By Terry Manning
When some leaders of the Young Republicans got caught making some racist comments, a common response among my friends on social media was, “What, are you surprised?”
And, sad to say, my answer to them was, “No.”
The national Republican Party, under the reign of Donald Trump, has become a proudly antagonistic entity when it comes to minorities in this country and around the world. The president is blatantly vulgar in how he describes countries where brown people originate.
And he is relentless in his criticism of “fat Black women” in the legal and political spheres and elsewhere who won’t do what he wants them to do: Let him break the law without fear of consequences.
Still, the national Young Republicans denounced the chat messages that were revealed by Politico, and some of the chat participants were forced to step down from state-level positions. A couple even lost jobs they held at diverse levels of conservative political bodies.
Then Vice President J.D. Vance decided to weigh in. He dismissed what he described as “pearl clutching” by liberals over the stupid rambling of a bunch of kids, “especially young boys.”
Bragging about admiring Adolf Hitler and wanting to see their “enemies” hoarded into gas chambers? Calling Black people the n-word and “watermelon people” and promoting slavery? According to Vance, “That’s just what kids do.”
Now, I’m open to the idea of kids saying things they don’t understand or really mean.
Like the time I called a younger cousin a bad word (the long one), and my grandmother screamed at me, “Why did you call that baby that? Do you even know what a (expletive) is?”
With my head down, I replied, “No, ma’am.”
“Don’t you say that no more! Calling these babies stuff you hear in the streets!”
I didn’t get the spanking I deserved — or if I did, it was so traumatic I’ve blanked it out — but if I didn’t, I think it was because I was not yet old enough to know better.
“Old enough to know better” is a tricky defense, because sometimes when you’re young and ignorant enough to do things you shouldn’t, the repercussions can be so harsh you will forevermore be “old enough to know better.” Your best defense vanishes.
It’s a concept I remember from primary class in Sunday School. We learned about being “old enough to know right from wrong.” There’s no age given in the Bible, but as explained to us, it was generally assumed the late preteen and early teen years were the cutoff.
The chat participants ranged in age from their 20s into their early 40s, but that’s only part of my rebuff of Vance’s defense.
These so-called “kids” definitely knew right from wrong. One even texted the others, “If we ever had a leak of this chat we would be cooked.” As my mother used to say, anything you have to hide is something you don’t need to be doing.
But Vance’s juvenilization of these Young Republicans reflects a longstanding tendency of some white adults to dismiss their young people’s offenses because “they’re just kids.”
I’ve written before about Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer who was accused of rape. Turner was found guilty, but the judge in charge of his sentencing gave him only six months, because “a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.” Well, that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?
Even with that, Turner was released after three months.
Black youths usually don’t get that benefit of a doubt. Why? Not because they’re inherently more violent. But that’s how they are viewed by many, including members of law enforcement.
The American Psychological Association found in 2014 that Black boys as young as 10 are more likely than their white counterparts to “be mistaken as older, be perceived as guilty and face police violence if accused of a crime.”
The parents of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin likely could speak on that. Or the parents of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old gunned down mere seconds after police answered a call about a juvenile playing in a public park with a gun the caller described as “probably fake.”
Enjoying a world where minority children are accused more readily and penalized more severely than white counterparts who escape accountability for doing the same things or worse is the most unfair kind of privilege.
Beyond that, I pity any parent trying to teach morals and build character when people in the highest office of the land stand ready to grant a free pass in exchange for a vote.
Terry E. Manning worked for 20 years as a journalist. He can be reached at teemanning@gmail.com.
