Could you imagine a clearer example of white privilege?

[Soph0571]

George Conway wrote an editorial for WaPo yesterday and on the face of it it was a 'oh goody look at the nice republican being mean to the President and calling out his racism' moment. After all in the piece he did write:

Naivete, resentment and outright racism, roiled in a toxic mix, have given us a racist president. Trump could have used vile slurs, including the vilest of them all, and the intent and effect would have been no less clear. Telling four non-white members of Congress — American citizens all, three natural-born — to ‘go back’ to the ‘countries’ they ‘originally came from’? That’s racist to the core.

Rather explicit in this condemnation of Trump. However, not so fast..

In the prior paragraph he wrote:



What the actual fuck....
This is what we are up against. This chap thinks he is saying the right thing this weekend BUT his white privilege allowed him to ignore Trumps ongoing racism - since before the election - because he was not 'comfortable' to acknowledge it? Huh?

He didn't want to think Trump was racist all the while Trumps racist policies have led to very real harm for American people of colour.

The birtherism, the 'very fine people on both sides', the literal concentration camps on the border (and of course we could go on), all afforded Trump the benefit of the doubt on being a racist? It wasn't quite racist enough? Huh

White Privilege supporting White Supremacy Writ Large.

[brooklynite]

1. Great way to build an alliance: ask people why they didn't join sooner...

[Soph0571]

2. What alliance?

Do you think he is pro democratic.... he is not - he is anti-trump. Big difference

[brooklynite]

4. So your approach to getting rid of Trump is only to work with Democrats?

[EffieBlack]

3. Such a good point

Too many white people bend over backwards while simultaneously twisting themselves into knots avoiding calling other white people racist - and the surest way to get these white folk to find common cause and circle the wagons is for a person of color to call a white person a racist - or even to suggest they might be. Hell, even if said POC specifically says they’re NOT calling said white person a racist, these white folk will STILL insist they called them a racist and THEN circle the wagons around the “victim” and viciously attack the “attacker.”

And, funny thing, though. These same people are oh-so-quick to label as racist any POC who has the nerve to call a white person racist or even say a white person could do better when it comes to race.

The refusal of some white people - and not just Trumpsters and not just Republicans - to call Trump a racist is just another version of that tribalism.

[marble falls]

5. I sure did not want to think an American President could be racist ...

it has to do with respect for the office without considering the man too deeply, its a little too late for that the on January 21.

But when he he makes it clear he wasn't just pandering to his basest sort of base, the basket of deplorables, we can't just hope for the best anymore. We all believe sitting in the Oval Office only brings out better in the best of men and in our near future women.

It certainly failed if Trump's case. No silk purse from this sow's ear - just a bigger sow. I hope the old adage is true: piggies get fed and hogs get slaughtered.

[treestar]

6. Is Conway white?

Wasn't he Asian? Filipino, I thought.

[Mister Ed]

7. I think you're right. And here's why that could be a good thing, in this case:

There's a time-honored tactic among salespeople that's known as "feel, felt, found". It's used to overcome a prospective customer's objections during a sales pitch.

When customers object to a part of the pitch, salespeople don't tell them, "No, you're wrong", and lose the sale. Instead, a good salesperson will say, "I can understand why you would feel that way. I felt that way myself. But then I found that..."

I don't think Conway wrote this op-ed for People of Color, who need no 'splaining at all to help them see what's square in front of their faces. Instead, I think he wrote it for privileged whites, for whom the thought that the President of the United States might be a vicious racist is just a little uncomfortable.

So, he speaks to them in their own language - the language of white privilege - as he moves them gently through "feel, felt, found". He reassures them that he understands why they feel reluctant to accept this awful truth, because he felt the same reluctance. But then he found that...

I don't know whether Conway employed this very persuasive tactic deliberately or just by chance, but in the end, it's all the same: a few - far too few - privileged whites who read his lines will manage to peer through the thick fog of the white privilege that surrounds them, and actually begin to see what's so painfully obvious to other people.

[tblue37]

8. Not exactly white privilege. His mother was from the Philippines. nt