Thread by @LarryGlickman

Very good article by ⁦@AshleyRParker⁩ in the ⁦@washingtonpost⁩ on Trump, but this sentence demonstrates the danger of focusing in “race” rather than racism. What does it even mean to say that one has a “dubious history on the topic of race”? /1

The word “dubious” can connote variously hesitating, doubting, suspect, unreliable. Do any of these meanings accurately describe Trum’s lifelong record of racist rhetoric and actions? Has he been hesitant or unreliable in this regard? /2

The tripartite progression Parker tries to suggest-“from nativist to racially-charged to downright racist”-also makes no sense, given that the first is an expression of racism and the second is a nonsense euphemism that many media outlets have thankfully abandoned. /3

Moreover, this progression, which I take to be suggesting a chronological development (because ths is supposed to be fleshing out his “dubious history”), makes no sense on its own terms since Trump first came to prominence in 1975 for a housing discrimination case against him. /4

So Trump’s “dubious history” is not a story of descent but of consistent expressions of racism, as @TheAtlantic recently documented. /5
theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

The sentence would have been more accurate, in my view, if it began, “Trump’s history of racism is long and well-documented...” /6

The broader problem, which I noted in @BostonReview, is that using terms such as “racially charged” or concocting phrases that don’t really make sense (like a “dubious” history on race) serves to valorize and naturalize a fiction. /7
bostonreview.net/race/lawrence-…

As I wrote, “The language of ‘charged’ and ‘tinged’ suggests that race can be overemphasized or exaggerated, but elides the fact that any biological notion of race is a fiction, while racism is a very real language of power.” /8

This is why we should avoid phrases like the recent @nytimes headline, “Trump Fans the Flames of a Racial Fire,” which obscure the issue and make no sense to boot (how can a fire be “racial”?). /9
nytimes.com/2019/07/14/us/…