Covid Support Thread
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Know, they didn’t decide that racism worked for them. That’s your interpretation. And to one of your comments above, it is not true that just a small number of those who voted for Trump or stayed home have changed their minds. Both the 2018 election (evidence of a larger trend than you acknowledge and which happened almost two years ago) and current polling show that the swing in stay-at-homes or Trump voters who changed their minds is well over 10% of the number of voters who voted for Trump.
I choose to see that as a cause for great celebration. I don’t understand why you take the ‘they erred once, they must be racists, and they’re dead to me’ attitude toward them. Makes no sense. Public sympathy is swinging our way. Rejoice! Don’t fuck it up with some absolutist purity test.
My current boss is an Indian woman. I applied for the job knowing who she was from a previous job, and knowing she was the hiring manager. I could easily be a racist sexist creep and still decide to take this job because I wanted to make money and it’s a good stable company and it gave me the flexibility I needed. I wouldn’t turn it down. I made the decision to work for her. That doesn’t make me not a racist or not sexist.
No it’s not. At all. Sexist men work for women all the time. White people shit-talk their black bosses. Working for someone of color proves nothing except you prioritize your need to eat, or your ambition. This is why you can be a racist and still have voted for Obama. They thought they could get ahead.
Working for someone out of financial need is one thing. Freely electing them to the highest office in the land quite another.
Is it though? If you don’t have a job because the economy is in the shitter, or you want a better job, and the Black man is offering you one? Offering real change? Or the economy has improved a lot in the 4 years the Black man was in office and you’d rather just roll with it?
Anyway, this, again, from Leslie, is the truth:
“They may not feel they are racist, but they are sitting in their little bubble and what they’ve said is “I like PoC and I believe in equality, but it’s OK to vote for a blatant racist, if that means I get mine.”
Ron, you are older than me but I have spent the last 6 months hanging with women who are older than you (virtually). Some are dyed in the wool liberals, and some are just all for Trump. It’s not my community so I don’t make waves. I just listen and then vent to my mom.
Don’t conflate people who didn’t vote, with people who voted for Trump. If someone was disgusted by both candidates, fine. I have my issues with not voting but that’s not this discussion. They didn’t vote for a racist. Therefore there was no overt racist action.
I understand the single issue voter. People who are anti-abortion chose Trump. People who are pro-business chose Trump. People who are anti regulation chose Trump. And none of them decided that his overt racism, misogyny and able-ism was enough of a show-stopper, enough of a red flag, disgusting enough that they refused to vote for him.
And I know people who are dyed in the wool Republicans who have voted Republican in every election since Nixon and who voted for Clinton because Trump was so vile that they could not bring themselves to vote for him and they hated Clinton with a passion but they were going to vote no matter what, so they truly picked the lesser of two evils.
I mean, Ron, you can accept that they are racist and not be angry at them like I am. You can be compassionate and inclusive and try to persuade them to vote Biden. That’s cool. But the more you insist they could in no way be racist, the more you sound like you’re racist.
Well, I’ve held local political office during difficult times, so I’ve been called many names, i won’t claim worse than yours, but plenty bad. I’m not as willing to throw around nasty pejoratives as you are. I’d rather try to understand where people are coming from and try to persuade. It’s clear, neither of us is going to sway the other at this point.
No, you’re right. I think I did spend a couple days though listening to where you were coming from. I really am genuinely sorry to sound mean here. I’m very angry and it’s been boiling for 4 years. I’m not quite sure your life’s been fucked up as much as other people’s, and I do think it’s insensitive and out of touch to be such a passionate defender of Trump voters. Sure, be tolerant, that’s nice, but don’t tie yourself in knots standing up for them. I never thought you were racist before yesterday, but now I don’t know. The whole, they voted for a Black president so they can’t be racist is pretty oblivious.
