Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville was criticized after he suggested that Democrats promote crime and that the only reason they support reparations for the descendants of enslaved people is because “they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”
Tuberville made the controversial remark during a rally for former Republican President Donald Trump in Nevada on Saturday, October 8.
Republicans have continued to stress high rates of crime in the final weeks before next month's midterm elections even though data indicates that crime rates have slowed in the past year.
Moreover, while the GOP continues to equate Black people with criminality, data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shows White Americans commit the majority of crimes.
You can hear what Tuberville said in the video below.
Speaking of Democrats, Tuberville said:
“They’re not soft on crime. They’re pro-crime. They want crime."
"They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have."
"They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”
Tuberville's remarks have been widely condemned for their racism and inaccuracy. The Democratic Party has never taken a formal stance on reparations for Black Americans though some have backed the creation of a commission to evaluate the matter.
In response, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) called Tuberville out for his "flat out racist, ignorant and utterly sickening" language.
The organization—one of the oldest and most influential civil rights organizations in the United States—also took Tuberville and Republicans to task for backing Trump's criminality:
"His words promote a centuries-old lie about Black people that throughout history has resulted in the most dangerous policies and violent attacks on our community."
"We've seen this before from the far-right, and we've seen what they can do when they take power."
"Next time the Senator wants to talk about crime, he should talk about Donald Trump's hate-fueled rally on January 6, 2021, and the attacks that followed. Perhaps the real criminals are in his orbit."
At least one Republican in Congress—Nebraska Representative Don Bacon—has spoken out against Tuberville, though Bacon rather impotently said he “wouldn’t say it the same way."
Bacon went on to suggest that Tuberville could have communicated his ideas differently because that is "not the way I present things" though he was emphatic in his belief that "we have a crime problem in our country.”
Tuberville's remarks soon went viral and he was harshly criticized.
Before Tuberville began a career in politics, he was a football coach at different universities across the south, including the University of Mississippi from 1995 to 1998 and Auburn University from 1999 to 2008.
During that time, he coached many Black athletes and his remarks have prompted suggestions that he was fine with profiting off their abilities while disregarding them as people.
Since taking office in early 2021, Tuberville has proven himself to be one of Trump's most loyal acolytes, openly promoting the "Big Lie" that Trump won the 2020 election he decisively lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
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