HA! And you people thought George Wallace was dead.
Don’t panic. The sleazy bigot who served as governor of the sovereign state of Alabama remains six feet under at the Greenwood Cemetery in Montgomery. But his spirit lives on in the person of Garland Hale Barr IV, lovingly known as Andy, the Republican congressman from Lexington who has entered into some sort of Faustian bargain to succeed the retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Andy has a new 30-second ad out promoting his qualifications for the job that displays his true colors.
And that color is White.
It goes without saying that the ad is an embarrassment since just about everything Andy Barr has done in pursuit of the golden ring thus far is humiliating. This time he conjures up great racists of the past – Jesse Helms, Lester Maddox and the aforementioned Wallace — to make sure voters fully understand he is the White guy in the race and he is running to represent White folks.
It’s awe inspiring that in this the year of our lord 2026, that Andy, in one ad, can transport us back to the Mississippi of 1957. But give the boy credit. He manages to get the job done.
The ad starts with Barr standing on a field with an old barn, adorned with an American flag, providing a backdrop. The message is direct – he doesn’t much care for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, better known as DEI, intended to provide a leg up for marginalized folks who might otherwise be forced to remain on the sidelines because of the color of their skin or gender. Andy’s hero, President-cum-Dictator Donald J. Trump, has waged war against DEI frameworks so you can always count on our boy to follow in lockstep.
“You know what DEI really stands for?’’ Andy innocently asks at the spot’s outset. “Dumb evil indoctrination.’’
Andy, did you come up with that by yourself? What a clever boy!
You see, in Andy’s world, it’s not enough to consider DEI wrongheaded, although you have to wonder what’s so foolish about providing support for individuals who experience racism to this day, who emerge from poor schools and reside in troubled neighborhoods. No. Trying to provide some assistance to these beleaguered folks, is “evil.’’ Just ask Andy.
Then comes a photo of a protester, presumably in California, a Black man wearing a shirt bearing the image of Martin Luther King Jr., holding a sign that states, “Stay WOKE America.’’
“Woke liberals fuel it, corporate losers fall for it,’’ Barr states. Soon thereafter the ad displays the traditional photo of Barr and Trump, hands clasped above their heads, which might remind you of the old Lisa Loopner phrase, “If you love him so much why don’t you marry him,’’ which is actually legal to do now.
“America has rejected that trash,’’ Barr said. “I’m leading the fight to end it for good.’’
Boy, Andy, whatever would we do without you?
But this whole meshuggeneha raises questions. The Black unemployment rate as of Feb. 5 was at 7.5 percent, 1.4 percent higher than a year earlier. For White folks it’s about 3.8 percent. The latest American Community Survey places the median income for Black households at $55,157 while all households came to $80,734. In Kentucky, according to Nielsberg Research, as of March 1, 2025, Black household income was $45,862 compared to a White household income of $64,547.
According to the American Council on Education, about 52.9 percent of White Americans have attained an associate degree or higher. For Blacks? 39 percent.
Now it doesn’t take someone evil to see an issue here. Black Americans significantly trail White Americans in every socio-economic measure. DEI frameworks were established to help even the playing field by providing opportunities to folks subjugated to centuries of racism, poor educational opportunities and limited prospects just because they’re Black.
But to Andy DEI is “evil’’ and “trash.’’
If so, old boy, how do you intend to address and fix these sorts of imbalances that plague Black folks and women? You’re supposed to represent everyone, not just White men and these people in many instances are in desperate straits.
I think everyone knows exactly what you’re going to do – not a bloody thing. Just let White domination continue unimpeded.
And you know what? That’s racism.
So, why raise this issue? The obvious answer is that, according to the journalism site Stacker.com, 86.7 percent of Kentucky voters are White, compared to 6.8 percent Black.
The arithmetic is pretty clear. But there’s more.
Barr faces two opponents in the Republican Senate primary. One is Lexington businessman Nate Morris, who is running as an outsider and trying to convince voters he’s even more Trumpian that his two foes.
Then there’s Daniel Cameron who presents a pretty good resume – aide to McConnell, Kentucky attorney general and the 2023 Republican gubernatorial candidate.
And he’s Black. Barr has just pulled ahead of Cameron in a couple of independent polls. What better way for Andy to provide the coup de grace than make a direct appeal to White voters, essentially proclaiming, “Who’s going to best look after your interests, me or that Black dude?’’
It’s a direct racial hit. It’s not what political folks might call a dog whistle – putting a message out that only the intended audience might hear. It’s a bloody foghorn.
Now, the sad thing is this doesn’t cover the worst part of the ad.
After all the silly DEI rhetoric, Andy adopts the smug look he has perfected and announces, for no obvious reason, “It’s not a sin to be White. It’s not against the law to be male. And it shouldn’t be disqualifying to be a Christian.’’
Oh, Andy. Be careful You’re ranging dangerously close to Theodore Bilbo territory. The aroma of White Christian male superiority is overwhelming, sorta like what you’d experience standing in the old Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island on a 100-degree day.
If the idea isn’t to promote White Christian male supremacy, why bring it up? Let’s agree it’s not a sin to be White, unlawful to be male or disqualifying to be a Christian. Why idolize them above all others? Is it a sin to be Black or brown? Black and brown folks don’t have any greater say in the color of the skin they’re born with than White folks. What makes White folks so special that they get a special call out? Barr is ignoring people of colors other than White, continuing a practice he has maintained since entering public life.
It sure isn’t against the law to be a woman, either, or transgender or a Christian or a Zoroastrian, for that matter. But they just don’t fit into the White Christian male supremacy espoused by Andy Barr.
The nation has been down similar roads with Republican yahoos before. In 1990, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-NC, no one’s definition of a civil rights advocate, ran a campaign ad against his Democratic opponent, Harvey Gantt, who, as it happens, was Black.
Titled “Hands,’’ it portrays a pair of White male hands crumbling a job rejection letter, with the narrative, “You needed that job, and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair?” All because Gantt supported the Civil Rights Act of 1990, which Helms, an old school racist, referred to as a “racial quota law.’’
Helms won re-election and served until 2003.
Being compared to Jesse Helms is not a complement.
In the coda at the end of this infamous ad, the Barr declares, “I’m Andy Barr and I approve this message to give woke liberals something else to cry about.’’
Well, I’m dry-eyed right now but I guess I have to plead guilty to being woke, although after all this time I still have no idea what the hell that means. Regardless, at the end of the day, I’d rather be called woke than a racist.
I’ll leave that for you to ponder, Andy.