Republican senator and presidential candidate Tim Scott says the racist ads attacking Kentucky Republican Daniel Cameron as an “Uncle Tom” are the “epitome of racism,” and says the silence of his Democrat opponent Andy Beshear is “despicable.”
The ads from a liberal Super PAC funded by billionaire George Soros call into question whether Cameron, the first black attorney general in Kentucky history, is truly a friend of the black community. The ad from Black Voters Matters PAC refers to Cameron as “Uncle Daniel Cameron,” and uses the saying, “Skinfolk ain’t kinfolk” — a refrain used by black liberals to suggest that anyone who disagrees with them politically is a race traitor.
Scott, who in 2014 became the first black senator elected in the south since reconstruction, said Beshear, Kentucky’s sitting governor, has a duty to stand up to the overt racism in his state.
“Why in the world would the governor of a state with the type of diversity he has, with the mantle the people have given him, remain silent?” Scott said in an interview with The Daily Wire. “For one reason: Power. Unless it’s that he just authentically believes it all.”
“The simplest way to state what these yoyos are doing is race-baiting, and feeding the fire for the purpose of power,” he explained. “They feel like they can do whatever it takes to divide the state of Kentucky, to fan the flames of racism, to be small and to be so addicted to power that you will call that man, Uncle Tom.”
Beshear has declined to comment on the ad, telling the Lexington Herald-Leader that because the ad came from “an African American-led PAC,” the governor has opted to “let them comment for themselves.”
The PAC has doubled-down on the attack, putting up a new ad using the same “Skinfolk ain’t Kinfolk” refrain along with an image of Cameron as the fictional black character played by Samuel L. Jackson in film Django Unchained — the character was vicious to his fellow slaves, and was described by Jackson as the film’s “hateful negro.”
Scott says Beshear’s failure to condemn the ad sends the wrong message to black youth.
“It’s a signal to every little kid growing up in Kentucky who happens to be brown, that if you stick your head up at all and espouse conservative virtues, you might be next. To think of the signal and the message that they’re sending, it’s just despicable,” Scott said, adding that those who are silent about it are “complicit.”
Cliff Albright, the co-founder of Black Voters Matter Action PAC, told radio host Roland Martin that he had no regrets about the ad, and that Cameron is a white supremacist.
“He has shown himself to be just as much of a threat to the black community as the staunchest white supremacists,” Albright said. “You don’t have to be white to pursue and reinforce white supremacist policies. As we said in the ad, all skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.”
NEW: Soros-Funded PAC Labels Black Republican An Uncle Tom In Campaign Ad: ‘Skinfolk Ain’t Kinfolk’
Listen to the ad here: pic.twitter.com/1EtuQwz9IX
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) October 27, 2023
Albright also said that calling Cameron an Uncle Tom, a slur derived from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin novel, would be an insult to Uncle Tom.
“Technically, we didn’t call him Uncle Tom right? To do so actually would probably be more of an insult to the actual Uncle Tom,” Albright said.
Cameron has condemned the ad as “racist and hateful.”
“I never faced racism or discrimination while growing up or working in Kentucky until I decided to stand up to the national Democrat establishment.” Cameron told The Daily Wire, which was first to report on the ad. “I don’t support their policies, so the Left attacks me for my skin color.”
Beshear has not responded to requests for comment.