a rally for former President Donald Trump that Democrats want “reparations” for “people who do the crime,” have not only stirred outrage but renewed accusations of rampant racism in today’s GOP. This incident, and the silence or tepid criticism from Republicans, may confirm for many that the Republican Party today is the party of white supremacy while Democrats are the party of diversity and equity. But while the problems in the GOP are very real, that’s not the whole story — on either side.

While racially inflammatory rhetoric from Republican politicians has definitely become more common in the Trump-era GOP as large segments of the party move toward fringe views and away from norms of civility, there has also been an undeniable simultaneous trend of the party growing more diverse. In the upcoming midterms, the party is fielding a record number of Black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American candidates — a total of 72 nonwhite congressional candidates. Many of them have little chance of winning: In the U.S. Senate race in New York, conservative commentator Joe Pinion, who is Black, is currently trailing Democrat Chuck Schumer by 21 points. Still, even many GOP-unfriendly observers agree that the shift in GOP racial and ethnic demographics in the House and Senate could be historic.

Is this, as many progressives believe, a cynical ploy to give the party a racially diverse cover? It’s certainly difficult not to be cynical about such figures as Herschel Walker, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Georgia whose lack of substance is matched only by his record of scandals. Walker’s status as a Black conservative Republican challenging Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Black Democrat, almost certainly shores up support from the former football star’s white evangelical base, which apparently perceives his personal involvement with abortion as less important than his pro-life stance.

But to treat all Black, Hispanic and Asian Republican politicians as either dupes or grifters is wrong and, arguably, racist in itself. Pinion, whatever one thinks of his views, seems to be a man of genuine conviction that conservatism has something to offer voters, including the Black community. And the more diverse Republican slate does reflect a realignment toward the GOP among Hispanics, with smaller shifts among Asian and Black voters. These shifts reflect not only economic frustrations but concerns about crime and educational policies that stress identity over excellence.

What’s more, the Democratic left has its own race problem, highlighted a few days ago by the release of an audio exposing racist remarks by two progressive Hispanic members of the Los Angeles City Council. Among other things, council president Nury Martinez used Spanish-language racial slurs to refer to the three-year-old Black adopted son of white council member Mike Bonin; council member Kevin de Leon, a prominent California Democrat, also derided Bonin’s relationship with his son.

The resulting outcry caused Martinez to resign; de Leon has apologized and said he holds himself “accountable.” Good for Democrats. But there has been little impetus to examine whether the racialized politics of the left enabled some of this ugliness. Take away the slurs, and Martinez’s claim that Bonin was raising his son “like a white kid” and de Leon’s assertion that he was treating the boy “like an accessory” are fairly common progressive tropes.

Yes, the Republicans in 2022 have bigger and worse racial demons to exorcise. But toxic racial politics do not stop at the party line.