was ‘A Blessing In Disguise’ For Blacks

Arkansas Republican state lawmaker Jon Hubbard is a “true American” and you’re not because he believes slavery “may actually have been a blessing in disguise” — and you don’t. Hubbard’s shockingly racist remarks, which appear in his 2009 book, Letters To The Editor: Confessions Of A Frustrated Conservative, are only the tip of the iceberg. And, just like Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn, who wrote this week that “Part of claiming your citizenship is claiming a belief in God, even if you are not Christian,” Hubbard believes being a “true American” has everything to do with “love of God.”

“The institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise,” Hubbard, whose religion is listed as Baptist, writes. “The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.”

Of course, the sentence Hubbard leaves out is, “The blacks who could not endure those conditions and circumstances died, often brutal deaths.”

Perhaps Hubbard was channeling former MSNBC pundit Pat Buchanan, who in 2008 after President Obama’s historic speech on race, offered this in response:

“America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.”

Sound familiar?

But wait, there’s more!

Apparently, Hubbard also was also channeling a future Mitt Romney. In the description for his self-published book, Hubbard calls himself a “true American” and “questions whether all of those who reside in the United States are capable of being Americans.”

In Letters to the Editor, Hubbard, a Vietnam era veteran with a deep love for this country, describes what it’s like to be a true American who understands and appreciates what this land offers. The mindset of a true American is fueled by ambition and a burning desire to succeed.

“Hubbard described black students as having a ‘a lack of discipline and ambition,’ which he said has hurt the entire educational system,” The Huffington Post adds:

Hubbard also tackled immigration and said that Christians in America are in a similar position to that of Germans during Hitler’s rise to power.

… the immigration issue, both legal and illegal … will lead to planned wars or extermination. Although now this seems to be barbaric and uncivilized, it will at some point become as necessary as eating and breathing.”

“Extremism is no vice among Arkansas Republicans,” the Arkansas Times acknowledges, in a review titled, “Republican extremists, in their own words,” by Max Brantley, which labels Hubbard “famously unhinged.”

Brantley points to a review by local Arkansas business journalist Roby Brock, which includes these observations and excerpts:

Hubbard is really saying: Hey black folks, yeah, I know, we kept you in chains for hundreds of years, beat you, raped your women, lynched innocent teenagers, destroyed your families, but isn’t that really a good thing?

Hubbard believes integrating schools is harmful to white students because, in his opinion, blacks are lazy, have no discipline and are causing a decline in education:

“… one of the stated purposes of school integration was to bring black students up to a level close to that of white students. But, to the great disappointment of everyone, the results of this theory worked exactly in reverse of its intended purpose, and instead of black students rising to the educational levels previously attained by white students, the white students dropped to the level of black students. To make matters worse the lack of discipline and ambition of black students soon became shared by their white classmates, and our educational system has been in a steady decline ever since.”  (Page 27)

Hubbard believes blacks are too ignorant to know the value of a good education:

“Wouldn’t life for blacks in America today be more enjoyable and successful if they would only learn to appreciate the value of a good education?”  (Page 184)

Hubbard believes black folks were lucky they were once enslaved because living in Africa is bad:

African Americans must “understand that even while in the throes of slavery, their lives as Americans are likely much better than they ever would have enjoyed living in sub-Saharan Africa.”  

“Knowing what we know today about life on the African continent, would an existence spent in slavery have been any crueler than a life spent in sub-Saharan Africa?” (Pages 93 and 189)

Here is where Hubbard basically says black folks are lazy and don’t do anything worthwhile:

“… will it ever become possible for black people in the United States of America to firmly establish themselves as inclusive and contributing members of society within this country?”  (Page 187)

It blows my mind that this man is an elected state representative. Are the above views shared by others in the Republican legislative caucus?  Have any Republican legislators ever denounced Hubbard from writing straight-out racist statements?  Is this representative of the Republican Party of Arkansas reflective of the party’s attitude toward African-American Arkansans?  Will they condemn this intolerance and ignorant attitude?  Silence will speak volumes.

It is time for all good people, regardless — no, especially because of –party, to denounced and expel these hate-mongering racist bigots from their ranks.