Many were asking, yesterday: Is Donald Trump a Racist? I, too, wonder about such matters but can have no comfortable answer. What we get to see about another has to do with a public persona ... Indeed, how I write does, as well. One of the difficulties that I have experienced in online discussions has to do with others gratuitously diagnosing each other (and me) and claiming to be able to discern this or that character pathology from this or that behavior or set of behaviors displayed by that public persona. I try to stay out of those waters.
Example: It would be outrageous to diagnose Colbert from his Hyper-Conservative guy -- or, now that he's left his TV Spot on Colbert Nation -- from his new Late-Night TV persona. Here, as another example, you get me -- as this outrageous character nazi-schmazi -- mirroring, as best I can, Trump's presentation of himself as an unempathic man with extremely poor impulse control who seems to think that giving someone else a job is sacrificing for that other, and who seems pretty regularly to hurt others (that’s some kind of narcissism + problem controlling impulses). If we knew his motives, we might be able to say more. There’s quite a nice piece from a lifetime ago (maybe late 40’s) by Annie Reich on The Grotesque Comic Sublimation*.
So, the question for me has more to do with whether or not Trump's followers believe that he ever believed that Obama was not constitutionally-fit to serve as POTUS, due to his not having been born in the United States. Or, maybe it's more straightforward and correct to ask:
Was there a wink and a nod between the apparent claims from many Birthers
and what those many -- including Trump or the halogram we saw of him -- believed.
And this gets me to the impossible-to answer-questions, like "what is racism?"
But first, if I may wax Biblical for just another moment in these blogs? ... Sorry. The Bible is my metaphor and maybe, for some, gets in the way ... but that's from whence I come!
Thou shall not take the name of the Lord in vain!
Over the centuries, this has often-time been taken to mean that one shouldn't utter the word God, except, perhaps in prayer. No Goddammits ... Maybe not even a God Forbid! Right? Some Latinize it and then abbreviate it as D.V. ... Deo Volente. How many times have I seen G-d ... as if, the Deity wouldn't know that that little hyphen is an "o." I'm certain there are people of intellect and unquestionable intent who disagree with me ... but I do disagree.
So, what is it for me ... maybe an example or two will help.
(I) A Clergyman says to one of their flock who has come for guidance: "G-d wants you to have sex with me." Now, that for me is taking the name of God in vain.
(II) Someone else says that "The people of New Orleans are being tortured by the Lord with violent wind and unrelenting rains (fire and brimstone, in the wings, perhaps) for tolerating homosexuality, just like Sodom was punished for its perversions." That's taking the name of the Lord in vain, too, unless one presumes that one can speak in the name of God ... or G-d.
So, the Sin, if you would allow me, is invoking the Deity for personal pleasures or gains.
So, the Sin, if you would allow me, is invoking the Deity for personal pleasures or gains.
So, what about this thing we call racism. "And what's your point, already, Nazi-Schmazi," some may be asking. ... To this end, let me offer an hypothesis:
one uses difference for one's own personal gain or in order
to gratuitously hurt the other.
As I wrote these words yesterday, the Congressional Black Caucus was discussing another of Trump's grandstanding moments, in which he advertised his Greatest and Best Hotel, (ab)used the imprimatur of Medal receiving GI's, and then said that President Obama was born in the United States and that he had -- more or less -- singlehandedly settled this issue that Sen. Clinton began two election cycles, ago. O ... K. OK, indeed! Back to the Black Caucus. Nobody -- in good conscience and to my way of thinking -- would call their pride in their own group or in a President who arose from that group racist, any more, I think than a Church, Mosque or Synagogue that represents a particular faith-subgroup would be called Religionist (except by the likes of the author of Woody Allen's old piece "Reflections of a Second Rate Mind.") We don't condemn an individual for having a healthy dose of pride in viewing the fruits of their own efforts.
So, lemme get back and try, again, to answer -- borrowing from a song "What is Racism to Me?" ...
So, lemme get back and try, again, to answer -- borrowing from a song "What is Racism to Me?" ...
Pathological Racism is a method by which
one uses racial difference for one's own personal gain
in spite of potential hurt to another.
********************
Aside 2. I was impressed for the first time by the Media who came out, in strength, today, saying clearly that Trump's claims and his grandstanding were bullshit.*** Lord ... May it continue that the Fourth Estate resurrect itself from its sometimes comatose journalistic neutrality about which I've been raging in these postings.
one uses racial difference for one's own personal gain
in spite of potential hurt to another.
"So, Nazi-Schmazi, get to your point, already." I'm trying.
As I see these matters, the Trumplets, the little Trumps, the Surrogates and Herr Drumpf, himself, keep saying that the Candidate doesn't have a racist bone in his body. If by that they mean that Donnie can have friends and even warm relationships with people who are racially different than he? I'm good! I am OK accepting that but I do think it misses the point. A wealthy Sheik who builds hotels with DJT? A black person who doesn't get in Donnie's way or who partners with him? A Mexican-heritage judge who supports Drumph's law-suit? I have very little doubt that Trump would invite such folk into partnerships with him or into his home or to share his Bucket of KFC. He seems to be quite comfortable, for instance, having a Jewish Daughter and Son-in-Law. In my mind, I think he may well have been thrilled if Ivanka had brought home the Young Barak Obama. Harvard! Good future!Who could ask for more?
No - no. Trump, as far as I can tell, uses difference only in adversarial situations and only to gain the upper hand. I have no belief that Trump harbors hatred towards others -- similar OR different -- more than I believe that his public persona has known much love. What's the lyric in Brigadoon?
I saw a man who had never known
A love that was all his own.
I looked as I thanked
All the Stars in the Sky ...
"There but for you, go I."
So, yes, his kids who may well love him and say that Dad has not a racist bone to be found ... may well be correct. To say it differently: it may well be true in that the only difference Herr Drumpf seems to know is:
My own sense is that ... No ... very few folk actually believed President Obama to be the Kenyan Candidate!
A tragedy that is all too common, maybe, particularly among a percentage of those raised with wealth and others believing in their entitled status or those who come along for the shared power that the bully's circle provides. For the Bully, himself, convinced that every word he expresses must be special, he grows up tragically believing in his powers and speaking words, as if they must be true and of great value.
"Are'ya ... For me ... or ... Agin me?
I love everybody who who accepts my greatness.
I use difference or any other means to destroy those who oppose me."
My own sense is that ... No ... very few folk actually believed President Obama to be the Kenyan Candidate!
This is The Way of the Bully:
Make the accusation, repeat it and repeat it again
until the crowd surrounding the other says they believe it, too.
Then drive that Scapegoat over the Cliff and stone it.
A tragedy that is all too common, maybe, particularly among a percentage of those raised with wealth and others believing in their entitled status or those who come along for the shared power that the bully's circle provides. For the Bully, himself, convinced that every word he expresses must be special, he grows up tragically believing in his powers and speaking words, as if they must be true and of great value.
So where does racism fit in these scenarios? Wherever self interest uses racial difference and objectification of the Other (taking away that Other's sense of themselves as valuable Subjects in Their Own Right), I feel comfortable using the terms racist/racism.** The salient question is not whether one has pride or even a sense of value -- even excessive value, perhaps -- in one's own group. The Black Caucus has every right to be proud. The issue, rather, is whether someone uses the limiting of the other, not out of disdain or even necessarily to harm, but for the purpose of personal gain in spite of harm to the other.**
*******************
Aside 1. I think I write to modulate the tears that well up in my eyes thinking of the damage done to all who grow up this way and of the damage they, in turn, may well cause.
Aside 2. I was impressed for the first time by the Media who came out, in strength, today, saying clearly that Trump's claims and his grandstanding were bullshit.*** Lord ... May it continue that the Fourth Estate resurrect itself from its sometimes comatose journalistic neutrality about which I've been raging in these postings.
*I recommend it to the interested ... I think it originally was in the
Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic c. 1950. This is, I suspect, not the
context for discussing such wonkitudes and I do tend to wax wonky,
even on a good day.
** I do know that many have expanded this notion to passive aggressions,
such as Dominant Race Privilege. This has arisen with the writings of many Post-
and Post-post-Modernists. I'm confident that others will talk about these matters
and leave it to them to appropriately expand on these limited views.
*** FTR ... Bullshit is not a technical or diagnostic term but quite evocative, nonetheless.
such as Dominant Race Privilege. This has arisen with the writings of many Post-
and Post-post-Modernists. I'm confident that others will talk about these matters
and leave it to them to appropriately expand on these limited views.
*** FTR ... Bullshit is not a technical or diagnostic term but quite evocative, nonetheless.
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