Lynn Jenkins, Great Clueless White Lady

Didja hear the gaffe that Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) made recently? If you’re from Kansas, you probably have. If not, and you haven’t, I’ll clue you in.

At a recent Kansas Republican town hall forum (which is a redundant statement, I know), Lynn Jenkins said that the Republican Party is really struggling right now, and needs to find a “great white hope.” Then she went on to name three white Republican men who she thought could step up and be leaders of the party: Eric Cantor of Virginia, Kevin McCarthy of California and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

Thud. (That was my jaw hitting the floor.)

Now, I’m actually gonna go easy on Lynn, because, as a politician, I’m sure she wasn’t purposely trying to make an overtly racist statement. (At least not out loud.) And, in fact, her “apology” was to say that she wasn’t aware of any negative connotations surrounding the saying. Here are her words:

“I was discussing the future of the Republican Party in response to a question about is there any hope for Republicans,” she said while touring Kansas University. “I was explaining that there are some bright lights in the House (of Representatives), and I was unaware of any negative connotation. If I offended somebody, obviously I apologize.”

Dude. Seriously?

Okay, first off, that wasn’t an apology. That was one of those classic non-apologies where you’re giving the finger to everyone in your head and thinking, “What’s the big deal, assholes?”

Lynn was born in 1963. I was born in 1972. Even though I’m almost a decade younger than Lynn, I’ve heard of the Great White Hope. Did I know the entire history of that saying? No. But I knew the generalities; that at some point in U.S. history the big boxing champ in the country became a black man. I couldn’t have told you that that man’s name was Jack Johnson. I knew that white America was so disturbed by this turn of events that they were looking for a Great White Hope to make things all better in God-Bless-White-America-Land. I could not have told you that this took place in the early 1900s. Honestly, if pressed I probably would have guessed that it all took place in the 1920s or ’30s.

And I know that there’s always stuff that people just don’t know. No matter how smart and how well-versed you think you are on American history or current events, there will always be those times when someone says something that everyone else knows about while you’re sitting there with your finger up your nose going, “Huh? What?”

But what baffles me is that somehow, in her brain, no bells went off to indicate to Lynn that maybe what she was saying was just a little … fucked up. I mean, she’s a politician. She’s speaking to a room full of people and it never occurred to her that the phrase “great white hope” might not be appropriate?

Now if you’re thinking that she gets a pass because she’s from Kansas and Kansas is all white, well, that’s where you’re wrong. Because depending on what part of Kansas you’re in, some places are heavily not white. Lynn is from Topeka, which has a sizeable black and Hispanic population. Those are her constituents. It behooves her to get her head out of Whiteville and look around a little.