Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
The point I started with, which I may not have put well, is that even if one is interested in understanding how people think, that doesn't mean that every episode helps you get there.
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I see (based on what you wrote below) that you're off on your own thing, but I don't think this is helpful at all.
First, the woman who threw slurs around like they're second nature may be a public figure. But I want to understand why public figures choose a certain approach when they are in damage-control mode. I want to understand why a complete denial in the face of obvious evidence to the contrary is the goal. I want to know why this works. You want to toss out all instances of a public figure explaining how not racist they are as insincere. I'm not saying it's not insincere. I want to know why they choose
this insincere strategy as opposed to others.
Second, her reaction is exactly the same as the reactions I see in non-public figures. I find it amazing that people who say racist shit see themselves as not even a little bit racist. Is it denial? Is it pure good-bad binary? Are they let off the hook by other whites?
Third, how do those things relate to each other? Is the approach by the public figure based on what white people do in private--say amazingly racist shit and then act like they're not racist amongst themselves such that they can move on? Are they ever called on it such that they have to do that? Is it just an ostrich approach--hide your head in denial until it blows over?
I understand that you don't want to discuss or think about it, but it would be nice if you stopped telling me that I shouldn't be interested in how public figures react to their racism being exposed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
What I was thinking, but did not say, is that I feel similarly fascinated with the question of why so many people still support Trump, but I also feel enormously frustrated with so much of what is written on the subject, because I don't feel like it's moving the needle of comprehension. And at some point, one has to just accept that we share the country with a large number of people with terrible beliefs, and we have to figure out how to mobilize so that they don't ruin people's lives. I do want to understand what makes the other side tick, but I also worry about a denialism that assumes that our problems are all about Trump, and not about all the people who elected him and continue to support him. Not to hijack the topic of racism to make it about Trump, but just to say that it feels necessary to understand the fucked-up ways that people think, but also exhausted and sometimes a diversion from what else needs to be done.
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A lot in here, but rest assured, I've been saying that 35-40% of this country is irretrievably racist for many years--well before Trump took office. He's captured that group through his racist, sexist, xenophobic, anti-intellectual cult of personality. They love him precisely
because of those things.
I'm not sure how to move past that. So, I'll stick to trying to understand the stuff that interests me.
TM
