Phil Reisman: Tweet proves racism crosses party lines

Several lessons can be learned from the strange case of Andrew Barovick, and one of them is that race baiting can come from unexpected places.

Barovick is a White Plains attorney who is white. By all appearances, he is a loyal Democrat. He wholeheartedly supported Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the last election.

Nobody can plumb the depths of his mind, but I highly doubt he considers himself a racist. On the contrary, he probably believes he's on the "right side" of the issues and, therefore, aligned with the right political party — the party that for the past 50 years has vigorously espoused principles of tolerance, equality and civil rights.

And yet, on the night before the election he sent out a tweet that by any objective standard would have to be considered racist. His target was Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss, an African-American who was the Republican lieutenant-governor candidate.

The tweet in full: "In light of election loss, (Moss) mulling offers to be new spokesmodel for either Cream of Wheat, or Uncle Ben's Rice."

Both foods are packaged with images of smiling black servants. Barovick's tweet was immediately and widely condemned. However, in the aftermath I received an email from a reader who thought the images were not "derogatory," but "iconic and sweet."

"Whether they are servants, chefs or company owners, neither appear, to me, to be subservient or stupid but rather kind and welcoming, both offering food which is not a bad thing," the reader said.

That may all be true. But most people understood the cruel intention of the tweet. Sheriff Moss certainly did. It was meant to diminish him — "a blatant racist smear," he called it.

Who knows, perhaps Barovick thought the tweet was funny or edgy. (He wouldn't come to the phone when I called his law office last week and again on Wednesday.) But it's a good bet that he thought he was immune to criticism. After all, he was on the right side and with the right party. Right?

When a supporter of the GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino predicted a low voter turnout in New York City because the voters were "lazy," Barovick, a prolific user of Twitter, jumped in, tweeting, "NYers haven't figured out how (Astorino) demeans blacks with code words, i.e. 'lazy' NYC voters."

It's strange. Barovick was sensitive to the thinly veiled meaning of the word "lazy," but he never thought twice about calling Moss an "Uncle Tom." Clearly, there's a double standard at work.

John Burnett, a black man who is a strategic adviser for the New York Republican State Committee, said Wednesday that the Barovick case proves how racism crosses party lines.

"Racism is politically agnostic," he said. "It has no specific political party and also exists on the left, presently and historically."

And so here is another lesson: If you are a black Republican, you run a high risk of being singled out and publicly ridiculed in social media and elsewhere. Barovick apparently trafficked in such ridicule for quite some time. It recently came to light that he tweeted a similar Cream of Wheat crack at Herman Cain when Cain ran for president. He also said, "Corporate America will now welcome Herman Cain, along with his family, Aunt Jemima & Uncle Ben."

In another tweet in 2010 he called Michael Steele, who was then chairman of the Republican National Committee, an Uncle Tom.

Make no mistake, the Republican Party is far from being a party of inclusion. Seventy-six percent of black voters are enrolled as Democrats, and there are reasons for that. The "lazy" comment didn't help.

In his concession speech on election night, Astorino noted the problem when he said the GOP "by and large across the country has failed to reach out to people of color for far too long. … We're all in this together. All of us as New Yorkers and Americans — we need to communicate with one another more."

With Barovick, communicating less might be a good thing.

He's paid a price for his poor judgment. He's taken a lot of heat. On Wednesday, after a full week of public pressure, he resigned from a committee chairmanship at the New York City Bar Association.

And he has apologized. In a Nov. 4 tweet, he admitted that his attack on Moss was "dumb & insensitive."

He hasn't tweeted since. Perhaps he's learned a lesson, too.

Reach Phil Reisman at preisman@lohud.com. Twitter: @philreisman.