Donald Trump is a racist.
This is obvious. But is it? Maybe. A racist is the kind of thing where you sort of know one when you see one, and Donald Trump certainly seems like one.
I’ve written before about language problems and difficulties with words and interpretations. You’re probably sick of hearing about it by now, but there are certain words that just do not have any stable or commonly accepted form. Racist is one of these words: if you can get a group of people to all agree on what the word racist means, then maybe you should be the president.
Here is the Webster’s dictionary definition of racist:
Racist: a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.
The definition is extremely vague. There’s a lot to work with. First of all, “feeling” discrimination/prejudice is A LOT different than “showing” discrimination/prejudice. The definition conflates two vastly different actions, as it suggests that a racist doesn’t necessarily need to act in any specific way, and can be defined a such by simply harboring racial thoughts.
Let’s get this out of the way: Everyone has racial thoughts. EVERYONE. It is impossible not to notice someone’s race, just as it is impossible not to notice someone’s hair color, eye color, height, weight, etc. Race is generally a physical characteristic. So if you “don’t see color” then you don’t see truth either.
My argument is that racism boils down to as a spectrum problem. Most people seem to believe there is an intrinsic difference between a racist and non-racist. I don’t think there is, and the difference seems to lie in scale. Even the most progressive individual, who spends every day fighting for full equality for all individuals of all backgrounds and statuses, is still aware of racial differences. They may choose to make no conscious decisions based on those differences, but they are still aware of them.
The fight for equality suggests the existence of racial bias anyway: the need to put all races on equal standing literally implies that a difference exists. If there were truly one perceived race, the “human race”, then a trivial difference like skin color wouldn’t even enter the conversation. It would be like fighting for equality of hair color, eye color, height, or weight. As far as I’m aware, there is no such thing as hair color bigotry. Well not really anyway.
This isn't to say that oppression of blacks is on the same scale as oppression of red-heads, or that Asians face the same degree of stereotyping as fat people. Obviously there are incalculable differences in scale between these examples. But on its face, these are the same types of problems. They all stem from human biases. It's like comparing the Sandy Hook shooting to 9/11, or comparing Deflategate to Watergate. Enormous differences in degree, but often trivial differences otherwise. A comedian making racist jokes is not of a different breed than a guy from Alabama who doesn't like Mexicans.
To me, a person who appears racist is simply a person who is very high on the scales of arrogance, animosity, and perhaps jealousy (generally negative qualities), and very low on the scales of intelligence, awareness, and perhaps compassion or empathy (generally positive qualities). People generally viewed as racists are people who exemplify many bad traits, and negative attitudes towards people who are “different” is simply a manifestation of that negativity. It is the anger, spitefulness, and stupidity that makes them racist, not the other way around. Extreme racism is a manifestation of deeply-rooted terrible ways of thinking. It doesn't make sense that it would be its own independent human characteristic, though I'm open to changing my mind if someone can prove the existence of a "racism gene" or something of that nature.
Sure, there are people out there that are actually supremacists. They fully believe their race is superior, and they want to take action to establish that superiority. But it’s completely dishonest to lump the typical racist into this category. There is a meaningful distinction between a supremacist and a generic racist, and I think that this distinction often gets overlooked.
And if we’re being completely honest, race is an arbitrary distinction anyway. Many races overlap, and some things seen as races aren't even races at all (gender, sexuality, religion, etc.).
You may be wondering: what’s the point of making this distinction? What’s the functional problem with viewing racists as disgustingly separate entities, rather than merely worse versions of ourselves?
I think the distinction provides for more honesty, better conversation, and better potential solutions for dealing with hateful people. If you were born in Syria, you'd surely be a Muslim, and you'd likely have very different views of America. If you were born in the South to uneducated parents, you'd stand a much higher chance of developing negative views towards minorities. Much of racism is circumstantial, so I’m making this distinction as a reminder that perceived racists or even truly hateful racists are not all that different from more accepting people. No one is irredeemable.
My final point, getting back to Trump, is that famous people are more easily seen as racists, simply because they are more easily seen. The margin for error is much smaller for someone who's always being recorded, and they are far more prone to being taken out of context. Whether you'll admit it or not, almost everyone has probably made private comments that are worse than Trump’s “grab them by the pussy” line. This obviously doesn't redeem him, but we should be more careful when using this word. It's not always justified.
We don't know that Donald Trump is a racist, though he certainly seems like one. But his attitudes towards minorities are likely just a side effect of his overall pathology, stupidity, and hatefulness. I guess that's for another time.
It certainly matters if someone is a racist, especially someone with political power (and especially someone with the most political power). But a racist is typically just someone who's stupid and hateful. There are many Americans who believe Elvis is still alive, and many more who believe the Earth is flat. I think there's a good chance that a lot of those people are racists too.