The Republican Convention Kicks Off With a Focus on Identity Politics

There are five Black Republicans currently serving in the House or Senate. During the first night of the Republican National Convention on Monday, four of them spoke. Two — Reps. Wesley Hunt (R-Tex.) and John James (R-Mich.) — appeared onstage back-to-back, just after the Republican Party’s nominee for North Carolina governor spoke. That nominee, Mark Robinson, is also a Black man.

If this seems atypical for the Republican Party — and not just in the sense that it is atypical for Black Americans to be Republicans — that was very obviously by design. Despite the party’s performative disdain for the sorts of race-and-identity-focused appeals it attributes to the Democrats, the convention kicked off with a very obvious (and not a little bit clunky) effort to cast itself as a big, red, MAGA-branded tent.

The first night of the convention was anchored by a lengthy speech from Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters union. This, too, was a sharp break from past Republican conventions, both given the traditional alliance between the Democratic Party and unions, and given O’Brien’s rhetoric, which — as one might expect from a union leader — focused heavily on the ways in which business disadvantages its employees.

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But this was the playbook. The lineup of Black legislators praising Trump and their party were there for the same reason: show Black Americans that the Republican Party can be their home, too — but be prepared for a bit of culture shock.

Two speakers, James and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), offered a demonstration. Each decried the idea that the United States is a “racist country,” a useful conflation of concerns about the ways in which racism is embedded in American systems with a broader, unpatriotic argument. The real racism, Scott said, was in cities run by Democrats.

James and Scott presented two of the night’s four discussions of racism. Another came from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), co-chair of the committee in charge of approving the party’s platform. In her speech, she decried “racist DEI requirements,” a reference to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. “DEI” took over for “CRT” as the go-to shorthand on the right for purported disadvantages that White Americans face in American society. (White Republicans are more likely to say White Americans are disadvantaged by racism than to say that Black Americans are.)

The fourth mention of racism came from the evening’s most unlikely presenter, Amber Rose, a model and influencer. Rose, probably the first Republican convention speaker in history to sport a forehead tattoo, claimed that she had come around to Trump after determining that he wasn’t racist, something that “left-wing propaganda” had convinced her was the case.

Matt Walsh, a prominent voice in conservative media, was incensed at Rose’s participation and at the thrust of the first night of the convention in general.

The lineup was “totally absurd and a very bad omen of things to come,” he wrote on social media. “Trump has never had more momentum or good will and the RNC decided to use that to push a message of diversity and inclusivity rather than using it to advance anything resembling a conservative agenda.”

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