Nope, still not a racist.

So Trump says everyone has the right to fly the Confederate flag under the First Amendment Clause of free speech. Except it's been ruled to be hate speech by local governments. Except he's the president who wants to ban the media and get rid of anyone who criticizes or disagrees with him. Except he's the guy who won't share any of his past on paper.

And why is the president of the United States in the year 2020 defending the right to fly the Confederate flag anyway?

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MistyCee

Trump may in fact be a racist, but I'll damned if i think that's not a symptom of much deeper and more disturbing issues with having him as President.

This is a guy who really seems to me to have no respect for anyone but himself or even the basic principles that allow human beings to associate with each other.

I know people with racist beliefs and inclinations who are not maleovolent or even dangerous, but Trump is not in their league. His veil seems to be totally opaque and the fact that certain colors don't show up seems to be almost a red herring.

bijouxbroussard · F

@MistyCee If they have racist beliefs, that’s malevolent. It’s just not malevolence directed at [b]you[/b]. 😒

Piper · 61-69, F

@bijouxbroussard That is something I've felt also, even though those racist views have rarely been directed [i]at[/i] [b]me[/b]. I know and have known people, who espouse undeniably racist views. Those people say that because they wouldn't actually "hurt" anyone, that their holding forth on those views isn't really "harming" anyone.

I do and have and always have disagreed with those people, that those views they speak about and hold forth on...are in any way [i]harmless[/i].

MistyCee

@bijouxbroussard I typed a rather lengthy reply to you on this with examples and an attempt at explaining why I thought it was more than just language, but it seems to have vanished.

I hear what you're saying about my perspective/privilege, and I'm not trying to discount it.

But I tend to think of maleovolence as involving malicious intent, which I don't think necessarily includes all those who might judge or even "discriminate" based on race.

I'm not saying that those people aren't dangerous or misguided, but maleovolence seems to me to be something distinct from racism, even if there's a lot of overlap.

I'm not saying that racism isn't "harmless" 99.99% of the time, and I think it usually is.

But I think the maleovolence, in the sense of people who actually intend to cause harm to people or act to cause harm, is something different and even more objectionable than some old man in a rocking chair who didnt think much about what his parents taught him or even what he repeated to his grandchildren.