As America has become less tolerant of racist language and behavior, there’s still one widely accepted reason to publicly call black people any racial slur imaginable or ridicule them for “misbehaving” specifically because they’re black — and that’s if they have an R next to their name.

Progressives like Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) consistently exploit this racial loophole when they find it politically expedient. And in the midst of a tumultuous House speaker race, like a reflex, Bush couldn’t help herself, verbalizing her disgust for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) suddenly being floated as a candidate.

“FWIW, @ByronDonalds is not a historic candidate for Speaker. He is a prop. Despite being Black, he supports a policy agenda intent on upholding and perpetuating white supremacy. His name being in the mix is not progress — it’s pathetic,” Bush tweeted Wednesday.

Hours later, Donalds responded: “FWIW, nobody asked @CoriBush her opinion on the matter. Before you judge my agenda, let’s have a debate over the policies and the outcomes. Until then, don’t be a crab in a barrel!”

Bush attempted to clarify her statement by saying she doesn’t have a problem with him being black and Republican, but because his name wasn’t mentioned earlier, she believes he’s being used as a prop. Yet Rep. Jim Jordan’s name was also thrown into the mix for speaker, and she doesn’t see him as a prop.

If progressives like Bush actually cared about black people being used as props or tokens, she would have had a problem with Joe Biden wanting specifically a black woman to be his vice president before selecting Kamala Harris. She would have wagged her finger at Democratic pundits and strategists advocating a black female to take a Supreme Court Justice seat before Biden chose Ketanji Brown Jackson. Why aren’t they considered pawns or tokens?

Bush behaves much like many progressives who pretend their words come from a heartfelt place of caring when they’re actually a manifestation of their guttural disgust for a black face that occupies space on the opposite political wing.

She wasn’t lovingly warning him he was being used as a black political pawn — she was looking down upon him with condescension because she believes he’s too naïve to know when he’s being manipulated.

Cori Bush is only a much larger public face for the behavior exemplified by progressives who exploit the loophole for racial animus towards black Americans if they’re politically “blacking wrong.” We saw the same thing after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade as most of the hatred was directed at Clarence Thomas; “Uncle Clarence” trended on Twitter within hours, though he’d voted with a majority and didn’t write the opinion.

It’s become so commonplace on Twitter that an account, “Chronicles of Racist Liberals” (@liberalsracists), documents the overlooked epidemic of racism from the political left directed specifically at black conservatives and Republicans with offensive racial slurs, racially charged demeaning language and, often for dramatic effect, language laced with slavery references.

One Twitter user asked, “Who the hell is Byron Donalds?” and got the response: “House version of Tim Scott. An Uncle Tom in training.”

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) is a frequent target: “Aging white Maga males laughing at Tim Scott for him imagining they really give a fk about what he says or does. They look at Uncle Tim as a way to get black voters to vote maga instead of for their own interests . . . look there’s our negro.”

But he’s not the only one. “No self-respecting Black man would ever be a Republican,” someone tweeted. “You’re nothing but a white boy in black skin Uncle Tom house n—-r,” another user said.

Of course, this speech isn’t the hate speech the mainstream media and left-wing politicians have in mind when advocating censorship on Big Tech since to them racism against black conservatives isn’t really racism — because they aren’t really black.

The people who would call someone like Byron Donalds a “house n—-er” for not being in lockstep with the Democratic Party truly believe they are morally superior and black people’s allies.

The white-privilege progressives don’t talk about is the ability to think for yourself and vote for whomever you want without being considered a traitor to your race. If you’re white and vote Republican, the progressive left will hate your politics; but if you’re black and vote Republican, the progressive left will say you hate yourself.

It would sound strange for someone to tell a white person that a vote for a particular political party makes him or her a traitor to the white race.

It should also sound strange when someone says that to a black person.

Adam B. Coleman is the author of “Black Victim to Black Victor” and founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. Follow him on Substack: adambcoleman.substack.com.