It was only a matter of time before folks on the left began throwing race into the saga surrounding embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Activist media outlets have begun spinning the narrative that the criticism and scrutiny of the prosecutor isn’t about her inappropriate romantic relationship with one of the prosecutors she hired to handle the election interference case against former President Donald Trump but about the color of her skin and her sex.
The New York Times and Associated Press have published pieces intimating that the furor over Willis’ alleged corruption was due to racism and sexism and not the fact that she clearly engaged in a torrid affair with prosecutor Nathan Wade.
The only thing surprising about this is that it took them so long to begin weaving this narrative.
Both news outlets interviewed multiple black women in prominent positions about the hearing in which Willis dug the hole even deeper with her combative responses to questions about her relationship with Wade.
Donna Brazile, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, indicated that Willis, along with most other black women, are being held to a different standard. She claimed the district attorney “showed bad judgment” but also that she faced “vitriol” and “racial animus” due to her being a black woman.
Tangala Hollis-Palmer told the Times that black women “Just have to be so careful when we are in these positions to not give people the ammunition to come after us.”
“We deal with the sexism as well as the racism,” Ms. Hollis-Palmer said. “But sometimes the sexism is a little worse.” She practices law with her husband and said that when they walk into a courtroom, people automatically assume that he’s the lead counsel. “A lot of times people have thought that I was his assistant,” she added.
Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, echoed these sentiments, telling the Associated Press that she loves that Willis “stood up for herself” but hated “the fact that she had to.”
Campbell also claimed that black women “feel like we’re under attack.”
Others also suggested that the focus on Willis’ extracurricular activities with Wade was unfair and was motivated by racism and sexism.
Keir Bradford-Grey, a partner at the law firm Montgomery McCracken in Philadelphia, found the questions about Willis’ personal life “disgusting.” She also said the episode had disturbing implications for Black women in leadership roles: “I can’t imagine a world where we have to continue to be treated like this as we seek leadership roles, and we do them well.”
LaTosha Brown, co-founder of voting rights group Black Voters Matter, despaired of the fact that Willis was having to answer questions about “whether she has money, whether she has cash or not and why she has cash, who she sleeps with, who is she flying on an airplane with.”
“So, what is this really about?” Brown added. “When white power, particularly white men, are being held to account … the first thing to do is to disqualify the people that are holding them accountable,” especially when those people are Black women.
This isn’t anything new. Indeed, when the allegations about Willis’ relationship surfaced, the prosecutor also claimed it was due to racism. While addressing a crowd at a church, she asked: “Isn’t it them playing the race card when they constantly think I need someone from some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job I’ve been doing almost 30 years?”
Framing this controversy in terms of race and gender is an all-too-familiar tactic employed by folks on the left. Pretending the issue centers on identity is nothing more than a thinly veiled effort to distract from Willis’ conduct by insisting she is the target of evil racist and sexist Republicans. The objective is to shame people into not asking legitimate questions about the conflict of interest and hypocrisy she has shown as a district attorney.
Moreover, the notion that black professionals should not be held to account when they engage in wrongdoing is not only absurd but is a prime example of the type of infantilizing racism exhibited by folks on the hard left, who view darker-skinned individuals as inferior beings who can’t be expected to conduct themselves properly when placed in prominent positions of power.
Unfortunately for Willis, all the race-baiting in the world isn’t going to save her from scrutiny. It is not clear whether the judge will disqualify her from the election interference case — but even if this does not happen, the matter will certainly damage her reputation permanently.
