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Commentary || The Humiliation Ritual [1]

['Thom Hartmann', 'Meteor Blades', 'Dr. Ash', 'Greg Dworkin']

Date: 2026-09-14  

What Trump supporters call his magic is more ritual humiliation than hocus pocus. One of the ways President Donald Trump controls what used to be the Grand Old Party is by testing their threshold for humiliation. As a Black man, I was appalled at the Stepin Fetchit performance of South Carolina Senator Tim Scott at the Trump-invented midterm convention last week. Seeing a Black Senator from a southern state use dialect and gestures of an old southern Baptist preacher replete with bug-eyed stares and chest-grabbing buffoonery was vomit-inducing. The list of black men who have placed their lips firmly on the bare end of Trump’s rump is getting crowded. Recently, sportscaster-turned-political critic Stephen A. Smith was embroiled in a controversy over his quickness to respond negatively to remarks by black politicians, pundits, and journalists.

Not that Mr. Smith has to adhere to an imagined monolithic thought process, but his reluctance to criticize the President, who questioned his intelligence, was noted in his response to the National Association of Black Journalists, which gave him its “Thumbs Down” award. Smith almost immediately ran to Sean Hannity of Fox News to vent his frustrations. I am sure that Mr. Smith is aware that Fox would use his appearance as a face of their fairness to minorities, especially the Black population. Hannity made a point of talking about his long friendship with Smith. [The] I have a Black friend trope is something my community has fought hard against, as if having a Black friend excuses or eliminates the charge of racism. As he did with previous criticism of Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, Smith came out swinging with both barrels.

“How a Jasmine Crockett chooses to express herself, I’m like, is that gonna help your district in Texas?’ Aren’t you there to find a way to get stuff done as opposed to just being an impediment to what Trump wants?” Smith queried. Mr. Smith went on to call out what he called her “street verbiage.” Smith has heard the President of the United States call reporters, especially women, pigs, stupid, and not smiling enough for his liking. Mr. Trump’s choice of language is something that you would not want your kids to hear, yet Smith chose to list what he calls numerous accomplishments of the President in the same podcast. Mr. Smith chose to subject himself to Mr. Trump’s control by accepting his humiliating words toward him. “I think he’s a nice guy,” Trump said of Smith. “But you need a certain aptitude to run for president. You need a high IQ. I’m not sure that Stephen has that. I don’t think he does, actually.” Smith’s response to Donald Trump was to challenge Mr. Trump to a debate and to call his insult his “default position.” No mention of Trump’s choice of verbiage or obvious racism; instead, he qualified his racism by saying he went after white victims as well.

I will say Trump’s humiliation ritual is not expressly for Black Americans, even those he thinks he owns, with statements like “Look at my African American over here.” The GOP Senate candidate in Texas, Ken Paxton, was described by the President at the GOP midterm convention as one who “may not dress right, may not talk exactly perfectly, and may not be the best-looking guy I’ve ever seen,” to which Paxton responded to Trump’s repeated criticism of his looks and attire by saying Texas is a relatively casual place. “I’ve got my sports jacket on. I love it. Texas is a relatively casual place in the summer, and it’s hot. We adjust. We wear cowboy boots, and we wear a blazer, and we’re all good,” Paxton said. That collective gulp you hear is Paxton, Smith, and the rest of the GOP swallowing what little pride they have left.

Mass Humiliation

Your Vote is Still Your Voice(So Scream)

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