by
Anna
Moneymaker/Getty
Images)
Ed.
note:
Please
welcome
Vivia
Chen
to
the
pages
of
Above
the
Law.
Subscribe
to
her
Substack,
“The
Ex-Careerist,”
here.
I
CAN’T
HELP
BUT
PUT
MYSELF
IN
HER
SHOES.
As
an
Asian
American
woman
who’s
also
married
to
a
white
man
with
roots
in
Ohio,
I
keep
wondering
what
exactly
is
going
through
Usha
Vance’s
head
these
days
as
she
watches
her
husband
go
out
of
his
way
to
defend
racists.
JD
Vance
has
displayed
a pattern of
lending
comfort
and
aid
to
racists.
Still,
two
recent
incidents
make
me
wonder
how
much
more
of
this
nonsense
Usha
can
stomach.
In
a
now
deleted
post
on
X
that
was
uncovered
by The
Wall
Street
Journal,
Marko
Elez,
one
of
Elon
Musk’s
minions
in
DOGE
(the
so-called
“department
of
government
efficiency”),
proudly
celebrates
racism.
In
July,
Elez
declared:
“Just
for
the
record,
I
was
racist
before
it
was
cool.”
Then,
in
September,
he
posted,
“You
could
not
pay
me
to
marry
outside
of
my
ethnicity.”
In
another
post,
he
wrote:
“Normalize
Indian
hate.”
And
as
recently
as
December,
he
boasted:
“I
just
want
a
eugenic
immigration
policy,
is
that
too
much
to
ask.”
This
was
not
a
one-off
rant
of
a
teenager
(Elez
is
a
25-year
old)
but
the
manifesto
of
a
serial
racist.
But
instead
of
condemning
Elez,
JD
flipped
the
script,
blaming—who
else?—sleazy
journalists.
He
tweeted on
X:
I
obviously
disagree
with
some
of
Elez’s
posts,
but
I
don’t
think
stupid
social
media
activity
should
ruin
a
kid’s
life.We
shouldn’t
reward
journalists
who
try
to
destroy
people.
Ever.So
I
say
bring
him
back.If
he’s
a
bad
dude
or
a
terrible
member
of
the
team,
fire
him
for
that.
In
my
book
(and
I
hope
in
most
Americans’),
a
self-declared
racist
is,
by
definition,
“a
bad
dude”
who’d
be
a
“terrible
member”
of
any
team.
And
while
I’m
all
for
second
chances,
why
does
this
guy,
who’s
expressed
no
contrition,
deserving
of
a
job
that
wields
outsize
power
to
fire
federal
employees
and
reshape
our
entire
government?
(The
better
question
is
why
anyone
on
Musk’s
team
should
have
such
powers.)
Racists
aren’t
the
problem
but
those
who
call
them
out:
But
what’s
most
striking
was
JD’s
refusal
to
make
him
accountable,
even
though
Elez
attacked
his
wife
and
his
family.
When
asked
on X
by
California
congressman
Ro
Khana,
an
Indian
American,
whether
he’d
demand
that
Elez
apologize
for
his
“normalize
Indian
hate”
tweet,
JD
threw
a
hissy
fit:
“Racist
trolls
on
the
internet,
while
offensive,
don’t
threaten
my
kids.
You
know
what
does?
A
culture
that
denies
grace
to
people
who
make
mistakes.
A
culture
that
encourages
congressmen
to
act
like
whiny
children.”
Later,
Vance
concluded
his
exchange
by
telling
Khana,
“you
disgust
me.”
You
tell
‘em,
JD!
Racists
aren’t
the
problem
but
those
who
call
them
out!
What
an
impressive,
gallant
defense
of
his
Asian
wife,
his
bi-racial
kids,
and
his
own
interracial
marriage.
Usha
certainly
hit
the
jackpot
picking
JD
as
her
knight
in
shining
armor.
The
most
generous
spin
I
can
offer
is
that
JD
assumes
his
family
is
somehow
shielded
from
racism’s
brutality
because
he’s
so
important
and
powerful.
Perhaps
Usha
and
the
kids
now
have
official
honorary
white
status.
The
mystery,
of
course,
is
how
Usha
views
this
exchange.
On
some
level,
she
must
be
bothered
that
her
husband
is
defending
a
racist
jerk
at
her
expense.
Yet,
there
she
is,
smiling
at
her
man,
as
if
this
is
how
a
loving
husband
behaves
—
as
if
it’s
all
perfectly
normal.
The
only
question
is
how
long
she
can
keep
the
lid
on.
Subscribe
to
continue
reading
at
The
Ex-Careerist….
Vivia
Chen writes “The
Ex-Careerist” column
on
Substack
where
she
unleashes
her
unvarnished
views
about
the
intersection
of
work,
life,
and
politics.
A
former
lawyer,
she
was
an
opinion
columnist
at
Bloomberg
Law
and
The
American
Lawyer.
Subscribe
to
her
Substack
by
clicking
here:
