“Coming out” is usually a term for a person either recognizing or revealing that they’re LGBT to other people. But the incident between Rep. Hal Rogers of my district in Kentucky (KY-5) and Rep. Joyce Beatty a Congresswoman from Ohio and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, makes me wonder if Rogers is coming out as a bigot.
Or if he’s always been one.
Here’s the incident in Beatty’s telling.
Poking Rep. Beatty in the back and demanding that she MOVE!–that’s the kind the kind of rude, aggressive manner behavior that’s reserved for someone a person holds in contempt. I’ve stood in thousands of lines at airports, fast food places, grocery stores, and pharmacies and don’t remember that kind of petty violence in any of them. Given the extra rage, the behavior of Rogers automatically registers as racist. How dare Beatty as a black woman ask Rogers to put on a mask? For that matter, how does Rep. Beatty have a career that still ascending while Rogers has been in eclipse ever since his uneventful 2011-2017 tenure as chair of the Appropriations Committee. And just in case Beatty didn’t understand how much Rogers despises her, he told her to “kiss my ass” when she objected.
Rep. Beatty’s response was imperious. While still on the train, Beatty lectured Rogers on being a “member of Congress,” demanded an apology, and told Rogers that he picked “on the wrong woman” as they got off. When she posted on twitter, Beatty continued by letting Rogers know what he had to do next:
And that’s what Rogers did. He later went to her office and apologized.
Early Blackface, Cultural Change, Latest Politics 