I sincerely wish those people would actually come up with specific workable policies that demonstrated an interest in small government that wasn't race-based.

I sincerely wish those people would actually come up with specific workable policies that demonstrated an interest in small government that wasn't race-based. Like, take small government on a local level. You cut the city budget by a third, which part are you cutting? Do you cut the police budget? Do you cut the parks? Public transportation? Public health services? Some of those will impact communities of color more than others. So be specific and say "yes, I want to cut public transportation, recognizing that it disproportionately hits communities of color." And we can talk about that, instead of just "well small government is better". Or what would you cut at the federal level, to have a smaller government? Housing and urban development, which again predominantly benefits communities of color? The military? The legendary farm bill? Depending on how you rejigger the government, I'm all for a smaller one. Cut the military down to a hundredth its size and institute medicare for all and free higher ed and you're probably still smaller than you started. But these days, in general, there's a lot of overlap in the venn diagram of "smaller government" and "cut policies that help communities of color," and that's why people are quick to call small government republicans racist. (That and the racism that a lot of republicans now openly display.)