This article is complete bullshit. For many years, I considered myself a liberal. But I, like many others, am tired of being told how awful I am simply for being white. There are tons of whites who recognize the fact that we have advantages in life and don't deny it. Yet somehow we need to be beaten over the head until we are zombies who hate ourselves for the "misfortune" of our birth as white people.

I'm down to help fight for equal rights for the oppressed, but it makes it hard when some mythical "whiteness" label tells me at every turn that my opinion doesn't matter.

The area I grew up in is pretty fucking poor. But it's rural poor, so according to Liberal royalty (aka the Clintons), it's not really poor. That shit gets exhausting, and it does nothing but alienate a good number of people, including many who are willing to fight the good fight. At its core, it's the definition of racism.

@LTG: I don't want to quote everything as to muck up the thread, but here's my response:

Any even semi-educated white person realizes all of what you said. I realize that when a cop gives me shit for eating ice cream in a hotel parking lot, I can tell him to get fucked without being arrested. I realize that I'm less likely to be pulled over in the first place. I realize that I'm given more benefit of the doubt in society than any black man (all things being equal otherwise).

The part where I think you and others are off is that most white people realize these things. I'm not saying they all do, but most do.

And I think that far too frequently, if a white person isn't some sort of self-deprecating racial activist, they are seen as not understanding this, and that's completely unfair. Most reasonable white people have to do the same things most reasonable black people do - get up, go to work, talk shit about co-workers, come home, laugh at Trump, and go to bed after numbing their daily concerns with a glass of hooch.

Those same white people are cognizant of the fact that their life is at least slightly priveliged due to their whiteness. But that doesn't change the fact that they're dry humping the American Dream and getting less out of it than they thought they would, regardless of race.

Now, they may be getting less out of it than they thought for a variety of reasons. Maybe they're not as financially independent as they thought they'd be. Maybe their grocery bill is still 50% of their income despite all the advertisements and sitcoms that made them think they'd be Kings. Maybe their deadbeat brother-in-law borrowed money and skipped town. Maybe their child has a debilitating disease that they cope with every day.

The point is that everyone deals with immense troubles, whether they live in a white picket "everything is great here" fence of a facade or they live in a shitty bungalow on the South side or they live in a beat-to-fuck trailer that they inherited from their aunt who raised them in Galesburg, Illinois.

So, imagine how those trailer-dwellers or those semi-suburban parents with sick kids feel when they're constantly bombarded with messages about how they are priveliged. Their lives fucking suck too, and yet they constantly have to be told how they don't really know what it's like to live an underpriveliged life. You would also be irate.

Lastly, what does constantly shaming white people do? "Whiteness" isn't going to disappear, nor should it. MANY white people face the same trials and tribulations as minorities.

You know what would solve it? If we just judged everyone on an individual basis and had an understanding that some ethnic groups - on average - have to overcome a bit more to get to where they are... and we continue, within reason, to eliminate that gap that separates those groups.

Blaming white people constantly only works to undermine the overall goal.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

This article is complete bullshit. For many years, I considered myself a liberal. But I, like many others, am tired of being told how awful I am simply for being white. There are tons of whites who recognize the fact that we have advantages in life and don't deny it. Yet somehow we need to be beaten over the head until we are zombies who hate ourselves for the "misfortune" of our birth as white people.

I'm down to help fight for equal rights for the oppressed, but it makes it hard when some mythical "whiteness" label tells me at every turn that my opinion doesn't matter.

The area I grew up in is pretty fucking poor. But it's rural poor, so according to Liberal royalty (aka the Clintons), it's not really poor. That shit gets exhausting, and it does nothing but alienate a good number of people, including many who are willing to fight the good fight. At its core, it's the definition of racism.

This article is complete bullshit. For many years, I considered myself a liberal. But I, like many others, am tired of being told how awful I am simply for being white. There are tons of whites who recognize the fact that we have advantages in life and don't deny it. Yet somehow we need to be beaten over the head until we are zombies who hate ourselves for the "misfortune" of our birth as white people.

I'm down to help fight for equal rights for the oppressed, but it makes it hard when some mythical "whiteness" label tells me at every turn that my opinion doesn't matter.

The area I grew up in is pretty fucking poor. But it's rural poor, so according to Liberal royalty (aka the Clintons), it's not really poor. That shit gets exhausting, and it does nothing but alienate a good number of people, including many who are willing to fight the good fight. At its core, it's the definition of racism.

He is discussing how Trump benefitted from whiteness.

I'd say it's both. The Hillary thing lost the moderates. His base though.... well that's an entirely different discussion altogether

Trumps base was always voting Republican. Do we think they voted for Obama?

alt-left

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

Right.

I dont think the article is arguing, "we could have won if not for racism". It seems more like an explanation of how we got such a previously unthinkable position of having a guy like Trump as President.

I think it was saying that Trump won because of racism. In reality, he won because Hillary couldn't get enough voters who voted for Obama.

If it was Obama vs. Trump then Obama would have destroyed him.

How was a reality tv host able to rise up to the nomination in the first place?

I think it's a more valid argument about how he won the GOP nomination than the General.

That's true. I just think it was a case of celebrity and people buying into the Trump brand. He may have captured the "birther" people too but those people weren't voting for Hillary no matter who the Republicans put up anyways.

The DNC made a mistake not getting Biden to run against Hillary. I think he would have shown her flaws early enough that they could either correct them or nominate him instead.

Biden is doing a GOOD job.

I think in the article Coates did choose to look at it on an Individual basis though. That is where I think some are misreading him. He is discussing how Trump benefitted from whiteness. It wasn't really an assessment of all whites as whiteness pertains to them. It was an assessment of how whiteness benefitted Trump. It is not going to benefit all or probably most in the way that it benefitted him.

Leash I agree with about a consolidation of the races along economic lines but I have found in my limited research that there is an unwillingness to do it. I won't assess blame but I will say is that there is an unwillingness. You find that when you view it from the construct of economics you find that people have more in common than they know. That being the case there still is a division. Each side believes that the other is attempting to prevent it from attaining its share of the American dream. Both sides would do much better if they realized that they were being exploited from the top. They don't. I could actually tie this to American history also but it'd take too long.

That's true. I just think it was a case of celebrity and people buying into the Trump brand. He may have captured the "birther" people too but those people weren't voting for Hillary no matter who the Republicans put up anyways.

The DNC made a mistake not getting Biden to run against Hillary. I think he would have shown her flaws early enough that they could either correct them or nominate him instead.

This article is complete bullshit. For many years, I considered myself a liberal. But I, like many others, am tired of being told how awful I am simply for being white. There are tons of whites who recognize the fact that we have advantages in life and don't deny it. Yet somehow we need to be beaten over the head until we are zombies who hate ourselves for the "misfortune" of our birth as white people.

I'm down to help fight for equal rights for the oppressed, but it makes it hard when some mythical "whiteness" label tells me at every turn that my opinion doesn't matter.

The area I grew up in is pretty fucking poor. But it's rural poor, so according to Liberal royalty (aka the Clintons), it's not really poor. That shit gets exhausting, and it does nothing but alienate a good number of people, including many who are willing to fight the good fight. At its core, it's the definition of racism.

I think it was saying that Trump won because of racism. In reality, he won because Hillary couldn't get enough voters who voted for Obama.

If it was Obama vs. Trump then Obama would have destroyed him.

Laurence Holmes is a fucking weirdo, a nerd in denial, and a wannabe. Not a very good radio host either.

This article is complete bullshit. For many years, I considered myself a liberal. But I, like many others, am tired of being told how awful I am simply for being white. There are tons of whites who recognize the fact that we have advantages in life and don't deny it. Yet somehow we need to be beaten over the head until we are zombies who hate ourselves for the "misfortune" of our birth as white people.

I'm down to help fight for equal rights for the oppressed, but it makes it hard when some mythical "whiteness" label tells me at every turn that my opinion doesn't matter.

The area I grew up in is pretty fucking poor. But it's rural poor, so according to Liberal royalty (aka the Clintons), it's not really poor. That shit gets exhausting, and it does nothing but alienate a good number of people, including many who are willing to fight the good fight. At its core, it's the definition of racism.

I guess that the safest way to put this is that from my kind of perspective, the article reads completely different. It, nor do I really want to completely denigrate most large groups of people. But the hysterics so many display after a frank resuscitation of a large part of American history are still baffling. And yes, I feel that his discussion is "fair", a word curiously now in heavy use by Trump supporters.

Much that he wrote is certainly honest, but the characterization that he's the one who is hysterical is misplaced imo.

If THIS bothers you imagine how it's felt to be black in America for the past 400 years or so. MANY would take what is bothering you in a heartbeat.

I'm a big dumb shitlib baby

Bernie would have steamrolled Trump.

You haven't been black for 400 years. You've been black for 35 or so years. And, based on what I know of you, you've done pretty well for yourself.

Don't know or really care. All I know is the party you all hitched your collective wagon to is selling you out wholesale. Care to deny?

I'm a big dumb shitlib baby

I actually believe that Coates was on to something. The Republican Party has played identity politics more than anyone. When you look at the past 50 years it is they that have chosen to shun groups which help comprise "the others". They have absolutely no use for the black vote. Black politicians must take the oath of token in order to gain any traction. Immigrants are targeted lest they agree to wash dishes and cut grass first. Policies which seek to benefit minority groups are often targeted for extinction. Hate groups are often allowed to park somewhere on the fringes of the party without ever being rebuked. Their slogans often harken back to an era where lynching, racism, bigotry, and corrupted legal systems were the rule.

Republicans have rightly learned how to play the divisive game. They in essence throw rocks and hide their hands. Democrats indulge them but not enough in my book. Obama tip toed around it for 8 years and still was considered divisive by some on the right. Hillary didn't make the sale on it either. Democrats are fearful of ticking off the white working class by indulging in too much "race talk". Dates back to FDR which Coates correctly noted.

I get that you don't like being beaten over the head for past sins but whereas you merely talk about racism blacks have to live it. We don't have the choice of selectively choosing to discuss it. It's there and it's not just part of our past experience. It's present day also. We just elected a guy that sought to delegitimize the first black President simply because he is black. The vast majority of people on this board attempted to pooh pooh it by constantly referencing Hillary Clinton. When Coates talks about evasively handling subject matter that is it.


I would love to live in a world where I didn't have to experience it. A world Where I could simply talk about it. Frankly one of the reasons that blacks always bring up racism is because there is a tendency to sugar coat it whenever it arises. That's troublesome. either someone is telling you that it's life get over it, or they are saying that it's not as bad as you think quit overreacting,or they are denying it's racism at all. Again blacks live with this everyday. They don't have the luxury of simply discussing it.

I get what you're saying when you say that you don't want to be beaten over the head by it. It can t always be a guilt trip either. For me when I see people pooh pooh the racism of Trump as no big deal that's troubling. I don't care to hear about post racial and all that because it's false. It's phony. I would never vote for a person that expressed the level of bigotry that he displayed. It wasn't just against blacks either.

Black Republicans have to denigrate and demean other blacks in order to be elected by Republican voters. Been part of the playbook for the past 30 years. Not exactly revelatory.

Well put