Kristoffer Ealy is a political scientist, political analyst, and professor in Southern California. He teaches American Government and political behavior, with a focus on political psychology, voting behavior, and political socialization. Subscribe to his Substack, The Thinking Class with Professor Ealy.
If you know me, you know I do not like Laura Loomer, Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, or any of the other women orbiting Donald Trump like malfunctioning satellites waiting for him to glance upward and validate their existence. Half the time, I cannot tell them apart—not because they look or sound alike, but because each has spent years developing her own proprietary strain of awfulness until the strains merged into one toxic MAGA smoothie nobody should drink without first calling Poison Control. There is the puppy killer, the bimbo, the overt racist, and whichever one is currently on television auditioning to become Trump’s next discarded woman. Keeping track requires flash cards.
This week belongs to the overt racist: Laura Loomer, a woman who has somehow turned being banned, humiliated, rejected, and publicly disposable into a full-time profession. Most people eat dog food once and reconsider their life choices. Loomer ate it on camera and apparently thought, You know what this career needs? More racism.
Loomer spent the better part of a weekend calling Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon—the Democratic Senate nominee who just knocked off Alex Vindman despite being outspent by roughly sixteen to one—a “ghetto black communist bitch.” Not once, because even Loomer knows one racist post will not keep the attention-economy feeding dish full all weekend. Across at least five posts on X, she recycled variations of the same slur, complained that Black women in Congress had “gotten away with way too much,” said Nixon “speaks Ebonics,” and threatened to “bark at you and tug your leash” before Nixon would understand her. She also dragged Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson into the tantrum, turning what began as an attack on one accomplished Black woman into a racist group project for which nobody had asked. Loomer was spraying slurs across the internet like a woman whose smoke detector had been chirping for six months and who had finally decided the battery was not the problem.
Nixon handled her exactly as she deserved to be handled: without fear, confusion, or a single ounce of deference. This is a woman who had just defeated a nationally known opponent with sixteen times her money, so an unemployed racist internet goblin with a ring light was not about to ruin her weekend. Nixon reminded Loomer that it is “Representative Angie Nixon,” reminded everyone that Loomer once ate dog food on camera, and then reached for Queen Latifah: “Who you calling a bitch?” It was disciplined, funny, and devastating—the rhetorical equivalent of swatting a mosquito without interrupting the conversation. Nixon looked like a United States Senate nominee. Loomer looked like someone furiously refreshing her notifications because racial abuse is the only product she has ever successfully brought to market.
Angie Nixon Doesn’t Need Your Labels, and Neither Does Florida
Kristoffer Ealy is a political scientist, political analyst, and professor in Southern California. He teaches American Government and political behavior, with a focus on political psychology, voting behavior, and political socialization. Subscribe to his Substack,
Loomer’s defense, to the extent that the word defense applies to a racist digging faster, was that she does not call every Black woman a slur—only the “ghetto” ones who supposedly earn it. What a relief. Apparently Loomer operates a rigorous racial-insult review board consisting of Laura Loomer, Laura Loomer’s phone, and whatever demon has been assigned to keep her trending. This is where Candace Owens enters the story to explain exactly how much Loomer’s distinction is worth. In April, Loomer called Owens—Republican royalty and a woman who built an entire career assuring white conservatives that she was one of the acceptable ones—a “nappy-headed Black bitch” and a “resentful ghetto Black bitch,” all while insisting she was not racist. Owens spent years trying to purchase immunity from this kind of attack and discovered that the MAGA warranty does not cover Blackness.
Trust me, I am no fan of Candace Owens, and I am not particularly impressed that she finally started backing away from MAGA after spending years helping build the machinery that eventually turned on her. But my opinion of Owens has nothing to do with whether I defend her against a racist attack. Black women do not have to be politically agreeable, personally likable, or ideologically redeemed before racism against them counts as racism. And Loomer does not get to divide Black women into the respectable ones she will tolerate and the “ghetto” ones she believes she has permission to degrade.
