“That Conversation about Race” category archive
It’s Not Just the “Appeal,” It’s Also the “Appealee” 0
As I was waking up, the germ of a blog post started to grow in the back of my mind, one about the fundamental flaw in the reasoning that blames Democrats for not adequately appealing to persons who voted for Donald Trump. I was musing about how to frame an argument that such “analyses” overlook the tactics that Republicans used to attract those votes: venal appeals to selfishness, hatred, and bigotry. I question that persons welcoming such appeals would be receptive to anything the Democrats might offer.
When I got to my RSS feed reader, I found that Badtux had written the post for me. Here’s how he starts:
Not to mention that it would have been futile in the first place. Even if the Democrats had reached out to bigots, the Republican Party appears to have a lock on the bigot vote at present . . . .
Thanks to Badtux for making my day a little easier.
Averting the Eyes 0
Until the United States of America is willing to stare its racism in the face, it has no hope of redemption.
I read To Kill a Mockingbird once. It is a tale of the moral toll of racism.
I have read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn three times. Underneath the burlesque, it is a tale of redemption, of one boy’s decision to reject the racism his society has taught him. (If you have not read it, do so today.)
Facebook Frolics 0
Yet more hate-full frolics.
Truth in Labeling 0
Daniel Farmer reports that the Associated Press has issued guidelines that truthful reporting requires using truthful words. In his discussion, he gives some examples:
It’s time to call such things what they are: racist.
If you say people of color are the enemy, as the governor (Governor LePage of Maine–ed.) has, you’re a racist.
Same thing if you lie and say that black people commit 90 percent of crime in the state when the numbers don’t back you up, if you encourage violence against black men, and if you say immigrants carry disease and are terrorists.
You’re not part of the “alt-right.” Let’s be precise: You’re a racist.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, for I have noted this constancy over my years: Except for a militant few, racists don’t like to be called “racist”; indeed, most will vehemently deny even to themselves that they are racist even as the crosses burn brightly behind them.
The Court Is Still in Sessions 0
An attorney who once worked for the Department of Justice recounts his experiences with Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, who is Donald Trump’s selection for Attorney-General of the United States, responsible for ensuring that the Department of Justice concerns itself with, well, justice. A nugget:
Follow the link.
It gets worse.
Victory Lap 0
The celebrations continue.
“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Maureen Costello, who runs the organization’s Teaching Tolerance program in schools. She noted that the group had coined the term “the Trump effect” earlier this year because it believed that divisive rhetoric concerning immigrants and race in the presidential campaign was getting picked up and mimicked by schoolchildren.
This should surprise no one.
More at the link.
Stray Thought, Normalization Dept. 0
One of the distressing aspects of dis coarse post-election discourse is the attempt on the part of some to portray bigotry, hatred, and racism as somehow legitimate because the bigots, haters, and racists feel “aggrieved.”*
______________________
*Afterthought, Late That Same Evening:
And, natch, because they are not Not White. Not White grievances are ipso facto not legitimate. If you paid attention, you’d know that.
I think I shall be ill.
Detritus 0
Jim Wright looks at the first week of Trumpery and is less than impressed. A snippet:
Follow the link, read the rest, then weep for my country.
Next, don’t give up.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Patrick Rael points out what should be obvious.
Read the rest.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
John Romano considers an incident in a Florida school and looks for some hope.
The incident.
And yet there it was this month on the wall of a girl’s bathroom at an Orlando-area high school. It warned blacks to start picking out their slave numbers and was gleefully punctuated by “KKK 4 lyfe.”
Below it, in larger letters, was a final thought:
“Go Trump 2016.”
Follow the link and decide whether he found any hope.
Framing 0
Notice how, when Not White people do it, it’s “heroin” and when white people do it, it’s “opioids”?
The Reality Show Presidency 0
Phillip Lopate argues that the election postmortems are missing the point. It’s not anger that was the primary motivation of Trump voters; it was the desire for entertainment and excitement. They became a willing audience to his reality show. He also makes some interesting points about what makes a phony scamdal a successful political scandal.
Here’s just a tiny little bit of his article.
And there is also the excitement of hating.
My own take is this: In the phrase, “white working class” of which the punditocracy has become so fond, “working class” is not the operative. The operative word is “white.”
Aside:
I have no patience with the nattering about whether more visits to this state or that state, different nuance on platform statements, and the like might have changed the results. This election was not a strategic failure on the part of a candidate or a campaign.
It was a moral failure on the part of the voters and, perhaps especially, of the non-voters.