Despite how often you hear that America no longer is racist, we remain a racist culture.
The difference between the racism of 1950 and 2025: Racism then was proudly displayed in public. The language, the signs, the laws, the culture all were openly racist. From Jim Crow laws, “Whites Only” signage, and the constant use of the “n” word, the nation was publicly, proudly racist.
The illusion of a racist-free culture was shattered when Politico published leaked texts from a Young Republicans group chat. There are 2,900 pages of explicit hate writing now on public display. Over the course of several months earlier this year, the chat’s participants talked about sending those who worked against them in their quest for political power to gas chambers. One said, “I love Hitler.”
Rodney Kennedy
The racism exhibited by the Young Republicans is personal prejudice and systemic racism. There’s no parsing the atrocious and despicable rhetoric of these young conservatives. They are guilty as charged. But at their fictional trial, there will be multiple co-defendants.
I have no sympathy for the Young Republicans’ public shame and no remorse that some of them already have lost their jobs. But I do believe their fellow Republicans are hypocritically piling it on too thick.
There’s no way to ingest the 2,900 pages of virulent racism, Nazism and antisemitism found in the report, which over and over uses words we cannot — and will not — publish here.
One of the frequent contributors to the message board was Peter Giunta who, in commenting on his flight from New York to Charleston, S.C., advises: “If your pilot is a she and she looks ten shades darker than someone from Sicily, just end it there. Scream the no no word.”
When Luke Mosiman, chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, asked if the New Yorkers in the chat were watching an NBA playoff game, Giunta responded, “I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball.” Giunta elsewhere refers to Black people as “the watermelon people.”
But there’s so much more:
“Everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber. And everyone that endorsed but then votes for us is going to the gas chamber.”
- Bobby Walker— “If they voted for us why would they be gassed?”
- Peter Giunta — “Everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber. And everyone that endorsed but then votes for us is going to the gas chamber.”
- Joe Maligno — “Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic.”
- Alex Dwyer— Referenced the number “1488” when someone asked which hotel room they were in. 14/88 is classed as a white supremist hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League. 14 is shorthand for “The Fourteen Words,” a slogan that originated from the American terrorist David Eden Lane, and which has become a rallying cry for white nationalists internationally; 88 stands for “Heil Hitler” as “h” is the eighth letter of the alphabet.
- William Hendrix— “Bro is at a chicken restaurant ordering his food. Would he like some watermelon and Kool aid with that?”
- Annie Kaykaty — “I’m ready to watch people burn now.”
- Luke Mosiman — Called for the rape of Hayden Padgett, the chair of the Young Republican National Federation, writing: “RAPE HAYDEN.”
- Brianna Douglass — “I was about to say you’re giving nationals too much credit and expecting the Jew to be honest.”
All the usual excuses showed up after the public leak of the document. Giunta called the leak “a highly coordinated year-long character assassination.” He claims the messages may have been doctored.
From more respectable Republican leaders — not including Vice President JD Vance — there was outrage and condemnation. Some of the Young Republicans have been fired, and the Kansas chapter of the organization has been shut down. There’s no reason to doubt the sincerity of these condemnations. Nine renegade young Republicans don’t smear the entire party with racism.
However, Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, trotted out a dead-on-arrival excuse: “DEMS do it too and so much worse.”
Then she defended President Donald Trump, whose own speech always veers on the profane: “Only an activist, left-wing reporter would desperately try to tie President Trump into a story about a random group chat he has no affiliation with, while failing to mention the dangerous smears coming from Democrat politicians who have fantasized about murdering their opponent and called Republicans Nazis and Fascists. No one has been subjected to more vicious rhetoric and violence than President Trump and his supporters.”
“Vance and Trump still think this is a game as our political rhetoric approaches the nuances of an all-out war.”
Vance shrugged off the outrage at the young conservatives, arguing their sins pale in comparison to the exposed texts from Virginia Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones. Jones sent messages claiming he would gladly shoot former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert.
This is an interestingly irrelevant argument. Both the Young Republicans and Jay Jones are beyond the pale and both must be unilaterally condemned. But Vance and Trump still think this is a game as our political rhetoric approaches the nuances of an all-out war.
The nine young Republicans are guilty as charged. This was not a frat party. These are young people working in Republican politics, some of them 30 years old, and one a state senator in Vermont. But before pronouncing a political death penalty, there are larger concerns to address.
The leaked documents offers solid evidence of the pedagogy of Trumpism. We are always being taught by people around us. Trump’s pedagogy majors in repetition, political alienation, hatred, character assassination and chaos. The Young Republicans provide solid evidence they never skipped a class or missed a lesson. These young people are the “spitting image” of their father in politics. Trump has normalized violent, extremist, racist, ant-Semitic, anti-Islamic and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Ironically, the Young Republicans have become fodder for the denial of racism. They are sacrificial lambs. This doesn’t diminish the awfulness of their hate speech, but it displays another level of political perversion. When the smoke clears, they will be reincarnated into Trump World.
After all, what’s a little racism among white friends, huh?
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.
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