The 'R' Word
In this country, race is a major issue to the fabric of our culture. Lately, I've seen this hesitance of using the word 'racist' or the term 'racism' to describe such people that use certain language. Pres. Donald Trump telling four congresswomen of color “to go back to their country” when most of them are from the US is racist. This is not hard to figure out. People are okay with racism if and only if it doesn't affect them. I would like to examine race and issues dealing with this aspect of race to uncover the meaning of 'racism' in this piece. Let's call a spade, a spade, even when it's someone you admire, like Pres. Trump.
First, I want to discuss the fragility of dealing with race in any aspect that may make people uncomfortable. An incident that explicitly speaks to this issue, is an interview conducted with serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer. In this interview, the person conducting the interview asked Dahmer, if his killings had anything to do with race, he stopped her immediately and stated that it had nothing to do with race. The attribute of an aggressive defense from him to claims of singling out people because of race or some other social aspect is a legitimate question, based on the fact that all the people who were killed were of a different race than Dahmer. But he was so defensive, when confronted with that question, as if he believed the murders he committed were less egregious than his perceived racism or bigotry. I'm like, dude, you killed people and had sex with their corpses, you tried to make young men into living zombies by drilling holes in their heads and putting acid in their brains, being perceived as racist should be the least of your problems. The cognitive dissonance of certain people is just extraordinary. I should also state very clearly that Jeffrey Dahmer has also stated that he was interested in men that didn't look like him, but even that has a racial connotation to it.
Now, taking you twenty-five years in the future, in which, female Trump supporters were interviewed on CNN, state very clearly that they don't perceive Trump's comments or even Trump as a person as racist. The statement of "go back to your country" is as racist as you can get without explicitly saying the 'N Word'. I don't know how to convince people like that to really understand how people felt when hearing those words uttered and how that can be considered racist. The female Trump supporters later stated that the four congresswoman are racist for not having a white female in the 'squad', without holding the fact that if Paula Jean Swearengin, who happens to be white, won her race against Joe Manchin, she would have been part of the 'squad'. The squad has to do with them all being progressive women taking on an established system that benefits the very wealthy, not race. Finally, we need to just call what Pres. Trump said, as racist, because if he is not even trying to hide his animus towards other races of people, then why should he be defended. It is what it sounds like and only the most abject apologists would be willing to defend it. Pres. Trump is a racist and what he said was racist, point blank, period.
First, I want to discuss the fragility of dealing with race in any aspect that may make people uncomfortable. An incident that explicitly speaks to this issue, is an interview conducted with serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer. In this interview, the person conducting the interview asked Dahmer, if his killings had anything to do with race, he stopped her immediately and stated that it had nothing to do with race. The attribute of an aggressive defense from him to claims of singling out people because of race or some other social aspect is a legitimate question, based on the fact that all the people who were killed were of a different race than Dahmer. But he was so defensive, when confronted with that question, as if he believed the murders he committed were less egregious than his perceived racism or bigotry. I'm like, dude, you killed people and had sex with their corpses, you tried to make young men into living zombies by drilling holes in their heads and putting acid in their brains, being perceived as racist should be the least of your problems. The cognitive dissonance of certain people is just extraordinary. I should also state very clearly that Jeffrey Dahmer has also stated that he was interested in men that didn't look like him, but even that has a racial connotation to it.
Now, taking you twenty-five years in the future, in which, female Trump supporters were interviewed on CNN, state very clearly that they don't perceive Trump's comments or even Trump as a person as racist. The statement of "go back to your country" is as racist as you can get without explicitly saying the 'N Word'. I don't know how to convince people like that to really understand how people felt when hearing those words uttered and how that can be considered racist. The female Trump supporters later stated that the four congresswoman are racist for not having a white female in the 'squad', without holding the fact that if Paula Jean Swearengin, who happens to be white, won her race against Joe Manchin, she would have been part of the 'squad'. The squad has to do with them all being progressive women taking on an established system that benefits the very wealthy, not race. Finally, we need to just call what Pres. Trump said, as racist, because if he is not even trying to hide his animus towards other races of people, then why should he be defended. It is what it sounds like and only the most abject apologists would be willing to defend it. Pres. Trump is a racist and what he said was racist, point blank, period.
Comments
Post a Comment