I read last night, I think on Politico, that President Obama and his team, though frustrated and angry at the growing prospect of a Trump presidency, are nonetheless having difficulty explaining why that is so.
I be like, WTF? Bro, look at your skin, what color is it? (He knows what color his skin is.) Maybe, I thought last night, it's a psychological self-defense mechanism. It is so painful. "It can't be that, it has to be something else." Maybe, I thought this morning, it is a political self-defense maneuver. It doesn't look good for a candidate or president of "all the people" to accuse any of the people of racism against him. It invites the inevitable, lying rejoinder: "IF WE DISAGREE WITH YOU ON ANYTHING YOU ACCUSE US OF RACISM!" Stomp out of room. Has Obama ever accused a Republican, even Trump, of racism towards him?
But, I also thought last night, maybe he looks at, like, the evidence, and would reply to me, "You are a typical white person who doesn't know his ass about race. Are you forgetting that I got elected with 53% of the vote, re-elected with 51%?"
It's an argument.
Some weeks ago my brother-the-racist sent me a photograph of him and his group of bike riders, which group portrait included some of dusky complexion, with the caption,
"In case you are thinking of another 'I know you hate all black people comments.'"
My brother was schooled in the art of this one-line zinger, out-of-the-blue guerilla attack by our mother. All of us hated mum's zingers. When delivered verbally the attack is successful because you didn't see it coming and didn't prepare your defenses. When you do respond it is likely to be an angry over-reaction that elicits crocodile tears of "I was just kidding!" It is very frustrating.
But my brother delivered his zinger via text.
I thought about it. Donald Rumsfeld, although usually brutally blunt and overbearing, would employ the socratic method with the president. "Mightn't it be a good idea for a riposte on Saddam bearing in mind...?" Asking, rather than telling. It's flattering to ask a person's opinion, boorish to demand conformity to one's own. It makes the person think. "Mightn't it" after all! Get more bees with honey than vinegar kind of thing. So I responded,
Can you be a racist and not hate all black people, e.g. if you have a black friend or associate with black people?
The "you" intended there as "one" not you, personally. His response surprised me:
Define "racist."
He had thought about this before, had concluded that he was not a racist and any contrary assertion scurrilous overreaction because he did not "hate" all black people, had the obligatory one black friend and rode bicycles on the same roadways, right next to them and everything, if his "group" happened to encompass members of that accursed race. Now this is all recognizable small beer, it is the typical racist white person's response. It's an argument. Easily defeated to the accuser's satisfaction on its "merits" but never, ever to the recipient's. He asked me to "define 'racist'" however and that gave me the opportunity to open a two-front attack:
rac·ist
ΛrΔsΙst/
noun
1.a person who believes that a particular race is superior to another.
synonyms: racial bigot, racialist, xenophobe, chauvinist, supremacist
adjective
1.having or showing the belief that a particular race is superior to another.
"we are investigating complaints about racist abuse at the club"
I did exactly what I just done did here. I quickly googled "racist" and copied and pasted the first definition I saw.
Both as noun and adjective the definition of "racist" is belief that one race is "superior" to another; the definition defines it in the "positive," as "superior," not in the negative as another race is inferior. A lawyerly difference, certainly, but not a lawyer's definition, and a definition with a difference without a distinction? No!
When "racist" is used in America it is understood, universally, by presidents, lawyers, and riders of two-wheelers to:
1. Be negative toward black people.
2. Refer only to white people against black people. Racism applied to the beliefs of black people toward white people is controversial useage in America. Racism towards Jews has its own name, antisemitism. Racism towards, choosing at random, Mexicans, nobody in America, until recently, would understand if you said "Donald Trump is a racist" that you would mean anti-Mexican. It is entirely a black thing.
President Obama and his team may be having difficulty explaining Trump by this misunderstanding of the dictionary definition of "racist" because, in addition to hearing "Fuck that nigger" (that is being a "negative" racist), I also hear,
"It's the last chance we have to have the country under the cultural traditions I grew up with."
That is "positive" racism, the dictionary definition, an assertion of the superiority of the (white) "cultural tradition" of one's own race.
The racists who display the Confederate flag have always defended the practice as a non-negative expression of their cultural heritage.
It is much more legitimate in America to express this "positive" racism, the real dictionary definition of racism, than it is to express racism negatively. So: "The flag? My family has always been in the South, my great grand-daddy fought with Bobby Lee, it's part of my cultural heritage and I'm PROUD of it!" Acceptable. "Fuck that nigger!" Unacceptable.
There is a patronizing aspect to this real ("positive") racism that plays in here also. "Look, you got your black president, okay? Who do you think you are? Enough is enough, we ain't goin' fer a woman, next. Maybe after four years or eight years we'll let you have a woman but now, Trump that Bitch, lock her up, execute her, it's our turn."
Positive, see?
Do you think that there are even a few Trump supporters who voted for Barack Obama once or twice? I bet there are, probably in 2008. "I'm not a racist, I even voted for that nigger once!"
It's an argument.
I be like, WTF? Bro, look at your skin, what color is it? (He knows what color his skin is.) Maybe, I thought last night, it's a psychological self-defense mechanism. It is so painful. "It can't be that, it has to be something else." Maybe, I thought this morning, it is a political self-defense maneuver. It doesn't look good for a candidate or president of "all the people" to accuse any of the people of racism against him. It invites the inevitable, lying rejoinder: "IF WE DISAGREE WITH YOU ON ANYTHING YOU ACCUSE US OF RACISM!" Stomp out of room. Has Obama ever accused a Republican, even Trump, of racism towards him?
But, I also thought last night, maybe he looks at, like, the evidence, and would reply to me, "You are a typical white person who doesn't know his ass about race. Are you forgetting that I got elected with 53% of the vote, re-elected with 51%?"
It's an argument.
Some weeks ago my brother-the-racist sent me a photograph of him and his group of bike riders, which group portrait included some of dusky complexion, with the caption,
"In case you are thinking of another 'I know you hate all black people comments.'"
My brother was schooled in the art of this one-line zinger, out-of-the-blue guerilla attack by our mother. All of us hated mum's zingers. When delivered verbally the attack is successful because you didn't see it coming and didn't prepare your defenses. When you do respond it is likely to be an angry over-reaction that elicits crocodile tears of "I was just kidding!" It is very frustrating.
But my brother delivered his zinger via text.
I thought about it. Donald Rumsfeld, although usually brutally blunt and overbearing, would employ the socratic method with the president. "Mightn't it be a good idea for a riposte on Saddam bearing in mind...?" Asking, rather than telling. It's flattering to ask a person's opinion, boorish to demand conformity to one's own. It makes the person think. "Mightn't it" after all! Get more bees with honey than vinegar kind of thing. So I responded,
Can you be a racist and not hate all black people, e.g. if you have a black friend or associate with black people?
The "you" intended there as "one" not you, personally. His response surprised me:
Define "racist."
He had thought about this before, had concluded that he was not a racist and any contrary assertion scurrilous overreaction because he did not "hate" all black people, had the obligatory one black friend and rode bicycles on the same roadways, right next to them and everything, if his "group" happened to encompass members of that accursed race. Now this is all recognizable small beer, it is the typical racist white person's response. It's an argument. Easily defeated to the accuser's satisfaction on its "merits" but never, ever to the recipient's. He asked me to "define 'racist'" however and that gave me the opportunity to open a two-front attack:
rac·ist
ΛrΔsΙst/
noun
1.a person who believes that a particular race is superior to another.
synonyms: racial bigot, racialist, xenophobe, chauvinist, supremacist
adjective
1.having or showing the belief that a particular race is superior to another.
"we are investigating complaints about racist abuse at the club"
I did exactly what I just done did here. I quickly googled "racist" and copied and pasted the first definition I saw.
Both as noun and adjective the definition of "racist" is belief that one race is "superior" to another; the definition defines it in the "positive," as "superior," not in the negative as another race is inferior. A lawyerly difference, certainly, but not a lawyer's definition, and a definition with a difference without a distinction? No!
When "racist" is used in America it is understood, universally, by presidents, lawyers, and riders of two-wheelers to:
1. Be negative toward black people.
2. Refer only to white people against black people. Racism applied to the beliefs of black people toward white people is controversial useage in America. Racism towards Jews has its own name, antisemitism. Racism towards, choosing at random, Mexicans, nobody in America, until recently, would understand if you said "Donald Trump is a racist" that you would mean anti-Mexican. It is entirely a black thing.
President Obama and his team may be having difficulty explaining Trump by this misunderstanding of the dictionary definition of "racist" because, in addition to hearing "Fuck that nigger" (that is being a "negative" racist), I also hear,
"It's the last chance we have to have the country under the cultural traditions I grew up with."
That is "positive" racism, the dictionary definition, an assertion of the superiority of the (white) "cultural tradition" of one's own race.
The racists who display the Confederate flag have always defended the practice as a non-negative expression of their cultural heritage.
It is much more legitimate in America to express this "positive" racism, the real dictionary definition of racism, than it is to express racism negatively. So: "The flag? My family has always been in the South, my great grand-daddy fought with Bobby Lee, it's part of my cultural heritage and I'm PROUD of it!" Acceptable. "Fuck that nigger!" Unacceptable.
There is a patronizing aspect to this real ("positive") racism that plays in here also. "Look, you got your black president, okay? Who do you think you are? Enough is enough, we ain't goin' fer a woman, next. Maybe after four years or eight years we'll let you have a woman but now, Trump that Bitch, lock her up, execute her, it's our turn."
Positive, see?
Do you think that there are even a few Trump supporters who voted for Barack Obama once or twice? I bet there are, probably in 2008. "I'm not a racist, I even voted for that nigger once!"
It's an argument.
