These Young Republicans used a racist song to promote their pool party

Opinion: You’d think older members of the Republican Party in Maricopa County would counsel younger members into changing the theme of the party into something other than ‘White Boy Summer.’

Arizona Republic

It should not surprise us that the Maricopa County Young Republicans plan to celebrate the end of the primary season with a racist trope-themed “White Boy Summer” MAGA pool party.

Think about that.

It. Should. Not. Surprise. Us.

Young people in a political organization like the GOP base their beliefs and their behavior on what they learn from more mature members of the party.

Mature being the operative word.

It's not like their GOP elders serve as best role models

These are Maricopa County Republicans, after all, an operation for which its first vice chair, Shelby Busch, called for the lynching of County Recorder Stephen Richer.

These are the supposedly grown-up Republicans from which came the fake electors who tried to overturn the 2020 election, including two members of the Legislature, state Sens. Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern.

With such stellar examples for the rule of law and common decency it should not surprise us that the young Republicans from the county plan a pool party they describe on publicity material as “White Boy Summer.”

The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (among others) has described how, when the phrase “White Boy Summer” first appeared on social media, it was not intended as a racist trope.

But, as the group points out, “it has been co-opted by far-right extremists to promote hate and bigotry.”

Really, no one saw a problem with 'White Boy Summer'?

The project goes on to describe how “several extremist groups including the Proud Boys, White Lives Matter, the Identitarian movement in Europe and neo-Nazi Active Clubs are all using ‘White Boy Summer’ to spread propaganda, recruit new members and facilitate targeted hate campaigns including acts of vandalism and hate incidents.”

This is not new information.

Anyone who is familiar with social media would know about the controversy surrounding the phrase “White Boy Summer.”

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And there are no individuals more tech savvy than young people.

The young Republicans would know about this. Their GOP elders should have known about it as well. Or they would have been told about it. Or someone among them would have read about it, or asked about it, since even if you were completely ignorant of what the phrase has come to mean any reasonable person would be taken aback, at least a bit, by the potentially racist implication of “White Boy Summer.”

You'd think wiser Republicans would be concerned. But, no

But, apparently, they were not.

You’d think that Republicans, while hoping to draw as many voters to the cause as possible, would be slightly (or more so) concerned that staging an event based on a theme that has become a white nationalist, neo-Nazi trope might be a bit … off-putting.

If not just wrong.

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You’d think that the more seasoned members of the Republican Party in Maricopa County would counsel the younger members of the group into changing the theme of their summer pool party into something less suggestively bigoted, less white nationalist, less neo-Nazi.

Perhaps the older Republicans made the recommendation, and it was ignored. Or perhaps they didn’t bother, having no issue with the party’s theme.

Either way.

It. Should. Not. Surprise. Us.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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