Wednesday, October 05, 2016

Not an accidental racist



It's not that a Trump presidency ever sounded less than horrible to me, but it has taken disturbing racist turns that I really need to get off my chest.

Maybe the first point to make is that no racism is accidental. Individuals may not intend to imbibe it, but there are people who have worked very hard at different times to separate the interests of poor whites from poor people of color, to discredit any gains made by people of color (often through outright destruction), and to roll back progress. Thomas Dixon Jr. wrote a false novel about Reconstruction, and D. W. Griffith turned it into a film. Woodrow Wilson re-segregated government departments that had been integrated. Those are just a few examples that come to mind easily.

There is also a legacy of politicians perpetuating those stereotypes - often cynically - to appeal to voters. Nixon and Reagan did this with tough-on-crime/war-on-drugs campaigning and legislation.

It often used coded language. Being openly racist stopped being acceptable in polite company, but you can say "urban", "crime", and "welfare", and the message is received (regardless of how many criminals and government aid recipients are white).

The GOP has held on tightly to their racist dog-whistles, and building on them. They should not have been caught so off guard by Trump's popularity. Yes, he dropped the veneer, but it was only a thin veneer at best. It was equally easy to believe that Trump was simply not intellectual or self-aware enough to see the value in maintaining any veneer. Instead of tying illegal immigration closely to crime, he can just call Mexican rapists. It got a laugh for Amy Schumer, so why shouldn't it work for him?

Trump's supporters respond to how honest he is, and you could think that because he has dropped the code and is speaking openly that is true, but he has adopted a whole new code. I guess the first warning sign was when Trump compared Hillary Clinton to Angela Merkel:


I did think it was a strange way to go; Merkel doesn't come up a lot in casual conversation. Apparently I only thought that because I am not a white supremacist. They hate Merkel, so referencing her strikes a chord with them.

Not long after that, Donald Trump Jr. referenced the gas chambers. This is another phrase that resonates with white supremacists. Jr. later denied that there was any Holocaust reference - and how typical of the reporters to assume so - but he is also the one to send out memes with Skittles and Pepe the Frog. The Skittles analogy offended a lot of people and drew some good responses anyway, but what was easy to miss is that Skittles have been a thing for white supremacists since Trayvon Martin's death.

It was still hard for me to believe that Trump Sr. was such a devoted racist. Even something that vile still seemed to require more depth than he has. I could buy that Trump Jr. is the committed white supremacist, but that between his influence on one side and Putin's on the other, there is a real nightmare world being created. Then this turned up:


This may do more to explain Trump than anything else. His deep belief in the superiority of his genes could be why he thinks he is smart and good at business despite a great quantity of evidence to the contrary. It does seem primed to go right past narcissist onto sociopath, though I suspect that is more nurture than nature. (Okay, both.)

But the scariest thing that brings me back to is this:


This was posted before the Merkel comment, and it seemed to ludicrous. I mean, I saw the logic, and it seemed like a more achievable goal than winning the election, but still, could that really be his endgame? Now I'm not sure. Trump is sowing hatred, and confidence that the hatred is just. As he implies that his loss would be a sign of a rigged system, it worries me.

A Trump victory was always going to be a disaster; I never questioned that. It looks like he's working things so that disaster will accompany his defeat as well.

His defeat still needs to happen, but it's a concern.

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