Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary is getting ugly.
Ahead of next year’s election, nominees are trying to set themselves apart and demonstrate their political viability as they seek to outflank front-runner Byron Donalds, the staunch Trump loyalist who has received the president’s endorsement.
That desire has led to some eye-popping remarks from fellow GOP candidate James Fishback, who has continually resorted to one insult in particular to undermine Donalds: “slave.”
NBC News reported on Fishback’s ties to allies of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis along with his controversial statements, including his claim that Donalds, who is Black, is a “slave” to “corporate interests” and “tech bros.” Last week, Fishback doubled and tripled down on his racist slur, telling Florida Politics that Donalds “has no right to complain” and shouldn’t be offended by the slur because, Fishback said, the representative’s ancestors weren’t enslaved in the United States.
His quote invoked themes popularized by some Black conservatives in the extremely online “American Descendants of Slaves” movement, who’ve sought to drive a wedge among Black people by differentiating those with recent immigrant histories from those without such history.
Per Florida Politics, Fishback said:
Byron Donalds is a tether. He is not an American descendant of slaves. So when he cries like he has over the last couple of weeks because I call him a slave to the (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee), a slave to corporate interests, a slave to the pro-immigration lobby that has hurt every race of Americans but has also hurt Black Americans who disproportionately work in food, hospitality, leisure, and customer service. He is in no position, has no right to be complaining about me calling him a slave when he has absolutely no direct descendant of slavery in his family. He’s from Panama. He’s from Belize. His dad’s from Jamaica.
On Friday, Fishback shared a story on social media about Donalds’ fundraising, with a caption that called Donalds a “SLAVE who was auctioned off for $31 million.”
Byron Donalds is a SLAVE who was auctioned off for $31 million.
He only wants to please his corporate masters.
I’m running for Governor to make Florida more affordable for working families, students, and seniors. pic.twitter.com/3hFIPVAnk8Donalds’ office didn’t respond to MS NOW’s request for comment Monday on Fishback’s attacks.
Donalds is one of few Black Republicans in Congress, and he’s often made it his duty to downplay racism in American society, such as last year, when he whitewashed and romanticized the Jim Crow era as a period when “the Black family was together” and voted conservatively. As my former colleague Joy Reid explained to him around that time, the notion was absurd, considering many Black people weren’t allowed to vote at all during that time because of the whole racism thing.
In an ironic twist, Donalds is now facing the same sort of racist attacks he helped fuel against Vice President Kamala Harris during her presidential bid last year. After Trump and the conservative movement spread baseless misinformation that Harris wasn’t truly Black because she also boasts Indian heritage, Donalds downplayed the controversy and appeared to cast doubt himself on Harris’ Blackness.
Now, it appears he’s getting a taste of his own MAGA medicine as an opponent to his right flank attempts to pull his Black card and label him a “slave.”
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.