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Tim Scott Was Booed for Telling the Truth on 'The View': Black Americans
Deserve Optimism | Opinion
ADAM B. COLEMAN , AUTHOR OF "BLACK VICTIM TO BLACK VICTOR" AND THE
FOUNDER OF WRONG SPEAK PUBLISHING
ON 6/6/23 AT 10:26 AM EDT

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OPINION
THE VIEW

We're living through an age of deep pessimism—on both sides of the
political aisle. On one side you've got the Democratic politicians and
pundits who see oppression in everything, while on the other side, too
many Republicans believe this great nation is one election away from
crumbling like the Roman Empire. Indeed, the real divide isn't between
Left and Right; it's between people who view the future with optimism
and those who view it with pessimism. And that's what we saw on display
in the back and forth between South Carolina Senator and Presidential
Candidate Tim Scott and host of the morning TV show "The View" Sonny Hostin.

During Tim Scott's appearance on the show, Hostin pressed Scott on the
topic of system racism and Scott's claim during his campaign launch that
the United States is not a racist country.

"When it comes to racial inequality, it persists in five core aspects of
life in the US: economics, education, health care, criminal justice, and
housing," Hostin insisted. "At nearly every turn, these achievements
were fought, threatened, and erased, most often by white violence. You
have indicated that you don't believe in systemic racism. What is your
definition of systemic racism?"

Senator Scott tried to reply, explaining his own personal achievements
and those of other Black Americans were not anomalies, but at every
reply, he was interrupted, harangued, and then silenced when the program
repeatedly cut to commercial break. Hostin for her part kept insisting
that Scott and other Black Americans who make it in America are the
exceptions and not the rule.

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Scott did his best. "I look back at the fact that my grandfather, born
in 1921 in Salley, South Carolina, when he was on a sidewalk [and] a
white person was coming, he had to step off and not make eye contact,"
Scott said. "That man believed then what some doubt now: in the goodness
of America. Because he believed that having faith in God, faith in
himself and faith in what the future could hold for his kids would
unleash opportunities in ways that you could not imagine."

"Yesterday's exception is today's rule," Scott concluded.

Tim Scott
Republican presidential candidate Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) speaks to
guest during the Joni Ernst's Roast and Ride event on June 03, 2023 in
Des Moines, Iowa. The annual event helps to raise money for veteran
charities and highlight Republican candidates and platforms.
SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES
For his pains, he was repeatedly insulted and lectured at by the hosts
and even booed by their liberal audience, who are apparently deeply
committed to believing the worst about this country.

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It was a shocking display. Tim Scott doesn't need a lecture about the
history of oppression aimed at Black Americans. He's well aware of them.
But he's chosen optimism, chosen to measure the progress we've made as a
sign that our country will do even better. In this he differs from
Hostin and her ilk, who weaponize racism like a historical stick to beat
people with.

Progressives like Hostin—herself extremely economically privileged and
successful—push Americans to see present-day Black Americans only as the
descendants of slaves and a "people of plight" whose successes were
achieved by either luck, the benevolence of white people, or the charity
of government.

I understand this negative mentality because I used to embrace it. A
Black child of a single mother who experienced homelessness multiple
times as a kid and a multitude of struggles in his early adult life, I
had all of the excuses as to why I wasn't succeeding in life: Look where
I came from.

But once I embraced optimism, decided to see myself as a victor, not a
victim, I appreciated the struggle I went through because it showed how
far I had come and my strength in determination—much like Tim Scott's
interpretation of his family's generational progress.

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Life is not about where you begin, it's about where you finish, and the
timeline of Black Americans doesn't need to be determined by how we started.

We don't need to embrace being known as the "people of plight." That's
not how I see us. I see us as the people who overcame, who chose to
thrive in spite of, and who are capable of creating our own successes
without other people's pity and handouts.

Sonny Hostin has determined what Black America is, but Tim Scott knows
what we can be.

Adam B. Coleman is the author of "Black Victim To Black Victor" and
writer on Substack at adambcoleman.substack.com.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

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