Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-MS), the tea party favored candidate to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Thad Cochran who seems to be in the habit of associating with white nationalists and neo-Confederates, vowed not to pay taxes if they go up because of reparations over slavery and mocked complaints of racism over an ad depicting a white woman holding down a black woman.
McDaniel, while riffing on a shock jock radio program in late 2006 or early 2007, compared rapper Vanilla Ice to a minstrel show performer and pondering when it’s appropriate to refer to a woman as “Mamacita.” The Wall Street Journal was able to obtain a clip of McDaniel making the remarks.
In the radio segment McDaniel:
• Complained about criticism of an ad showing a white woman holding down a black woman: “Speaking of race. Here’s a heckuva story on race…There’s a white woman, and she’s holding down a black woman. The world’s gone nuts. Listen to this. Minority groups in California screaming that the image is racist. ‘San Francisco politician Tom LeLand says ‘It’s racially charged, unnecessary and clearly offensive to our community.’ Well, she wasn’t holding down a gay guy. She was holding down a —a…anyway.”
• Vowed not to pay taxes if they increased because of reparations. “If they pass reparations, and my taxes are going up, I ain’t paying taxes. Isn’t that sad? And believe me I have the greatest respect for the IRS. I fear the I-R-S. Fear! Fear. How you gonna make me pay for something that I had nothing to do with? How you gonna do that to me? I don’t get it.”
• Linked Vanilla Ice to minstrel shows. “Now look, minstrel shows were very offensive because what you had was a white guy dressed as a black guy and acting black, kinda like Vanilla Ice did in the 80s. That’s kinda what he was doing, except he didn’t have the blackface on and if he had it on he woulda been in trouble. You don’t want to do that. It’s never good to make fun of somebody’s race merely because of the race.”
• Discussed when to refer to a woman as Mamacita. “Mamacita works. You say that at the wrong place and the wrong time you will get beat down. Mamacita. It’s not a bad word. It’s indicative. I think it basically means — I’m an English-speaking Anglo. I have no idea what it means, actually, but I’ve said it a few times, just for, you know, fun. And I think it basically means, ‘Hey, hot mama.’ Or, you know, ‘You’re a fine looking young thing. It’s a Rolling Stones song is what it is.”
As TPM has noted, McDaniel has attended at least one pro-Confederate event and backed out of a pro-gun rally and music festival after it came to attention that one of the vendors there is a white nationalist who has advocated for segregation. McDaniel has also blamed gun violence on hip hop.
McDaniel spokesman Noel Fritsch told the Journal that the clip was clearly an attack by his liberal opponents.
“The liberal press clearly loves to attack conservatives of all types. When Chris got into this race he knew they would throw mud, so it’s no surprise they’d dredge up decade-old comments made on conservative talk radio,” Fritsch said. “Chris will continue to deliver his conservative message of controlling government spending, lowering taxes, and repealing Obamacare across the state.”
Listen to the clip below:
