A racist? Not a racist?

Once again in recent days our President has said something moronic.  Telling some ethnically-inclined Congresswomen to go back to where they came from, not good.  Call it conservative, call it Republican, call it wrong...but certainly don't call it Christian. 

Of course, liberal America is going crazy about this...and what seems to be the story as we continue on into this increasingly terrible news cycle is the demand that Republicans call this 'racist'.  Given Trump's history of comments, this is just another in a long line of comments that ought to have been buried long ago (and in fact, buried him).  This isn't how we behave as Americans, and the need that many have to put a label on this is for some the tactic they keep trying to pursue in order marginalize and eventually remove Trump. 

Of course, I'm not entirely sure he is a racist.  I heard my grandfather, who otherwise was a kind and compassionate and educated and even enlightened man for his era say many worse things about 'the coloreds'.  Trump is still a product of his age; even growing up in the north he likely inherited many of the implicit biases of his white privileged background. Is he truly a racist?  Likely he would point to black friends or employees to say 'See?  I have black friends too!'  In truth, none of us really know what is in his heart...all we can know is what his public comments indicate...and on that basis, yes, he's probably a racist, albeit a mild one.  Read much about our American history, and see what flaming 1950's Dixiecrat racists said, and Trump's comments pale by comparison. 

Thing is, I think Trump knows exactly what he is doing.  As he continues to try and maintain his rock-solid 38% support (of which many more vote than the rest of America), he continues to use these kind of dog-whistle comments knowing that he a)is is distracting everybody from more important failings b)is getting under the skin of his opponents, to his supporters' delight and c)is telling those supporters exactly what they want to hear.  Most of us look at these things in disgust, but there's still a sizable minority of people who hear these things and nod, albeit silently.  They don't really want this to be a multi-ethnic country.  When they say they want to 'take our country back', they mean back to the days when white people ran everything.  Much like the President, they will point to black friends and co-workers to say, 'See, I'm not racist!' but they are horrified at the thought of their children marrying somebody of a different race or not thinking that they are the ones in charge. 

So maybe the tactic of Democrats ought to not be demanding that Republicans denounce this kind of racism.  Expecting that one day Trump will learn his lessons and start taking the high road is a failing tactic, because he is what he is.  He knows his base, and will continue to pander to their biases, no matter how bad or immoral it is.  Instead, Christians who seek out the Kingdom of God need to simply be speaking of this in terms of the will of God.  Is this how a Christian behaves?  Do we really want a President on his third marriage who has had many affairs and (likely) at least a a few sexual assaults?  Do we want to be a nation in which aliens and strangers will 'shake the dust off their feet'?  Do we want to be a nation in which we glorify the wealthy and shame the poor? 

It always comes down to the gospel and the Kingdom of God.  Are we really putting our hearts in the right place?  Or are we just going to point fingers while the President gleefully soaks up the pressure? 

The Black Salesman

Today I was home for lunch and a door-to-door salesman knocked on my door selling pest control.  I suppose it is because of the location of our house on the edge of the neighborhood, but it seems like we get door-to-door salespeople all the time: siding, windows, trees, lawn care, magazines, newspapers, JWs...I could go on and on. 

What was different, however, was that this salesman was black.  Living in a town that is almost 100% white, one doesn't see around here a lot of people of different races.  James Loewen lists my hometown as a possible 'sundown town', and I believe it...having talked to people around here for the past fourteen years, I find that there is a lot of residual racism.  Nothing too blatant, but it's not surprising to see a Confederate battle flag flying on the back of a truck or off a shanty once in awhile. 

Fast forward a few hours...I'm mindlessly scrolling through Facebook (why?) and I come across a post to the local 'news' page in which a woman reports her fear that a door-to-door salesman was in town.  The general tone was of it was "HIDE THE KIDS!  DANGEROUS PEOPLE ARE LURKING!"  Now, I could be wrong here, but I'm guessing that one of my neighbors saw a black man walking up her driveway and immediately assumed that he was on his way to rape her.  In fact, he was a very pleasant and friendly young man who left rather quickly after I said no (as I say to all such salesmen).  But for some, seeing a man of a different race knock on her door gave her the 21st century version of a fainting spell. 

It's disappointing, really.  I like our little town and most of the people are nice.  We have chosen to raise our children here and though there are far too many Trump apologists, it's a nice place to live and work.  But every once in awhile I see and hear things that remind us that there are people who are out of their minds with fear...whether it's illegal aliens, homosexuals, or black men trying to sell them pest control, it's too much for the people who live their lives watching Fox News to meet somebody that is different than they are.  It makes me sad, and it makes me think of that Scripture in which Jesus tells his disciples to shake the dust off their feet against those who reject them as a witness against them.  I wonder if the salesman today left our community having gotten some ugly stares or a few rude comments and shook the dust off his feet against us, not because he didn't sell a lot, but because he saw hatred in the eyes of my neighbors?  Will God judge our community for this?  Is a history of our community a witness against us in the Kingdom of God?  I fear it may be so. 

Free As Credit Cards

The big news story in this week's news cycle is that NBA franchise owner Donald Sterling said some really stupid, racist things.  Once again, in this world of no privacy, people in position get caught out saying stupid things, and now likely he will have to sell his franchise to somebody more 'enlightened'.  I suppose that this is a modern form of social darwinism at work...keep doing something stupid and eventually you will get caught, shamed, shunned, and vilified.  A bit of me smiles that it's another rich and clueless guy who is getting brought down in the court of public opinion.  Some people don't need their own Jerry Springer to have their stupidity exposed.

When things like this happen (and, I suppose, they happen to the point now of something we might expect on a regular basis, and how can you really be outraged when you know it is coming from somewhere, somehow, even if you don't know from, um, somewho), inevitably the lament of 'free speech is dead' comes from at least some corner, though I haven't really seen it yet in this case since what he said is morally indefensible.  But what do they think 'free speech' is.  To quote the first amendment, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for aredress of grievances. In fact, there really is no free speech...it's just that the congress can't outlaw unpopular speech.

But the rest of us?  Yeah, we get to slam on people who say terrible things.  Here's the analogy I thought of today.  Speech is like using a credit card: you can buy what you want now and it doesn't cost you a thing today, but tomorrow, if you aren't careful in how you can use it, you'll really end up in the hole.

Freedom in speech does not mean that there are no consequences, especially when it comes in a society in which we are increasingly interconnected.  Somebody can say what they want when nobody is around, and rarely will it ever catch up with them.  But in a civil society of 300 million people, in which you never really have it where nobody is around, that no longer happens.  Too many phones and recorders are out there, taping everything that we do.  Even a blog like this, something mostly anonymous (by design) where I get to ramble on about what interests me (and likely nobody else) at the moment, could eventually be traced back to me.  I've said too many stupid things in my own life to ever be considered for public office, not to mention the stupid things I would say on a campaign trail (I have to think that I'd regularly be lampooned on the Daily Show).  That's life, though.  I'm willing to live with consequences for what I do and say...but I'd be better off just staying as anonymous as I can if I can't stay silent.