http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswit...e-our-politicsI've been heads-down in some reading and interviews about the way we talk about, well, white people. Whiteness has always been a central dynamic of American cultural and political life, though we don't tend to talk about it as such. But this election cycle is making it much harder to avoid discussions of white racial grievance and iden y politics when, for instance, Donald Trump's only viable pathway to the White House is to essentially win all of the white dudes.
And indeed, the roiling civil war between the Republican Party's elites and a huge swath of its base has prompted an unusually candid public grappling with whiteness. Take this paragraph from a post by Bloomberg's Sasha Issenberg on "Hillary Clinton's Appalachian Problem:"
"This is all a reminder of how cir stantial Clinton's position as tribune of the white working class was during her first presidential campaign. (Thought exercises: what would Clinton's 2008 coalition have looked like had it been John Edwards, not Obama, who had won the Iowa caucuses that year? And what would it look this year if her liberal challenger were Deval Patrick instead of Sanders?) Perhaps now that she is no longer running against an African-American candidate—and has anointed herself a crusader against the 'challenges of racism, of sexism, of discrimination against the LGBT community'—Clinton no longer has much of a connection with those 'hard-working Americans.' "
This is much closer to Saying The Thing than we normally get, an acknowledgment that the reason "hard-working Americans" — the quotes underscoring the euphemism — don't really rock with Hillary Clinton is a sense that some of the concerns she's championing are, if not anathema to them, then at least not theirs. And that this time around, there isn't a black candidate to ensure that some white voters will vote for her, however grudgingly, despite her platform.
But then, there's the liberal commentator Jonathan Chait's recent essay at New York Mag, "The Real Reason We All Underrated Trump," in which he openly wonders whether Republican voters who've fallen for Trump are "idiots":
"Most voters don't follow politics and policy for a living, and it's understandable that they would often fall for arguments based on faulty numbers or a misreading of history. ... As low as my estimation of the intelligence of the Republican electorate may be, I did not think enough of them would be dumb enough to buy his act. And, yes, I do believe that to watch Donald Trump and see a qualified and plausible president, you probably have some kind of mental shortcoming. As many fellow Republicans have pointed out, Donald Trump is a con man. What I failed to realize — and, I believe, what so many others failed to realize, though they have reasons not to say so — is just how easily so many Republicans are duped."
It's telling that Chait finds it easier to imagine that huge swaths of Republican primary voters are childlike and naive, rather than folks who quite rationally dig Trump's direct appeals to their interests — their racial interests. Among Trump's most notorious policy proposals is a moratorium on Muslims entering the country. He has called Mexican immigrants "rapists." Maybe we should concede that these declarations are not incidental to his appeal among his supporters, but central to them. Calling them "idiots" posits that they've been duped, when perhaps Trump is saying precisely what they want to hear.
When Trump's supporters aren't being written off as intellectually incapable of knowing a huckster when they see one, their motivations are often ascribed to their being "working class." But the working class today is nearly 40 percent people of color — and among people of color, Trump is profoundly unpopular. His coalition is nearly entirely white. Even the class part of the "working class" narrative is inaccurate; Trump's supporters are wealthier than most Americans, and have higher incomes than supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The "working class revolt" explanation for Trump's rise is overstated — and it can be a useful dodge to avoid talking about explanations involving racial grievance.
Sweet. I'm white again. I preferred it when I was mexican and asian.
You've either got white guilt or you're racist.
Or I reject your racial paradigm. What makes me prejudiced vs white people? Be specific.
I mean if you would use something other than Klan terminology like white guilt than you'd have a point. Perhaps try race traitor next time?
Sorority apologizes for racist T-shirt made by chapter in Alabama
A sorority in Alabama apologized on Friday for a T-shirt that it made depicting a racially offensive image of an African-American person eating a piece of watermelon.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-al...e=domesticNews
Once a slave state, always a slave state.
The outrage of a black guy eating a watermelon!
I like them having slaves picking cotton in front of the big house with the US flag.
WELCOME TO ALABAMA!
i wonder what it would be like if blackness shaped our politics?
oh, it'd be like africa.
Obama says o. He isn't exactly Mugabe and he was voted in by the same notion being applied to whitey here.
What do you think of the GOPs all no all the time position towards Obama or the behavior of votes during the 2008 Democratic primary? Phrenology is strong in this country.
They do it too is a poor excuse.
And boutox. This thread is about how white voters are huge on iden y politics just like minorities not random racism by college kids external to voter behavior. If youre going to post in my threads would you please try and keep to the subject at hand?
ATTN: FUZZY G F Y, police your own infinite pissing matches
White iden y politics is euphemism for bigotry, esp. Euro-white males.
Think these deep south white es don' t IDENTIFY politically with their whiteness?
Is there anyone you don't get into a pissing match with?
I counter on the issues, policies, bull , but that destruction is usually delivered brutally, and quickly, which is totally different from your multi-page, go-nowhere bull pissing matches.
Last edited by boutons_deux; 05-16-2016 at 04:40 AM.
Posting that article.
White guilt is Klan terminology? Lol You need to get out more.
So your pissing matches are more special and include everyone you meet? You must be proud.
I asked for specifics and you failed. Not surprising but its their just the same.
Lol, everyone hates Boutons.
You must just slay the women Boutons.! Lol
"I think the true morons on this site"
... speak for yourself. Here's an original idea from The Great Boutons: G F Y
I hear your ING words, and I post the WORDS of Repugs, etc, which SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES as to why they have been and are the greatest threat to the 99% and the environment.
a very generous assumptionI am going to assume you read at least most of what you post.
I'd like to speak for myself - I don't hate boutons - from my pov, he posts too many long links - I'd rather hear what he thinks in his own words.
Anyways, what about Asians who love watermelon? I'd never heard of that racial slur before.
I'm waiting, in great anticipation, almost unsupportable for when you grace the forum with all you original takes, deep, incisive, creative takes.
iow, G F Y
LOL I actually agree with Boutons on this one. Almost all you do is vomit out childish insults like an 8th grader. Bring some thoughtful takes.
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