Comparing a black female senator to America’s original terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan, was an “L” waiting to happen, but billionaire hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb made the comparison anyway. In a critical Facebook post, Loeb said that NYC state senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins had “done more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood.”
Of course this an outrageous and ridiculous claim that has no basis in fact or reality, so he eventually apologized for his error.
“I regret the language I used in expressing my passion for educational choice,” he said in his statement about the post, emailed to The Associated Press on Friday morning. “I apologize to Sen. Stewart-Cousins and anyone I offended.”
The apology after the offense is standard procedure these days of course, but there is an underlying issue here that explains why statements like these from white people pop-up frequently. By saying that a black woman senator is worse than the KKK, it immediately diminishes and sanitizes the brutal murderous history of the KKK. A reader that knows nothing about the KKK, could take that comparison as meaning the KKK was no worse than a crooked politician – which is very far from the truth. In this instance, Loeb was called out for his re-imagining of history, but there are many other powerful men who play fast and loose with historical truth on a daily basis without consequence.