A couple of thoughts on some of the posts. While it is likely true that there aren't any "white culture" centers with "white" in the title that are not obviously geared towards white supremacy, you have to look at the history of the institutions that are used as the examples that minorities have. Most of the "black cultural centers" were created because black people were not allowed to participate in the white equivalent. Historically black colleges and universities were created because blacks were not allowed to attend white colleges or universities. Most "black neighborhoods" were created due to redlining practices of the banks and race restrictions placed on the deeds of homes in "white neighborhoods." The NAACP was created in the early 20th century as an organization to fight for the civil rights of black people in the aftermath of slavery and the civil war. Most "black cultural centers" were created out of necessity. I find it odd that these institutions are now being used as a reference to something minorities have that white people don't get to have. I will also say that the black institutions were created when black people had more of an obvious common goal (access to education, civil rights, etc.) I'm not sure that there is a common "white" goal that would make a white cultural organization relevant. It makes more sense to narrow down "white" into groups with a common purpose - whether its the Freedom Caucus or opera aficionados. In terms of culture, there are plenty of cultural centers for Irish/Italian/Scandinavian/French/German/Russian/Jewish/English heritage. There are plenty of scholarships and organizations on college campuses geared towards these groups that are not seen as racist.
I don't think we have a racism problem so much as what I consider a race fatigue problem. I don't mean to imply that racism doesn't exist, but I think most people just want to express their thoughts without self-editing or feeling like they have to walk on eggshells to avoid being called racist. There are entire states without large numbers of minorities (see Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, West Virginia, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Iowa and Kansas). Baby Boomers in these areas tend to be more working class, shut up and deal with it types who were raised by parents who grew up during the Great Depression. You aren't going to get anywhere in a conversation with them that starts off with "white privilege" or "institutional racism." Again, I'm not saying these things are not real, but they are rendered pretty close to irrelevant as a talking point for people when they are focused on feeding and educating their family.
I've had lots of conversations with Trump supporters in which they opened up to me after realizing we could have a direct and candid conversation about race and other topics. I was able to listen as were they. I don't think the people I talked to are racist. Most had very limited personal interaction with any minorities. Most seemed to live by a simple mantra - support your family, work hard, don't complain.
After listening, I can understand how someone could be just as offended by the identity politics of the left as he or she is with Trump's rhetoric. If I could get past my visceral reaction to Trump, I could understand how the email server and Clinton Foundation really was a big deal (and a dealbreaker) for some. I didn't allow them to be a big deal for me because I really didn't/don't like Trump. I can appreciate how voting for Trump doesn't make you racist any more than voting for Clinton makes me a proponent of unnecessary secrecy and mishandling classified information. Stepping outside of my bubble, I can understand how "drain the swamp" and I will bring back your jobs without any substantive proposals could be just as inspiring as "yes we can" without any substantive proposals.
I was not and am not a Trump supporter. Having said that, I will always try to listen, understand and empathize even if in the end I still don't agree.
This is really good. I think the sticking point for a lot of us is not that everyone who voted for Trump is explicitly racist or misogynistic or whatever, it's that
those things weren't enough to put them off. Like, here you've got a candidate who was explicitly endorsed by the KKK and people are still going around saying, "Yeah, but I like his policies. And anyway, Hillary's worse." How the fuck is she worse? I don't think she's perfect by any means, but if you look at their two histories she does actually have a strong track record of working for underserved communities and looking out for the little guy. Trump's track record is fraud and running businesses into the ground. And that's without touching on his personal life, which has also shown him to be blatantly narcissistic and amoral. I'm going to
throw shit at the next person who derides HRC for staying with her husband after he had an affair while supporting a dickhole who's cheated on
all of his spouses. That's a fucked up double-standard, is what it is.
Aside from all of this, I can't believe so many people bought his message. It's like they believed all of his lines at face value. He's going to drain the swamp? We're already seeing that he won't! Even aside from his cabinet appointments/potential appointments,
there's the fact that he's not going to close himself off from his business interests while he's in the White House. Everyone else creates a blind trust for their business interests while in office and he...is handing it over to his kids. Because no one's ever been able to dabble in the family business after handing over power, right?
Oh, and then there's the fact that they're considering themselves
too good to live in the White House.
Gee, it's like people were sounding the alarm on these things all the way through his candidacy and were ignored. It's also like there might be reasons you want a career politician in office, rather than a business person, to avoid certain conflicts of interest. But no, Trump supporters wanted an outsider. Because there's never been corruption outside of politics. Right? Amiright?
These are why I think that many Trump supporters are uneducated. You can have all the fancy degrees in the world and it clearly doesn't make some people good thinkers. And honestly, it didn't take a truly enlightened person to think, hmm, maybe this guy isn't completely honest about everything.
I don't consider myself totally not racist or bigoted (because it's a spectrum, and everyone falls somewhere on it) or "woke" (what the hell does that mean?) or an SJW or an activist or anything. It doesn't take any of those things to understand common human decency, however, and to recognize when someone doesn't have any of it. It also doesn't take a surprising amount of smarts to ferret out a serial liar. The fact that Trump supporters either didn't see any of this or didn't care about it is where my disagreement with their stance comes in.
