Tuesday, October 30, 2018

seeing racism where there is none

This shameful example comes from a rightie rag, Twitchy, which is normally pretty good about poking leftie hypocrisy in the eye. This time, though, it seems obvious to me that Twitchy is either accidentally or deliberately misreading a supposed gaffe by Hillary Clinton. During some recent session before an audience, the session's moderator confused Eric Holder and Cory Booker—who look nothing alike, but who are both black—by uttering the wrong name. Clinton apparently corrected the moderator, snidely adding the now-controversial comment, "I know they all look alike."

As you'll see if you click on the link above, righties on Twitter are having a collective "gotcha" moment, accusing Hillary Clinton of saying something overtly racist about all black people. Based on the context, though, I think she was more likely mocking the attitude of people who really believe all black people look alike, possibly even insinuating that the moderator was saddled with such a racist cognitive filter because of her inability to get two black men's names straight. Clinton's delivery was all wrong, which is why we're talking about this at all, but it seems plain to me that Hillary (who has gotten in trouble for obliquely referring to certain African-Americans as "the help" or, in another context, "superpredators" who must be "brought to heel") wasn't being racist. She's stupid on many fronts, 'tis true, but she's not likely to shoot herself in the foot quite that easily.





2 comments:

  1. Regardless of her intent, if the same words had been uttered by a Repub it would have been CNN's lead for the next week. Remember what they did to Romney after his "books full of women" comment?

    ReplyDelete
  2. True enough. The right will never catch a break from the media. My point, though, is that it's bad no matter who's doing the self-righteous hyperventilating.

    ReplyDelete

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