Lauren Clark: (h/t Zip)
A UCLA law professor argued recently on social media that the Republican Party’s base is comprised of “old, angry, white Southern men with reactionary views on race.”
Jonathan M. Zasloff, who teaches torts, legal history, and environmental law at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), responded to a thread on Facebook about House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and recent controversy over whether or not he spoke to a white supremacist group in 2002.
“That is the Republican base: old, angry, white Southern men with reactionary views on race.” Tweet This
In screenshots of comments obtained by Campus Reform,which have since been deleted, Zasloff states that Scalise was communicating with the base of his party.
“He was merely reaching out to the Republican base,” wrote Zasloff. “You always have to communicate with your core supporters.”
Zasloff wrote that Republicans are “relying upon Klan members as their core base.”
“That is the Republican base: old, angry, white Southern men with reactionary views on race,” he said.
Frank Pray, a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), said he was shocked to see the professor’s statements.
“I did a double-take the first time I saw it,” Pray told Campus Reform, “How could someone write something so ignorant, hateful and bigoted on a public forum like Facebook?”
Pray challenged Zasloff statements on Facebook in an extended argument, at one point citing Mia Love, Susana Martinez, and Marco Rubio as examples of minority Republicans.
“Unpersuasive. That’s the political equivalnet of ‘some of my best friends are Black [sic], Jewish[,] Latino, etc.’ They are the GOOD ones, who understand that ‘those people are taking ‘our stuff,’” Zasloff responded.
