1/ So the right bemoans folks of color 'playing the race card' or claiming to be victims of racism (even when they are), then insists (#TuckerCarlson) that criticism of #BiffKav is little more than 'anti-white' racism & proof we don't want white men to have nice things...
2/ Aside from the blinding hypocrisy (which is typical: right-wingers play victim better than anyone...victims of big gub'mint, and Muslims and gays and humanists and feminists and immigrants, etc), note the simple factual absurdity of the argument...
3/ First off, white men have lots of nice things. Like most of the executive positions in the private sector and a disproportionate share of wealth and the vast majority of tenured faculty gigs and government contracts and Senate gigs...
4/ And white men have half the unemployment rate of black men, even at the same level of educational attainment, and white households headed by these white men, even w/only a high school diploma, have more wealth than black households headed by college grads...
5/ So the notion of white men as victims is absurd. Although there are many white men hurting in this country, they are not hurting because of people of color, or because we've pointed out that BiffKav is a real asshole...
6/ If anything, those white men are hurting because of guys like BiffKav: Rich white dudes who support tax cuts for the wealthiest, who oppose wage hikes for working class folks, who would gut the retirement programs relied upon by working people, or health care programs...
7/ ...or who see no problem with companies crossing borders in search of the highest rate of return on investment, but reserve their love for borders only for labor, whom they don't think should be able to go in search of the highest wage...
8/ If those white men think BiffKav is on their side they are fools. He wouldn't piss on them to put out a fire, and he surely wouldn't waste his precious beer on them to do so (oh and fellas Biff doesn't drink PBR either, so don't think he's just one of the boys)...
9/ As for white victimhood and how the left just doesnt want white men on the court anymore (an argument Bill Sexual Predator O'Reilly also made when Justice Sotomayor was up for confirmation), a few thoughts...
10/ First, no one is saying that. What we are saying is: 1) White men groomed by the Federalist Society and who went to prep school are not necessarily the best candidates, and those who think they are are guilty of crass class (and race) bias...After all...
11/ The mathematical odds that 2 of the 9 justices would both have graduated from Georgetown Prep (Gorsuch and Kav) because of merit (rather than grooming and connections) are so astronomical as to defy logic...
12/ And then 2) We have no problem with white men on the court per se...indeed most of us would have been fine with Merrick Garland, even though he was much more to the center than we leftists are...
13/ It isn't about being white or male. It's about whether a person's whiteness, maleness and class position blinds them to their own privilege, entitlement and the experiences of others unlike themselves...
14/ In #BiffKav's case, it clearly has. He insists he got to Yale bc he "busted his butt," but while he may have been a good student, he also was a legacy there bc of his grandfather....
15/ And having parents who could send him to G'town Prep didn't hurt either in terms of getting into Yale undergrad (which then helped get him to the law school)...his lack of humility and utter sense of deservingness is the problem, and a problem with lots of white men...
16/ bc the society has told us we deserve the best for a very long time, and so sharing power is hard when you're used to hegemonic dominance. Make no mistake though: white men who demonstrate some human empathy are more then welcome...oh and who DON'T ASSAULT WOMEN...
17/ On the left, the court, in the Senate, or wherever. It isn't white men who are the probem, but whiteness & the mindset of superiority it engenders. Not all white folks have to accept whiteness, and sadly, some folks of color (see Kanye on SNL) have done so proudly...
18/ The problem with #BiffKav is his mentality, his treatment of women and his dishonesty about those actions. He lied about his drinking and behavior when drunk. He acted belligerent many times when drunk according to many witnesses...
19/ That he would lie about those things begs the question why? Why not admit, OK I had a drinking problem in high school and college but now I don't, and my contemporaries can attest to that? Lots of people grow out of heavy drinking in college after all...
20/ The only reason you try and downplay your drinking in those days is because you know that your behavior when drunk was less than exemplary, and to admit the drinking and belligerence would raise questions about what you did to Dr Ford and others...
21/ 21/ THAT is the issue. Not being white or a dude, unless one believes the very essence of whiteness is sexual predation & drunkeness. And no one on the left is saying that. The only ones implying it with this line of defense, ironically, are white dudes themselves...END
