Gingrich has it backwards: the black millionaire who needs a therapist is one who feels like black people aren’t oppressed because he himself is a millionaire. But my real question is this: why is the players’ large pay a critical part of the argument and why is it used as a disqualifier?

This is a particularly bizarre sentiment in America where having lots of money is, in and of itself, proof of your importance. In this country, we’re taught to listen to people who have money just because they have money. The only reason why anyone listened to Trump in the decades before he was president is because he was wealthy. So why is it having money means we should listen to you except if the money is made by an athlete?

I think part of the answer lies in one of the central ideas of the modern right—the notion of who is hard-working and who is not.