Well I wouldn’t say that exactly. It’s also not just white. The GOP is especially good at pitting minority groups against each other although it’s just open season these days.
1 in 5 sounds about right, but no I don’t think they’re all in the GOP. There are plenty of Democrats in that group, but the GOP is going to have most of them at this point and Libertarians has a good club going as well.
My parents are racist. My in laws are racist.
I didn’t want to say it, but at some point it’s true. And Fox and Trump have enabled people to say and think things they never would have before. Like, for example, a recent incident. My mother, when discussing the temporary arrangements I had to make in Portland. I mentioned that the people I’m renting a room from are a couple of guys from Brazil, working on getting their pilots license.
The first thing she said was ‘how do you know they’re not terrorists’. I was appalled. And it got worse! Every time she tried to say some justification it made it worse, the nationalistic and xenophobic bullshit made me angry.
I fully blame Fox for it too. This wouldn’t have been the case 20 years ago. But they beat the drum so hard on racist propoganda that the first thing they think of with foreigners is ‘they hate us and are probably terrorists’.
It is why I wish for Hannity, O’riley, Tucker, and every racist lie pushing charlatan at, or formerly at, Fox to suffer immensely.
To us, glued to the news and what he said and did prior to the election, not much. He talked about several ideas beforehand (the wall, blocking muslims from our country, making fun of minorities, complaining about minorities, etc.) To someone who may not have paid attention, EVERYTHING he does now is talked about incessantly.
I’m having trouble with the willingness. On one side of my family, there are a TON of Trump voters. Hell I just saw a lot of that group a few months ago, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I’m not saying I approved of them for voting for Trump or that I forgive them. I’m saying I really am having a hard time throwing them into a group reference of, “they are all racist.”
I guess maybe they will be the first ones to get their Trump armbands and wave goodbye to me when I’m locked up.
I think just assuming everyone who voted for Trump is a racist is wrong. But do I believe that 20% of Americans are racist, in either thought, word or deed, probably. I believe there are democrats and liberals who are racist. Most never act on it, at least publicly. But many do in their private actions, where they live, shop, eat etc.
But both parties are full of people who vote based on one important element, whether it be the environment of abortion, and beyond that they are tone deaf.
This IMO is disqualifying; the rest is gravy.
Yeah, given our history that seems rather low. Racism is also a spectrum; you don’t have to advocate lynching to qualify.
There’s also a difference between folks who are actively defined by racist goals and activities and those who are simply passively racist or comfortable with racism if it comes with something they care more about. Like, “Well, if you offer me zero dollars or zero dollars and you’ll also punch a poor brown kid, please spare the child. But for the right price, I’ll look the other way while you throw a haymaker or two.”
Many of them are the super religious types who post a million facebook prayer requests, etc. So it makes me wonder how they came to terms with voting for Trump.
The essence of racism is that the other people are not people. So for racists, there’s no conundrum. Wishing those other people ill isn’t evil or wrong because they are not people. Religious teachings calling for brotherhood and charity aren’t applicable because those other people aren’t people.
A black classmate of mine in college once said that everyone wrestles with some degree of racism. It’s just that good people try to come to terms with their unconscious biases, ignorance, insecurity, etc. Good people yearn for a just world of equality and free from prejudice and bigotry and strive towards that likely impossible goal.
20% of people on the openly racist and proud of it side of the spectrum strikes me as too low. I suspect that number is more like 30% with another 10% being super racist out of ignorance and callousness. (Eh. Maybe that breakdown is more 20-20. I’d like to think that the majority of the country is on the correct side of the racism spectrum but I’m continually disappointed by my fellow man on this front so maybe that’s wishful thinking.)
Kidnapping brown children and throwing them in cages. This is a step away from the Nazi solution. If Trump voters can’t pry themselves away from trump after that - then they are racist by rubber stamping his very evil policies. What’s in his black heart is open and projected everywhere. A vote for trump belies the truth of the voters inner voice. Hate, intolerance, some form of evil. It may not be overtly racist (black and Hispanic voters voting trump) - but what’s in their heart is a hate - a racism towards poor souls who were born South of the United States.
I was specifically referring to Skippers remark that 63 million people being racist and actively shamed would somehow be… surprising. I would feel comfortable saying though that many if not most racist are in the in the GOP ranks if for no other reason because the GOP says it’s not only okay but they should be able to reveal their vileness and not be punished for it. That’s why this group is emboldened by the GOP, not the Democrats. Most of the racist issues, policies and tendencies are subtle and very harmful even if their not as obvious as some wealthy white women drunkenly saying she is white and hot and telling black women they don’t belong.
We all have biases. I suspect the ones that are okay with someone throwing a rock and getting blown away because they did that, but only because they’re brown, it wouldn’t be okay if they were pretty and white… that group is in the GOP. They don’t have a comfortable place with the Democrats. The ones hiding in the Democrat ranks, mostly still have to hide, and they do things like tear up resumes because the name is Jamal or Muhammad and not Adam.
Yeah, we all have bias, but the majority, don’t act on them often and struggle with correcting or not acting on them.
I guess another large part of my surprise is … why now? Not just here, multiple countries are struggling with this, right now. There has been a huge movement by far right political groups and governments against immigrants in multiple places of late. Why? It would be convenient to say, oh the Russians are pushing that agenda everywhere but it doesn’t fit everywhere.
Is it just more reporting ON racism?
It’s like you’re hanging out with all your NASCAR friends and the group always listens to Metallica. You just go along with it and mind your own business and keep to yourself when suddenly Big Chuck starts humming 2 Become 1 and you’re like “OMG you like the Spice Girls too? Holy FUCK I love the Spice Girls! Tell me what you want what you really really want, Chuck! >>chest bump<<”.
And then Chuck tells you about this awesome Facebook group called NASCAR Spice for all the other NASCAR lovin’ Spice Girls fans. You’ve spent so much time arguing about which Spice Girl is the best (Posh, obviously) that it becomes so normal. Next time you’re down in Talladega, you don’t even think twice about wearing your vintage shirt from their 1999 tour and telling the strangers standing next to you how much you want Posh to sit on your face.
In Europe there is a huge new migration problem that is driven in part by Syrian conflict but also by climate change in Middle East and Africa. Long-term droughts are driving millions of people to destitution, and that or the conflict it engenders drives people to try to emigrate to someplace they will survive.
This is just a foreshadowing of the much greater climate-change driven migrations that are in store.
This was a surprisingly detailed example. Are you okay, Kevin?
It’s climate change. Places like North Africa and Central America are becoming less habitable, so there’s larger numbers of immigrants moving north. Of course, all those people are identifiably brown and migrating into whiter areas, thus triggering racists to use their skin color as an excuse to keep them out.
People thought that Trump was like your Uncle Louie. Louie is racist, but he’s not a Racist.
See everyone in your family knows Louie’s racist: when he’s had too many drinks while watching baseball he’ll mutter any number of slurs at the various black or Hispanic batters. But no one worries about Uncle Louie being a Racist – he’s not going pick fights with minorities or burn crosses or even do an intentionally shoddy job for a black customer. He just doesn’t like non-Whites… or Polocks or Italians, if you get right down to it.
When Trump was elected, I think most of the country knew he was racist. But I don’t think that most of the country realized he was a Racist: that it wasn’t just an old white guy’s general distaste for people not like him, but rather a deep animus towards minorities that would pervade and shape almost all of his policies (such as they are).
I don’t think that it was until Charlottesville that most of the country looked up and said, “Holy shit, this guy’s not just casually racist, he’s a Racist!”
And welcome to the ride, kids.
So they thought he was Archie Bunker but he turned out to be George Wallace?
Yes, authoritarian tendencies seem to be more prevalent in people who feel afraid of insecure. They want someone strong to protect them by any means necessary.
As the world becomes increasingly unstable, more people will feel insecure and there will be growing support for authoritarian movements. It sucks, particularly because those authoritarian governments with make everything worse and hasten our decline.