Tim Scott is in the midst of a presidential campaign. The senator is looking to climb in the Republican primary polls and on Monday appeared on “The View,” where he had interesting exchanges with hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin, among others, on the issue of race.
The popular ABC talk show featured the South Carolina senator, who blamed the hosts for sending the wrong message to young people about success and failure in America.
The specific question came from Hostin, who asked the senator to define the concept of systemic racism after he claimed not to believe in it. “One of the reasons why I’m on the show is because of the comments that were made frankly on this show that the only way for a young African American kid to be successful in this country is to be the exception and not the rule,” Scott began.
“That is a dangerous, offensive, disgusting message to send to our young people today, that the only way to succeed is by being the exception,” he added. At that point, he was interrupted by the presenter, who commented that even though “114 years have passed,” they were still exceptions.
Yesterday’s exception is today’s rule.
The concept of America is we will become a more perfect union. pic.twitter.com/6sAj424vgy
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) June 5, 2023
The candidate did not remain silent and continued the debate. “So, the fact of the matter is we’ve had an African American president, African American vice president, we’ve had two African Americans to be secretaries of the state. In my home city, the police chief is an African American now running for mayor. The head of the highway patrol for South Carolina is an African American,” he continued.
“In 1975, there was about 15% unemployment in the African American community. For the first time in the history of the country, it’s under 5 %,” he added.
Hostin again countered, insisting that his examples were still “exceptions” and that his statistics showed that African-Americans, approximately 13% of the U.S. population, accounted for 40% of the homeless population.
“You asked the question,” Scott replied. “I’ve watched you on the show. You like people to be deferential and respectful. So, here’s what I am going to suggest … progress in America is palpable. It can be measured in generations. I look back at the fact that my grandfather, born in 1921 in Salley, South Carolina, when he was on a sidewalk, a white person was coming, he had to step off and not make eye contact,” he added.
“That man believed then, with some doubt now, in the goodness of America, because he believed that faith in God, faith in himself, and faith in what the future could hold for his kids, would unleash opportunities in ways that you cannot imagine,” said the senator. He entered the Republican primaries in mid-May and will now compete for the Republican presidential candidacy with Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Larry Elder, Asa Hutchinson, Ryan Binkley, Perry Johnson and Mike Pence, who has just recently filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.
As a final message on the importance of race in America, the South Carolina senator stated that “yesterday’s exception is today’s norm.”
