I was reading a Charles Blow editorial this morning on racism….it’s a tour de force and you should read the whole thing. Here’s one of the most salient paragraphs:
You see, racism is a moral corruption built on an intellectual fallacy and exists as a construction invented for the very purpose of violence. So, when people demonstrate that they subscribe to theories of racism, they have shown their hand, and I am immediately roused by the euphoric understanding that they are compromised, diminished and assailable.
Instead of reducing me, their racism reduces them. That is the ironic, poetic justice of it.
I, like most people, have thought a lot about racism the past few years. I watched with horror what was said and done to Barack Obama for 8 years. Slights large and small directed at one of the most dignified people on the planet. As one after another of mediocre white people presented themselves as superior to this accomplished black man, I would wish I could talk to that person and ask them, “what exactly is it that makes you so superior?” I could see nothing obvious….I would have liked for these obviously unaccomplished and thoughtless individuals to describe the attributes that made them so much more superior than the first black President of the United States.
I’d like to ask the average Trump voter how their racism is working out for them. Whether they realize that by diminishing the “other” they are actively diminishing themselves. If they understand that by voting to keep the brown or black person in their place they are also voting in their own slide to poverty. It has to be obvious by now that the Republican Party is color blind when it comes to robbing the poor and middle class. They are equal opportunity grifters if nothing else. Too few of the racist white understand that their racism is being used as a distraction while their pockets are being picked. So stupid….
I find it insulting that this mewling, whining mass of white conservatives, evangelical “Christians”, Republican politicians, talk radio and cable news talking heads and every other grievance laden individual presents themselves as the most superior race on the planet. They are the only people insecure enough to flounce around in public, proclaiming their obvious superiority. There is no black or brown equivalent to Klan marches and Nazi rallies. It’s only the pathetic white man (and it’s mostly men) who must constantly tell us how great they are. For a group constantly proclaiming that their voices are being silenced by the P.C. left, they never seem to shut up.
These people do not speak for me, do not speak for all white people. Their racism diminishes them. I refuse to be that small.
Kudos to Charles Blow for laying it out so eloquently.