You know he’s not because he says he’s not.
That’s how racism works, you know: if you think a nation founded on black slavery, and another nation that carried out brutal ethnic cleansing, are just peachy, saying the magic words “I am not a racist” absolves you of all blame. You can support policies that promote white supremacy, you can put up Nazi flags like they’re Christmas decorations, you can intentionally put up pallets painted with Confederate symbols and point them at a minority-majority school, but as long as you deny that you’re a racist, you’re safe.
For bonus points, you can get really irate if someone accuses you of being a racist as long as you insist you’re not a racist, and then you can turn it around and accuse them of being racist against white people. What’s really neat-o is that if they then say “I am not racist!” you can smirk knowingly, because you know that everyone who says that is lying.
Words are magic!
Both flags are symbols of regimes that went big and lost big. Those that revere them or claim their “heritage” are revealing themselves to be epic losers as well.
Kid Rock is looking rough
I thought the usual nomenclature was “I’m not a racist but”.
Then of course are the bunch who’ve come up with new terms to argue they aren’t out and out racists, like race realist.
I am not a carbon-based organism.
So he paints these on pallets? I work in a place that has a steady supply of pallets we can’t use. Hmmm. What if I “donate” an entire truckload of broken pallets to this guy? I mean like an 18 wheeler top to bottom all the way back. Just broken scrap pallets. You think I could get a go fund me to make that happen? Just all of a sudden a truck shows up and turns his house into an illegal garbage dump.
Yo bro, I heard you like pallets, well I have about 80 broken useless pallets for you.
Bunch of snowflakes playing idpol.
Science says there are only two categories: racists and non-racists. Prove me wrong.
Yeah, it seems to be the latest trend in tacky yard art. You can’t drive down any rural roadway without seeing at a dozen poorly painted pictures on dirty used pallets on some Ruben’s front lawn.
“They don’t know their history, evidently,” Stark said. “That’s the only reason I can think of that they can think anything bad about it—they don’t know their history.”
Dog in a burning bush but this pitiful specimen is an ignorant ass. Does he think the Africans whipped onto the slave ships were going on a cruise? How does he explain the all-too-horrible physical remains of the Nazi extermination camps?
I’ve learned this in recent years – if there’s one thing a LOT of my fellow white people hate (other than their whiteness being noted) it’s being called racist. They don’t hate it enough to actually, you know, stop being racist. They just hate being called it. That’s why a lot of them will respond to any discussion of racism and privilege with “You’re the real racist!”
To these sorts of people, it’s simple: a “racist” is someone with an unreasonable belief that one racial type is better than another racial type.
However, since they “know” that white people really are better than black/brown/whatever, its’ not racist to say or think so. It’s just ‘telling it like it is’, And, by definition, thinking a black/brown person is the equal of a white one is racist, since they are clearly inferior and everyone knows it. All nice and neat.
This is similar to the logic “All women love babies. No woman would get an abortion unless a MAN forced her to. So support women’s equality and BAN ABORTION.” (Yes, I have been told that, in a non-sarcastic manner).
Being a racist is bad. Racists are bad people. Everyone thinks that they are the hero of their own story. They can’t be a bad person, therefore it is impossible for them to be a racist!
Checkmate, suckers.
Even someone like this cartoon villain thinks he’s the hero of his own story and that he is doing what’s right.
OP: “This man is not a racist”
Then is he a painting by Magritte?
a_ray_in_dilbert_space, that is brilliant.
Their Patron Saint speaks from the grave: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/15/1905118/-An-open-letter-to-Nikki-Haley-from-the-briefly-reanimated-corpse-of-Jefferson-Davis
Don’t save your Confederate money boys … it ain’t worth s..t. (Sorry ’bout that. ;-)
I remember reading some quote to the effect of “white Americans finally acquiesced to the consensus that racism is bad only on the condition that ‘racist’ was redefined so that nothing they ever did would qualify.”
lucifersbike@9: Such people will argue with a straight face that slavery was a positive thing, both for the slave owners and the slaves. Often they’ll talk about the slaves being given the benefit of “civilization” and how they were supposedly considered more valuable than free workers, make absolutely bananas claims about the way slave owners treated their slaves- they were valued, they were well cared for, etc. They just keep trying to spin slavery as a good thing and act like black people are too dumb and ungrateful to realize how thankful they ought to be to white people for the experience.
See, this is why freedom of speech is important.
If freedom of speech was suppressed, we’d never know this man was a racist idiot and we might accidentally interact with him, assume he’s intelligent, and help him in any way.
But with freedom of speech, he’s free to be his true idiot and tell the world exactly what kind of dumbass he is, flashing his colours like a warning stripe on a bug, alerting the world that he’s toxic and should be left alone.
The system works!
I’ve observed some soft racists come perilously close to sliding down that rabbit hole. I think that for unconscious bias to take root and fester, it requires a lack of self and social awareness, a lack of sophistication and a tendency to rely on bad heuristics, peers and authorities. And a significant dose of arrogance and entitlement. And fear.
But hey, it was “post-racial!” just after Obama got elected, and then just after Trump pundits said that Trump voters couldn’t have racism in their hearts because some of them voted for Obama, and don’t you dare offend anyone by suggesting that a vote for Trump was anything other than pure, intelligent, and legitimate economic concern. So, “burn it all down” and “drown the government in a bath tub” (and democracy with it) is all good and patriotic… apparently. Now go out and do god’s will by grabbing money and kissing authoritarian butt! What could go wrong?
Once those messages get stuck, it’s hard to undo them. BAU.
Proof satire is dead:
This could have been an Onion article…
“‘I’m not racist!’ says man standing in front of Confederacy and Nazi memorabilia”