The Subtle and Unintended Racism in Media
Descartes once wrote:
Cogito ergo sum, : “I think, therefore I am.”
In my salad days, when I heard, during a discussion or debate, someone quote Descartes, attempting to flex and brandish his /her ‘intellectual’ muscle, I would add: “ut sunt, sic etiam quld”. I would only recite the translation when asked, which occurred invariably:
“As you are, so also am I”
Thus, I would weaponize my often superior knowledge and rhetorical skills in the cause of self-defense.
In most cases, the silent sound of stunned disbelief and shocked incredulity was quite gratifying.
Today, when I ‘push back’ against overt racism or a subtle or nuanced exercise in ‘white privilege’ or a manifestation of latent racism in a comment or post, the sound of silence in reaction or response is as gratifying as it ever was…
Under such circumstances, It is quite often that I am labeled a “bully”, a “reverse racist” the “black know-it-all” and an “elitist” amongst other disrespectful and insulting, vile and obscene epithets, appellations, and invectives…
It really doesn’t take much to get some white people to stop hiding behind cute sounding screen names and misappropriated avatars to become disjointed enough to attempt to drop the ‘n’ word along with an f-bomb or two….
Here are a few of the names I can recall from my time in the OS ‘Snark Tank’:
Nerd Cred
Terry McKenna
GreenHeron
JerseyShore
FoolishMonkey
Wolfman.
Amy
Rodney Roe
Art James
Also Known As
DocVega
Saturn Smith
tr ig
Steel Breeze
Theodora L’Engle Knight
Anna Herrington .
Julie Johnson
Cheshyre
Dicky Neely
Zanelle
JMac1949
Rosigami
The Songbird
Phyllis
Robin Sneed
Keiko Alvarez
The amount and degree of psycho- babble and pseudo intellectual bullshit that these folks would exchange amongst themselves re black people, the black experience, race, racism, and racists was staggering, almost beyond belief and comprehension.
When I complained and protested the lack of adherence to scholarly or academic rules of discourse And engagement, I was told to ‘do my own research’….
…And then, one of them reminded me that this, after all, was “social media”.
As Nicole Wallace, a white MSNBC anchor and commentator, viewed the scenario of one the memorial services held for George Floyd, in speaking of his family as they were being escorted to their places, she quite casually asked:
“Where does the strength, courage, dignity,and grace come from?”
I reflexively hollered:
“ut sunt, sic etiam quld!!!”
I instantly realized that the so-called ‘progressive’ commentator had blown a huge opportunity to bring the message home to the millions of viewers who were looking on at that time….
She, and her on air colleagues, blew it because they are no less racist than any other so- called ‘non-racist’ white people that I might encounter on the street or on the internet…
The problem, of course, is that MSNBC isn’t ‘social media’. It is the premier cable news voice of progressive perspective, spin, and slant in this country….
I can guarantee you that few, if any, caught the subtle hint and unintended manifestation of racism and ‘white privilege’…
The fact that the racism in the comment may have been unintended doesn’t make it any less racist…
There are those who would accuse me of being a racist for catching and commenting about it….
But then, no one mentions or talks about the young women who video- recorded the murder of George Floyd either…..
The commentator missed the moment and opportunity of her lifetime to inject and interject the salient reason and purpose of broadcasting such proceedings and goings on.
Instead she blithely asked:
“Where does the strength, courage, dignity,and grace come from?”
The only real and correct response to such an inane and racist inquiry is:
“It comes from our humanity!”
No translation required….
06/28/2020 @ 11:55 am
So many excellent points. Where to begin?
“Reverse racism”: I think you know how I feel about that one. Investment in that term is a demonstration of privilege. People accusing you of it are expecting you to occupy a separate and subordinate condition of humanity from which you have the temerity to look directly across at them. It is a scrubbed up way of demanding that you know your place without admitting to you or themselves that that is what they are demanding.
“Bully”: I confess that I have a difficult time with this one. I have been accused of that myself enough times that I can’t claim to be objective. Facts and reason are accessible to all. When the communication of them uses facts and reason, whether by mathematics or prose, or science, I do not understand the “bully” charge. When it involves manipulation and dishonesty, sure. That meets my definition. But, a clear, solid stance on objective facts is anyone’s right, and everyone’s option. I remain open to what I do not understand about this, but I don’t think that kindness that denies facts and ignores reason is kindness at all.
Nicolle Wallace: This woman is a special case. She’s a California Republican (now lapsed). California Republicans are often quite different from midwestern or southern Republicans, notwithstanding Devin Nunes. I have found that the GOP from the middle of the country and the South are more likely to gravitate towards tribalism. Westerners like Wallace tend to be more like libertarians. The tribal midwesterners and southerners tend to crave power at all costs, and California Republicans just don’t want higher taxes. Wallace has gradually improved since she left the McCain campaign. It would not surprise me if she operates on an unconscious assumption that non-white people are not as human as white people. I do. Think that she is more open than, say, Tucker Carlson.
06/28/2020 @ 1:01 pm
The first thing I’ll say is thank you for leaving me off that list. You had to be tempted.
I’m going to ask a stupid question here. It may really be a stupid question; I acknowledge that.
“Where does the strength, courage, dignity,and grace come from?”
Who did she say it about? I can picture the same question being asked on the news about Jackie Kennedy in late November of 1963 under somewhat analogous circumstances, except that the Floyd family lost someone to a phenomenon that was miserably unjust, miserably frequent, and miserably ignored by those in authority, yet they managed to keep their cool in public and not lose it. If I heard that statement I’d think “If that were me I don’t know if I could hold it together like that.”
What am I missing?
06/28/2020 @ 1:27 pm
Sorry, I see who she said it about. That’s what I assumed.
06/28/2020 @ 5:00 pm
@Koshersalaami; “…I can picture the same question being asked on the news about Jackie Kennedy in late November of 1963…”
The media never once wondered about the ‘source’ of the impeccable appropriateness or correctness of Jackie Kennedy’s behavior:
This quote From ‘Vox’ pretty much sums up how the media addressed the demeanor of Jackie Kennedy in the wake of the JFK assassination:
“Jackie Kennedy will always be an American icon; her style was impossibly chic, her beauty is immortal, and her poise and grace in the aftermath of tragedy will never be forgotten.”
https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/2/7/14442410/jackie-kennedy-accent-natalie-portman
A far cry from:
“Where does the strength, courage, dignity,and grace come from?”
06/29/2020 @ 6:56 am
@Koshersalaami; The false equivalency contained in your comment is way out of line and off base. It says nothing about the possible missteps of the media and reveals a great deal about how far you need to go to become a trusted antiracist.
It would be quite a different matter had Nicole Wallace had attempted the comparison but she didn’t and you can’t find an example anywhere in the Media of someone who did….
You need to refrain from your reflexive attempts to take the ‘edge’ off of my assertions with your supercillious defenses and denials of what I perceive to be racist exercises in ‘white privilege’….
06/28/2020 @ 5:30 pm
@Koshersalaami;.
“The first thing I’ll say is thank you for leaving me off that list. You had to be tempted.”
For the most part, I put our exchanges, even the contentious ones, in a completely different category.
The poking and prodding had a substantially different purpose with a clearly different result.
What I often couldn’t fathom was your persistent defense of people who, to me, were being intentionally and willfully ignorant.
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” —MLK.
Your defenses were constant reminders of the following:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
—Upton Sinclair