Specialists say the candidacy of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson sheds mild on how Republican candidates rise by interesting to the extremes and the way hate spreads on-line.
by Grace Panetta, The nineteenth
North Carolina Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson has an extended historical past of attacking influential ladies in private and infrequently vulgar phrases. However Robinson has reserved specific vitriol for Black ladies in positions of energy, with a lot of his social media postings invoking misogyny, racism, homophobia and transphobia.
Specialists and advocates say Robinson’s candidacy and his simply successful the Republican nomination mirror each the incentives inside the Republican Social gathering to attraction to the extremes with inflammatory language and stances — and the way main tech platforms have enabled the unfold of hateful content material disproportionately harming Black ladies.
“Because it pertains to Black ladies particularly, we all know that they’ve traditionally been suffering from biases and disparities that mirror broader problems with illustration and variety inside this nation,” mentioned Esosa Osa, founder and CEO of Onyx Influence, a nonprofit group targeted on Black voters’ civic engagement and combatting disinformation.
“As they grow to be extra seen on any platform, their presence is weaponized,” Osa mentioned.
Robinson, the state’s first Black lieutenant governor who has made frequent talking appearances at church buildings, rose to prominence along with his far-right views, embrace of conspiracy theories and incendiary rhetoric on the pulpit and on social media. All through his profession, Robinson has espoused anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ stances — together with stating that God “fashioned” him to battle LGBTQ+ acceptance.
Robinson will face Democrat Josh Stein in probably the most aggressive and consequential governor’s races this yr. If elected, Robinson could be North Carolina’s first Black governor. His candidacy comes at a time when the Republican Social gathering is making an attempt to win over extra Black voters in battleground states like North Carolina.
However, Osa mentioned, nominating a Black candidate doesn’t imply the Republican Social gathering will win over Black voters, particularly Black ladies, who’re the core of the Democratic Social gathering’s base. Osa mentioned Robinson’s rise comes from a “historic lack of curiosity concerning the Black voter” and described him as a “tsunami of anti-Black disinformation.”
“I feel that the present media panorama is ready as much as amplify division, amplify hate and amplify biases,” Osa mentioned. “The GOP, particularly, is benefiting from the social media panorama that these tech firms have allowed to proliferate. And it says quite a bit about your efforts to courtroom Black voters when these are the sorts of candidates that rise to the highest.”
Moya Bailey, a Black feminist scholar and professor of communication research at Northwestern College, first coined the time period “misogynoir” to characterize the intersection of misogyny and racism uniquely focused towards Black ladies.
In an e mail to The nineteenth, Bailey mentioned Robinson’s postings present how misogynoir “is an equal alternative type of discrimination” weaponized by Black and non-Black individuals alike.
“Robinson joins an extended line of Black males of varied political stripes who use misogynoiristic concepts about Black ladies for their very own political achieve,” she mentioned. In a world the place demeaning Black ladies will help somebody increase their very own profession, “it’s no surprise that his vitriol is so constant.”
Robinson’s in depth social media historical past, together with a number of beforehand unreported posts, reveals how he used his Fb web page to domesticate his incendiary political model for years earlier than his profitable first run for workplace in 2020.
In doing so, Robinson has gone after various distinguished ladies in politics — and girls who’ve accused distinguished males of sexual misconduct. Lots of his assaults through the years have typically been based mostly in racist stereotypes.
In 2017, Robinson posted a meme referring to Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida as a “mendacity, liberal, backside feeding, pond scum” and “dressing like a rejected drag queen from Brokeback Mountain,” as first reported by the Huffington Submit.
He has taken specific intention at former First Woman Michelle Obama, calling her an “indignant anti-American communist Black woman” and saying she speaks “ghetto” and “wookie.” She was among the many targets of beforehand unreported Fb posts by Robinson:
In 2012, Robinson reposted a meme criticizing the price of the outfit Obama wore on the Children’ Alternative Awards. The meme included a graphic of an ObamaCard paid for by the taxpayer, feeding into racist tropes depicting Black ladies as depending on authorities help.
In January 2017, Robinson posted a meme with textual content overlaying a photograph of former President Invoice Clinton, former First Woman Hillary Clinton and Obama at former President Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration studying: “That look you get if you see a 1st woman who’s not an previous hag or a drag queen.” The meme was watermarked “M. Robinson memes.”
In an October 2017 put up, he referred to Rep. Maxine Waters as “Ol’ Maxie Pad Waters” in criticizing feedback she made about Trump.
A Robinson marketing campaign spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Robinson has lengthy promoted what he sees as a Biblical view of masculinity, as soon as stating in 2022 he believes “we’re known as to be led by males” and that “when it was time to face down Goliath,” God “despatched David, not Davita. David.”
In a beforehand unreported sermon he delivered in July 2020, Robinson mentioned he believes he and God are “stuffed with machismo.”
“We want our personal males to face up and educate our younger males find out how to be males. And after I say males, I imply manly males. I’m speaking concerning the form of manly males that they need to say, ‘You’re a male chauvinist pig’ or ‘You’re stuffed with machismo’ — you higher imagine I’m,” Robinson mentioned. “God put that in me to be a person. There’s not something female standing earlier than you.”
He added: “God created me for a goal, and extra importantly, he created me in his picture. So possibly God is filled with machismo too.”
In different beforehand unreported Fb posts, Robinson assaults the #MeToo motion holding highly effective males accountable for sexual violence and misconduct as an assault on masculinity. In 2017, he wrote that leftists weren’t combatting a “pervasive tradition of sexual harassment” however “making a weapon with it.” In quite a few posts, Robinson each mocked and solid doubt on accusations of sexual assault towards figures like Harvey Weinstein, R. Kelly and disgraced actor Invoice Cosby, together with insulting the appearances of accusers.
He additionally posted in protection of Trump following the discharge of the notorious “Entry Hollywood” tape days earlier than the 2016 election, writing: “I don’t suppose Trump is a ‘disgusting pervert’ for saying what he mentioned. The ‘disgusting pervert’ is the man who taped it.” Robinson additionally downplayed allegations towards Decide Roy Moore, the Alabama U.S. Senate candidate who was accused by a number of ladies of sexually assaulting them once they had been teenagers.
In a January 2019 Fb put up, Robinson wrote that masculinity was “beneath assault” by the left and that “devil and his brokers” had been attacking males. He additional charged that the media was specializing in “high-profile abusers in an effort to demonize males.” In one other January 2019 put up, Robinson prompt chaperones as a approach to stop “date rape.”
Shaunna Thomas, co-founder and govt director of the advocacy group UltraViolet, which works to fight sexism in common tradition and on tech platforms, argued that social media platforms have didn’t curb hateful speech on the expense of Black ladies’s on-line security and a wholesome democracy. Robinson’s posts, she mentioned, are additionally emblematic of how social media platforms helped gasoline the large backlash to the #MeToo motion, which incorporates discrediting and insulting survivors.
“What was a really inspiring, power-building, majoritarian second round sexual assault actually received drowned out by forces that had been profiting off of misogyny,” she mentioned. “There’s at all times a backlash, however this backlash was huge and has had actual endurance largely due to the best way platforms function.”
Osa, a former senior adviser to Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, mentioned she’s working to fight the “lack of infrastructure” defending Black communities from disinformation geared toward suppressing voter engagement.
And whereas she sees “more and more refined” disinformation campaigns focusing on Black ladies and Black voters, she believes they may nonetheless reject candidates like Robinson.
“Black ladies are a few of the most constant voters that now we have in our citizens,” she mentioned. “I feel that when events again candidates like Mark Robinson which have such a historical past of dangerous, racist, anti-Black narratives, you will note Black males and Black ladies come out and stand towards it.”
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