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This is just such offensive horseshit it's almost difficult to know precisely *how* to be offended by it. It creates a gravity from which no shame can escape.
Anything is allowable, anything at all really, except making white people feel uncomfortable about racism for a second.
Anything is allowable, anything at all really, except making white people feel uncomfortable about racism for a second.
Trump has spent the last four years—as candidate and as president—sending a clear message, which violent men have often attuned to, and acted upon, most recently this week.
He knew he'd be immediately exonerated if he made the slightest lazy gesture toward decency.
He was right
He knew he'd be immediately exonerated if he made the slightest lazy gesture toward decency.
He was right
He knew it because he's a con man, and even a profoundly ignorant con man possesses keen knowledge of whatever it is their mark desires
White America is his mark
And what white America wants is to be innocent
We're willing to believe anything, as long as it keeps us innocent
White America is his mark
And what white America wants is to be innocent
We're willing to believe anything, as long as it keeps us innocent
If white America supports Trump, then Trump can't be a white supremacist, because ... well.
Because 60 million people voted for him.
You can't possibly mean that 60 MILLION people are racists, CAN you?
You've heard the argument.
It's premised in an untouchable innocence.
Because 60 million people voted for him.
You can't possibly mean that 60 MILLION people are racists, CAN you?
You've heard the argument.
It's premised in an untouchable innocence.
No—we're all part of that "we," a "we" that desires as a first priority to be deemed innocent. Remarks like this frankly just demonstrate it.
We may not support it—and that matters a lot.
But we all inherited some of the loot, even if we didn't plan the heist. That matters, too
We may not support it—and that matters a lot.
But we all inherited some of the loot, even if we didn't plan the heist. That matters, too
The president is a white supremacist who incites violence, and millions of white people still support him every day.
And millions more white people want to keep uncomplicated relationships with those people, but still maintain innocence.
We all know better, but we don't want to
And millions more white people want to keep uncomplicated relationships with those people, but still maintain innocence.
We all know better, but we don't want to
There's a huge market to tell us that whatever is happening is normal and therefore we are fine. The Times wants that market.
It gets it.
The sigh of relief is palpable when Trump finally, reluctantly, and obviously only momentarily enacts the barest minimum of human decency.
It gets it.
The sigh of relief is palpable when Trump finally, reluctantly, and obviously only momentarily enacts the barest minimum of human decency.
We reside in Trump's oases of performative human decency; use them to ignore the vast white desert of his supremacy—which 60m voted for, which stretches from horizon to horizon, which the NYT knows we want to insist doesn't exist—b/c for a moment there was a puddle, right HERE.
Screw your lying headline, New York Times.
It should be the headline for a week.
Fair question.
Here's the issue with it: It's *impossible* for Trump to "urge unity vs. racism" unless he first reckons w/the fact that his rhetoric and his policies mirror those of white supremacists, and that he has their ongoing support.
He didn't.
Here's the issue with it: It's *impossible* for Trump to "urge unity vs. racism" unless he first reckons w/the fact that his rhetoric and his policies mirror those of white supremacists, and that he has their ongoing support.
He didn't.
It's also impossible for us to create any unity vs. racism unless we first reckon with the fact that we live in a country where 60m+ people will vote for an open white supremacist and continue to support him after he's proven to be all he promised and more.
We haven't.
We haven't.
The headline is offensive because it actively participates in our ongoing program to avoid a reckoning—and we badly need to have a reckoning, if we are ever to become what we need to become, which is good and decent people ready to solve the desperate challenges we face.
You can't be a society that solves its problems if you're a society that dedicates its first energies to not acknowledging its problems.
Which is why we're not solving our problems.
/end
Which is why we're not solving our problems.
/end
Addendum
And the problem with partnering with a fascist to solve a problem created by fascism is the “solution” will be fascist.
A fascist needs to be defeated. Never normalized.
A fascist needs to be defeated. Never normalized.
What white America wants as a first priority is to be innocent. Even the suggestion of accountability is anathema, even the suggestion there might possibly be something for which accountability might be required. Report of the offense becomes the offense.
The market for immediate self-exoneration—unreflecting, reflexive, passive, lazy and facile—is a booming one.
The reflexive response of an abusive person is to make the true accusation into the crime.
Report of the offense is always seen as the cause of the offense.
A society dedicated to enablement will reflexively adopt the framing.
Look at him.
"Urging Unity Vs. Racism" my ass.
Report of the offense is always seen as the cause of the offense.
A society dedicated to enablement will reflexively adopt the framing.
Look at him.
"Urging Unity Vs. Racism" my ass.
White America's idea of ending racism is ending *talk* about racism.
This is why we only started loving Martin Luther King Jr. once he was dead and quiet.
This is why we only started loving Martin Luther King Jr. once he was dead and quiet.
White America thinks racism is something you stop by thinking "racism is bad" in your head.
That's why we love the "I Have A Dream" speech. We think all we have to do is think "that is a good dream."
We HATE people who tell us we still have to work to make the dream exist.
That's why we love the "I Have A Dream" speech. We think all we have to do is think "that is a good dream."
We HATE people who tell us we still have to work to make the dream exist.
