When All You Have Is a Hammer…

Jamaal Bowman is most famous for being the school principal-turned-congressman who didn’t know what a fire alarm was. He claims he thought it was a door knob, which aptly describes him, if so. 

Bowman is no longer a Congressman, thank God, and hasn’t found his way back into our schools–not that it matters, since so many teachers and administrators are equally awful. He is, instead, a regular on TV. 

Bowman is a perfect example of the new, Critical Theory-infused Democratic Party. He sees everything–and I mean everything–through the lens of oppressor-oppressed relationships. 

Jamaal Bowman is something else.

“I’m a black man in America. The reason why heart disease and cancer and obesity and diabetes are bigger in the black community is because of the stress we carry from having to deal with being called the n word directly or indirectly every day.” pic.twitter.com/lWlXabKVDm

— Thomas Hern (@ThomasMHern) June 26, 2025

As with all such people, he sees racism (or any similar ism) as the root of all evils, so it is natural for him to claim that all health disparities between blacks and whites are caused by racism. It is the only explanation, because oppression is the root of all evils. 

“I’m a black man” is, for him, an assertion of authority beyond question. Blacks, you see, have a special wisdom (just as, in Sonia Sotomayor’s world, being a Latina endows her with wisdom) by virtue of being oppressed. Bowman’s oppression has served him well, of course. How many people have ever been elected to Congress? It must be due to his special wisdom. 

In the grand tradition of grasping for the authority that comes from claimed oppression, Bowman is also spreading a race hoax. I’m not sure why he has not subsequently become morbidly obese, but only a wise man could tell me. I should find a black person to explain. 

“I was walking down the street the other day, some white dude, bald head. He looked at me, called me a piece of sh*t to my face and said I’m going to get what’s coming to me. Why do I got to deal with that?”

Quite the story from disgraced ex Congressman Jamaal Bowman. pic.twitter.com/xq2LySjFKo

— Thomas Hern (@ThomasMHern) June 26, 2025

I’m surprised there was no noose, bleach, and MAGA hats involved. This is MAGA country!

If you ever watch videos of liberals whining–it is part of my job, so I do, there is almost always some claim of or reference to oppression, colonization, the evils of capitalist oppression, or some variation on the theme. Oppressor/oppressed is the only lens through which they view the world. 

Oppression is a real phenomenon, no doubt, just as racism, antisemitism, and every other “ism.” But they are not the only categories of importance in the world, and usually aren’t the dominant ones. Ironically, they aren’t even the ones that most people who are classified as oppressed use to understand the world. 

This is, for critical theorists and Marxists, referred to as “false consciousness.” For that matter, in their minds, race hoaxes are not hoaxes, but parts of a “true” narrative that explains reality. Even if a skinhead did not literally confront Bowman, he metaphorically is every day by living in America. Just as you can find people explaining that the most anodyne words are synonyms for “ni&&er.” 

The Smithsonian Institution famously explained that science, hard work, individualism, objectivity, and the like are “white,” and whiteness is oppressive. It is quite the flex, and what’s amazing is that the Museum of African American History was promoting the idea that black people are lazy, shiftless, and ignorant–and that this is, apparently, a good thing because being “white” is to be an oppressor.

Racism is real. Misogyny is real. Many forms of hate and oppression are real. But they are not the only or even dominant determinants of success or failure in America. 

Telling black women that they, on average, face special health challenges because they live alongside whites is not only excuse-making, but harmful to the women who are obese and killing themselves because of it. The narrative of oppression causing disease is genuinely harmful. 

In an Episode from “New Amsterdam” a doctor explains to a mother that her son’s tumor grew because of internalized racism. You literally can’t make this up. pic.twitter.com/pAFhTRbiix

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 20, 2024

It is also a great way to spread hate, grab for power–hey, whitey, give up your money and power to save lives!–and a convenient way to explain away and avoid facing inconvenient facts. 

Facts such as obese people, of any race, need to reduce their intake of junk food and increase their exercise to attain a healthier weight. That is a fact that applies to me as much as any other overweight person, black or white. 

After 10 years of telling everyone the gym makes you a far-right white supremacist fascist asshole, the Democrats are now trying to get in on gym culture https://t.co/j50toECDs3 pic.twitter.com/9e1vyT4714

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) June 1, 2025