Of course it’s the LA Times…
In 2016, white people must take responsibility for Donald Trump.
The mother of all association fallacies, and that’s just the headline. All aboard the White Guilt Express, last train to Crackertown!
“White people, come get your boy.”
Depending on how you read that line from comedian W. Kamau Bell about Donald Trump, you might take it as a joke. Or you might take offense.
Actually my first reaction is “Who?” But my second is: Wow, more liberal “famous” people taking on the political correctness machine by attacking white people. It’s a joke but it’s a poor one, done to death by the likes of comedians better than Bell more than a decade ago.
But Bell meant it as a call to action – because Trump is not a Republican problem. He’s a white-people problem.
He’s been exactly zero problem for me. How’s this? “Obama is not a Democrat problem. He’s a black-people problem.”
For the uninitiated, here’s a primer on “getting your boy.” First, you need to tell said “boy” that he is making you look bad in front of polite company.
You see, you must attack someone else for what they are saying because you share superficial ties like skin-color. Nevermind that your “boy” (hey isn’t that racist?) is a grown-ass adult allowed to have opinions different than yours. Nevermind that the liberal and cuckservative whites have lined up to attack Trump, eager to virtue signal to their media masters (is that racist?) that they’re The Good Ones. The precious whites still possessing white guilt over the actions of other people. I wouldn’t even apologize for my wife’s behavior if she upset someone else — it’s not my damn place. A child, maybe, because you’re supposed to raise them. But you don’t apologize for someone else.
This is a familiar practice to people of color: Whenever a black or brown person does something unsavory in public, members of their community know that it will – fairly or not – reflect on them.
HAHAHAH REALLY?
WHEN?
Because it seems to me that any time a person of color (how is that not racist?) commits any sort of public crime or embarrassment the media and everyone else go out of their way to condemn anyone that notices their color. But a white racist kills someone and news media types write article after article about how we have to atone for white racism, for white supremacy. We’re all held guilty as one.
In this case a whole lot of persons of whiteness (that sounds awesome) aren’t feeling the collective guilt over Trump, and a great deal of them are embracing him. And that drives these media types bananas because they can’t cow us into submission. I did not start out as a Trump supporter but the more ink bled about how he’s my fault as a white guy, the more I’m going to embrace him because I have a problem with authority. Telling me not to like someone when I can see through your bullshit is the best way to change my mind.
Trump is a particularly embarrassing figure because of whom he purports to represent. His rhetoric might appeal most to white nationalists, including former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, but his target is not the fringes. Instead, as Duke says, Trump’s campaign is an appeal to “the values and interests of the European-American majority.”
Note the careful, almost passive, way that was phrased. It might appeal most to white nationalists. Including this extremely distasteful former Democrat named David Duke, whose very name is used as a wedge to silence white people. Again, you can see the association fallacy here. Because Duke likes Trump, Trump is guilty of whatever Duke has done or said. They tie white people to Trump, Trump to Duke, and Duke to everything the Klan ever did and he’ll probably throw slavery in at some point (I honestly am responding to this as I read it). If you are responsible for everything bad anyone that agrees with any of your positions does then Obama has a lot to answer for. Bombings, terrorism, and “God damn America” to start with.
But it’s racist to use the association fallacy against Democrats — even white ones, somehow.
White people should feel insulted by this.
I feel insulted by the idea we are a hive mind.
They should feel ashamed – as white people – of Donald Trump.
DING DING DING! WHITE GUILT EXPRESS, LAST CALL! Swap white for black and Trump for any embarrassing black guy and see how quick Dexter over at the Times loses his mind about how racist that is. This is an absurd combination of the association fallacy and an appeal to authority. The authority in this case is white guilt.
Whites need to stand up and say that they will not allow Trump to hijack their culture, or to conduct his racist politics in their name.
We don’t have one culture. I am sorry we all look alike to you.
Still, that’s not enough.
He is, at least, bold. Criticizing Trump, acting as a hive mind to unperson him is not enough. Virtue signalling isn’t enough. No, you must:
The second part of “getting your boy” goes beyond distancing yourself from him. A community must take responsibility for any damage that has been done, and take steps to correct it.
From bold to a straight up caricature of black people in just a few short sentences. Not only must we distance ourselves from Trump, a man we are now indelibly tied to by virtue of our skin color, but we must take responsibility for any damage he has done and take steps to correct it. In other words, this guy is holding his hand out for white people to give him some sort of reparation for the words of a white person. The racists making memes about “gibs” now have a published source of someone trying to exhort them from whites as a whole.
How about, in 2016 blacks must take responsibility for inner-city violence, and take steps to correct the damage? Take responsibility for any violence against whites by any blacks. Take responsibility for the fact both people I’ve known that have been shot, were shot by blacks? Oh, no, see, guilt by association is only a part of white guilt. And we evil whites don’t actually expect that sort of thing from black people, or any persons of color (really are we SURE this isn’t racist?), because we’re not liberal halfwits. I understand, and Trump understands, and some 99.999…% of the white “race” understands that guilt by association is a foolish way to look at the world.
White America hasn’t gotten to this step yet – but it needs to, says Tim Wise, a speaker and author who has written extensively on racism. A recent study shows that Trump may actually have more support than previously estimated, but Wise doesn’t think that Trump stands a chance to win the election.
I have to admit, when I saw “White America” my internal voice read it as Eminem. That’s half of why I’m including this paragrpah, the other is to point out that using this Tim Wise guy is another appeal to authority. In this case, apparently an authority on collective white guilt.
This makes Trump even more dangerous.
Clearly this person is unaware of how elections work, then. If he has no chance to win then he will have no power and you can all get off the fainting couch.
“Trump is unleashing this sense among a certain group of white men that violence is acceptable,” he said, referring to recent attacks at Trump rallies.
A spacious claim to start with, the man attacked at the Trump rally was a disruptive git. When we’ve seen BLM fools disrupt Democrat events we all know damn well they won’t show any more respect for a Republican speaker. Fuck off with that nonsense.
“They’re afraid that their country is being taken away from them by immigrants and people of color, and that Trump is their last chance to take it back. If they discover that they can’t win at the ballot box, the question becomes: What do we expect these angry white people to do?”
“Some of those people,” he says, “might turn to terrorism.”
“Immigrants and people of color.” So apparently there’s a contingent of whites who are also against white immigration — and now we have a source, a virtue signalling concern troll on the record saying that the problem with immigration isn’t due to “people of color” because he specifically separated the two groups.
Also, we’re constantly told that at any moment a bunch of white people, white supremacists usually, are going to start committing acts of terror. It’s happened exactly once in my lifetime, and I’m not completely sure that McVeigh was using that as his primary motivation. I’m also too lazy to look it up. The point is that other than McVeigh, who can name a white terrorist acting out of a sense of racism? Most of the time white people attack other white people — just like most crime against blacks is committed by other blacks, and most crime against Asians… et cetera, ad nauseum. This idea of militias going out and bombing people for race-based reasons is a boogeyman the left has built up.
One sign of a possible shift from anger to action has already emerged: last week, a Richmond, Calif., man was arrested on charges of making explosives with the intent of harming Muslims. A post on his Facebook account said that he would follow Trump “to the end of the world.”
I really hope they are able to get that man some mental health help, because that sounds like a man in desperate need of help. But one guy does not a movement make. There have been people angry about Muslims before and not much has come of it. You can’t blame this guy on Trump, because guys like him have existed for decades — and growing in number since 9/11.
This is getting long, so I’ll just hit some highlights.
In fact, many whites may not even have anyone else to listen to. “Fully three-quarters of white Americans report that the network of people with whom they discuss important matters is entirely white, with no minority presence,” according to a report by the Public Religion Research Institute.
No citation for blacks or other persons of color. No hard definition of important matters. My most important matters are only discussed with my wife — so my network might be considered 100% white. When you use terms without a clear definition the picture painted can’t be any clear than the least well-defined term.
This phenomenon is underscored in a viral video of a self-described “redneck” named Dixon White. Speaking from his pickup truck, White delivers an impassioned, expletive-laden rant – aimed at other white people. He minces no words: “Let’s take a little bit of white racial responsibility,” he said. “I’m saying we’ve got an evil called white supremacy in this culture.”
“If you hear something racist … stand as a white American, take some … responsibility,” he said.
I am not responsible for the words of others. However, if I were out with a friend who was a “person of color” (seriously, is this not racist?) and someone said something racially untoward at him, I’d defend my friend… not out of collective white guilt, but because that person is my friend. Similar to if someone made a sexist comment toward my wife, or a female family member. It has nothing to do with some man-guilt. If you come at me or mine, expect a response. Duh. Similarly, if someone is in a position and they need my help I’d probably intervene. But trying to guilt me won’t increase the odds I’ll intervene on behalf of a stranger.
Last week, rapper Mac Miller, who is white, posed a challenge to his followers. “Dear White People who listen to rap music,” he asked, “what have you done for the #BlackLivesMatter movement?”
While I typically only listen to rap music at stoplights, I will answer: I pay my taxes and vote. I oppose the politicians that want a police state. I oppose the policies of the left that have wrecked the black family over the last fifty years and reduced them to a voting bloc. That’s more than most of the protesters do, because as a voting bloc the black community votes 90%+ for Democrats.
Well-intentioned white liberals are often taken to task for speaking over people of color in conversations about race.
Nonetheless, whites must continue to speak – and listen.
Presented without comment.
They’ll need to vow to work with their neighbors – for many of whom America was never particularly “great” – to make America better.
Already doing it: We oppose the police state, oppose the drug war. We think drug addiction is a health condition, not a crime. We oppose the policies that have replaced the black man with the government in that family and led to over two-thirds of black children being raised in homes without their fathers. We oppose paternity fraud. By opposing the empowerment of the police state we are in favor of limiting the interactions the citizen has with the police. By default that is safer. By default, people are better off knowing two parents.
We’re already there. We’re just waiting on those of you still fool enough to support the Statist Establishment to catch up to us.
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Ron Cavanaugh is also fighting against the powers that be in The Boots Are Red
