I thought the silly season was over, but apparently it just began.
I live in the first red state to go for McCain Tuesday night--the great Commonwealth bygodKentucky. We're not just red, we're deep red. Hell, we just re-elected Mitch McConnell.
Still . . .
I live in a pretty blue area, though--a university town with a more center-center outlook.
I've made no secret of my support for Obama, from donations to phone banking to talking with McCain supporters trying to convert them. So, aside from my students, anyone who knows me knows who I like.
And yet in the days since Obama's victory, I've had three different white people I know come up to me and relay some vile racial joke about Obama. What the f*ck?
OK, I'm white. Maybe it some sense of . . . whatever the hell it is that those kinds of whites have with each other. I don't know the secret racist handshake, but maybe they just figure I'm part of the club.
But these people know of my support for Obama. And yet they think I'll laugh at some stupid racist humor?
I don't understand the mind of a racist very well, it's true. Maybe they think that all whites are like them. But it's vile, and disgusting.
With the first person I said "that's not very funny" and moved on. The second one I said "Hey, you know, that sort of thing is not OK and sounds ignorant."
With the third one, who in some sense is "under" me as part of a training thing, I looked at hir and said "you know, that's gross, it's ignorant, and very inappropriate in this setting.
I don't understand this. It pisses me off, and I'm mad as fscking hell.