Twitter allowed a racist insult against Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to “trend” on its site for nearly eleven hours overnight following his rebuttal to Joe Biden’s address to Congress. It took until Thursday morning for the social media giant to finally block the racist phrase from appearing in its Trending section.
Angry leftists flooded Twitter to call Scott “Uncle Tim” and other racist slurs after Scott dared to declare that the United States is not a racist country, even if he has experienced some racism in his life.
As an example of the racism he has encountered, Scott cited being called an “Uncle Tom” and the N-word by leftists. “Uncle Tom”—the lead character of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin—has long been a way for bigots to insult black people who are seen as subservient toward whites. The left hurls the derogatory epithet at conservative blacks who dare to walk off the Democrat plantation to send an intimidating message to any others who might be thinking about doing so.
Joe Biden himself sent a clear message to black voters during the 2020 Campaign when he said: “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
After Scott pointed out that he has encountered this sort of racism from the left, progressives on Twitter flooded the zone as if to confirm it, with one after the other calling him an “Uncle Tim.”
https://twitter.com/SaintMungai/status/1387611520398462976?s=20
A total uncle tom. https://t.co/2rZ88ytYSU
— marinemajor😎 (@marinemajor2) April 29, 2021
When Senator Tim Scott said this wasn't a racist country, Liberals decided to prove him wrong. pic.twitter.com/XgzdOqlDLd
— Extremely Careless (@Shanghaibeast) April 29, 2021
https://twitter.com/jack_daring/status/1387743281392484353?s=20
liberals: how dare Tim Scott say that “America isn’t a racist country”
also liberals: pic.twitter.com/uRcJjp9wEE
— Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) April 29, 2021
Tim Scott gets called Uncle Tom by progressives. But he’s an Uncle Tim.
— Touré (@Toure) April 29, 2021
A major strategy of racists, is to incentivize one of it's Black victims to act as the crash test dummy for white supremacy.
When Uncle Tim Scott says America is not a racist country, he is fully aware he is speaking in bad faith.
The purpose is to protect white supremacists pic.twitter.com/Wk8OVF2Nl1
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) April 29, 2021
BLM activist Bree Newsome had a novel take, arguing essentially that the left’s racist attacks on Scott prove that America is indeed a racist country. That self-owning tweet got over 8.7 thousand “likes.”
How can calling Tim Scott “Uncle Tim” be racist when he just told everyone this isn’t a racist country? 🙂🇺🇸
— FREE PALESTINE, NO MASTERS (@BreeNewsome) April 29, 2021
After Twitter, which is known for suppressing popular topics that are unhelpful to Democrats, allowed the overtly racist attack to trend on its site, conservatives, like The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway, spoke out.
“Twitter is choosing to trend a racist attack from the left on Sen. Tim Scott,” Hemingway tweeted. “Apparently they want him to suffer for the crime of upstaging Biden via a highly effective speech.”
Twitter is choosing to trend a racist attack from the left on Sen. Tim Scott, the black Republican senator from South Carolina. pic.twitter.com/kpyPOHnuXJ
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 29, 2021
“Twitter is still out here going out of its way to make racist attacks against GOP Sen. Tim Scott go viral. Apparently they want him to suffer for the crime of upstaging Biden via a highly effective speech. Disgusting,” Hemingway said in a subsequent tweet.
Thursday morning, after the racist slur trended for eleven hours, Twitter finally announced that they would block the phrase.
.@Twitter statement to @FoxNews : "we are blocking the phrase you referenced from appearing in Trends. This is in line with our policies on Trends, specifically: We want Trends to promote healthy conversations on Twitter."
— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) April 29, 2021
After an outcry of condemnation against Twitter for promoting a racist attack from the left on GOP Senator Tim Scott that lasted for nearly 11 hours, the company finally said it would switch course and block rather than promote it. https://t.co/afOV1XboLG
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 29, 2021
Senator Scott blasted what he called “stunning” discrimination coming from the left on “Fox and Friends,” Thursday morning.
Scott noted incredulously that the left responded to his accusation that they practice intolerance by hurling racist slurs like “Uncle Tim” at him, by actually making the racist phrase trend on social media.
“And they doubled down on this concept of liberal oppression,” Scott told the hosts. “It is stunning in 2021 that those who speak about ending discrimination want to end it with more discrimination.”
Rather than attack his positions on policy, the left has “doubled down” and are “literally attacking the color of my skin,” Scott added. “You cannot step outside of your lane according to the liberal elite left.”