A Black scholar stood by her assessment of Trump supporters despite an onslaught of conservative outrage.
Rutgers professor of women’s and gender studies Brittney Cooper argued that white conservatives are responsible for the failed response to the COVID-19 crisis but Black people are suffering the consequences. Her views were inspired, in part, by the social media behavior of a high school classmate who defended President Donald Trump’s widely derided musings at a White House press briefing about the efficacy of using disinfectants internally to fight the virus.
“They are literally willing to die from this clusterf–ked COVID response rather than admit that absolutely anybody other than him would have been a better president,” Cooper tweeted on Tuesday. “And when whiteness has a death wish, we are all in for a serious problem.”
She added, “Black people did not vote for this dude in any appreciable numbers. (Black men voted for him at 15% and they are dying the most.) No Black person deserves this and Black women knew it would be absolutely awful for him to be president. And now we all live in daily fear.”
Cooper ended her Twitter thread with an f-bomb directed at Trump supporters.
“I am saying some obvious things this morning because as a country we are too good at skipping over the audience and we might as well say this to people as often as we can. F–k each and every Trump supporter. You all absolutely did this. You are to blame,” she declared before affirming the importance of Black life.
“Black Lives Matter. Black Lives with hypertension, diabetes, and asthma matter. Fat Black Lives matter. All Black Lives matter.”
Cooper’s words went viral, and right-wing trolls flocked to her page. Some of them urged other pro-Trump users to contact Rutgers University to get Cooper fired. Two days after her initial rant, the “Eloquent Rage” author addressed her haters.
“So I said what I meant. And I curse cuz I’m grown. I disdain every person who thought and thinks he’s a good leader, because that thinking has had material consequences for far too many of us,” Cooper tweeted on Thursday.
Cooper let them know she was not worried about job security since she is a tenured instructor.
“Just know a couple of things: 1.) I report threats to law enforcement and have had committed law enforcement support for many years now. 2.) I have tenure,” she wrote. “Rutgers won’t be firing me for tweets. That is all.”
In a statement to NJ.com, Rutgers University stated, “Dr. Cooper’s Twitter statements are her own personal statements and not those of the University.”
