In light of a sad diary published today by kossack who I deeply admire and respect (therefore I'll refrain from linking to it), I thought it important to say a few words about just how subtle racism, sexism, and homophobia can be). The objectionable nature of the diary arose from suggesting that we need to address the question of Sanders's Jewish ethnicity because it's likely large swaths of the American electorate would never accept a Jewish person as president.
Nothing could be more obvious, right? Christianity dominates in this country and anti-semitism is still common. The diarist is simply being a pragmatic realist, acknowledging reality, and pointing out that we need to be cognizant of this when selecting a candidate.
I would like to suggest that this is a subtle form of racism.
This is an example of what I call "inverted or strange racism" (or sexism or homophobia, etc). People think you have to be racist in your heart to be a racist. But there's a way of being racist (or sexist or homophobic) in terms of what you believe is in the mind of others. One says, "I can't support person x because others are racist and they won't support him." Because one chooses their action based on what they believe others believe, the net result becomes support of racist policy. That racism might not be in your heart, but you're still allowing the racist to triumph.
It appears some have trouble understanding this concept and seeing why this phenomenon is so objectionable. Take the following scenario in a male dominated workplace:
Mark believes Chelsea is thoroughly qualified for the job, but knows he works with a bunch of sexist pigs that will never accept a woman in a managerial position. Knowing that it's important to keep the business going, Mark decides to be a pragmatic realist and regretfully passes over Chelsea's application with regret, hoping some day his colleagues will be enlightened enough to consider a woman.
In this scenario Mark congratulates himself for being an enlightened, non-sexist, man but he really shouldn't. He's still allowing sexism to determine his actions, but in the form of what he believes others believe. This is exactly what happens with strange racism, sexism, and homophobia. We congratulate ourselves on being enlightened because
we don't believe these noxious things, but nonetheless support racist, sexist, and homophobic policies by claiming
others aren't ready for equality. Every time someone asked whether the country was ready for a black, female, or Jewish president they're participating in this form of strange racism and sexism. It's something that needs to stop and certainly something "pragmatic realists" should reflect on in their thought processes.