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1. The Covington kerfuffle produced a significant amount of conversation amongst my more politically moderate (but totally non-MAGA) friends on FB. Many worry about the rush to brand those boys as "racists." This is a subset of the "is it racist to vote for Donald Trump" convo.
2. Here's my response, FWIW.
3. The term "racist" is indeed tricky here. The group's *actions* struck me as racist...they still do. Calling them "racists" is another matter. I'd say that *anyone* socialized into white America is, to varying degrees (and I include myself in this), socialized to be racist.
4. That's what racist societies do, they produce people who reproduce that racism, often in less directly violent ways, like calling Warren "Pocahontas" or calling the police when you see a black person walking in a neighborhood you think they shouldn't be in...
5. ...or having a category on your website for "black crime" (like Bannon's Breitbart did) or thinking that 4000 women and children seeking asylum is an "invasion" that poses an immediate threat to your life in rural Pennsylvania.
6. So consider those white MAGA hat wearing boys from a predominantly white school outside of 45% black Cincy with a lily white teaching staff for which their parents are paying almost $10k/year, in part, to keep them away from underfunded public schools w/ black kids in them...
7. ...should we be surprised if such kids have learned to be typical American racists like all of us white people have, and probably even more so?
8. I recognize that using the word "racist" in this way risks minimizing the distinction between a murderous white supremacist KKK member and "goofy" kids in MAGA hats acting disrespectfully toward a Native American elder and veteran. That is, indeed, an important distinction...
9. ...but the problem is that it's the snarky kids who feels they can act that way toward a Native American elder (but would probably be outraged if a black teen protester disrespected a white veteran) who are the ones who vote for racist politicians like Trump or Steve King.
10. Kids like that and their parents make Trump's racism possible by internalizing it and reflecting it back at him, chanting "build a wall." So sure, are kids like these going to put on a hood and commit racist hate crimes tomorrow? Probabilities say, no.
11. But do we think this kid, when he gets to college, might (out of his love for "free speech") chant "build a wall" outside the meeting of the Mexican-American student organization when the campus conservatives organize such a thing? Yeah, I'd say there's a decent chance.
12. Is this kid going to watch Hannity and love it when he makes fun of "Pocahontas" and mocks Democrats who want to "irresponsibly" expand social spending to reduce poverty rates & improve educational opportunity on Native American reservations? Smart money says, take that bet.
13. This is why I have zero interest in defending those kids from the charge of racism. That hat they're wearing says "I support a politician who uses racist rhetoric and supports racist policies." I'm merely taking them at their word.
14. If I wear a Democratic Party hat to a red part of PA, what that says to those folks is "I want you to have better access to more affordable health care & more educational funding..." [cont'd]
15. "...I want your neighbor who violently assaulted his girlfriend to have a tougher time buying an AR-15, and I want you to pay lower taxes so that the people who make millions of dollars of year can shoulder more of the public burden."
16. The Trump voters I encounter may think those are stupid policies, but there's nothing in that hat or the policies for which it stands that tells them they are lesser people.
17. When those kids, en masse, wear MAGA hats in the majority black city of Washington DC, on the steps of the Lincoln f-ing Memorial, and in proximity to an Indigenous Peoples' Day Rally, they are making a very different statement toward any person of color they encounter.
18. Lastly (but definitely not least)...the Native American people who were present say they felt insulted by those kids' actions. They experienced the episode as a racist incident. I trust their judgement.
