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Racism

I realized the other day that I have a racist friend.

“Dude, you're a racist,” I said. “Why don't you just admit that you like Trump?”

“Everyone likes Trump!” he said.

“No,” I said, “most people hate him, like me.”

He's the kind of racist who tries to deny it or pretends to himself that he's not. He brings up race a lot. He might be one of those “fragile white guys” who's way of thinking is under attack with all the BLM stuff going on. 

He's been talking like Trump for awhile and I try to steer the conversaion to something less polarizing. Finally I said, “Hey just don't talk about politics because you don't know what you're talking about. Talk about what you know about, like growing weed, women, and cattle. Otherwise you're just another asshole with an opinion. Dude, you're ignorant and uneducated and you live in a rural area. Trump's your guy. Quit trying to pretend.”

“How about just give every black $50,000 but then they have to shut up about everything forever!” he said yesterday. “If Trump doesn't get re-elected he might go to jail and if he wins a lot of people are going to jail including Hillary because of China and,” he said.

“Stop,” I said. “You don't know what you're talking about. You know nothing about 'Hillary and China.' When you talk about things you don't know about it just makes you sound stupid. Disliking someone because of the color of their skin is just stupid. I don't think you really want to be racist, you just listen to the idiots on right-wing radio or what your buddies say. You keep telling me all this bullshit you heard somewhere.” (Jerry Philbrick's letters-to-the-editor are his favorite feature in the Anderson Valley Advertiser.)

“You're one of those far-leftists,” he said.

“No, I'm actually pretty middle-of-the-road,” I said. “I watch the NBC nightly news, read the New York Times, and I never listen to Amy. Jeez, I just trashed a far left person for maligning Biden! Look, I know you're pretty harmless, you're not out there committing any overt racist acts, but stop talking politics to me because it's boring. Ask me if you want to know what's going on. How were you brought up anyway? Was your family racist? I was brought up anti-racist. My mother and I sat there in 1964 watching the march on Selma, Alabama on our little black and white TV. I was taught that if anyone said the word “nigger” to write them off, forever. So yeah, I didn't have many friends growing up in Indiana. This is a racist country, founded on slavery, we're all a little racist.” I told him an anecdote, a racist thought I had twenty years ago. “See, even me!”

I do want to keep my racist friend, we go way back and he's a good person who's helped me a lot over the years. The way I look at it I'm his best friend, ie, probably the only one to call him on his bullshit. 

31 Comments

  1. Mark W. Laszlo September 22, 2020

    Keep arguing with racists and fascists. Most may be irretrievably brainwashed, but when fascism is not pushed back on it grows.

  2. Brian September 22, 2020

    Yeah your friend is the racist, but you’re the one who uses the n-word. 10-4. Roger that. This was an unpleasant piece to read. It must be nice living in a house without mirrors.

  3. Douglas Coulter September 22, 2020

    We focus on words and symbols, not actions when we judge others.
    Abraham Lincoln freed the Slaves but did nothing for the niggars!
    Nigger means black without civil rights
    Read what Abe said about “the negro” in his election speeches” talk about racist.
    Mark Twain wrote his greatest work, Huckleberry Finn about this problem. His friend was a nigger, he was also a slave. This moral dilemma, friend or property, is the foundation of a powerful book dealing with a deep propaganda of hatred. The word did not create the hate. Now they have taken nigger out of Huckleberry Finn and replaced it with slave. That destroys much of the story, muddy water.

    Sugar, small pox and Haiti!
    Christopher Columbus wrote to his Queen about the unlimited slaves and converts the new world offered but Spain quickly discovered natives dropped dead too quickly in the Sugar Cane fields. Small pox also destroyed much of that (unlimited) labor. So the ancient African slave trade filled the gap.
    The successful rebellion of Haiti hurt slave trade deep, cut Napoleon’s cash flow so deep he was forced to sell USA the Louisiana lands in order to finance his war.
    All slave owners began brutal treatment of any sign of rebellion. A propaganda program to force animosity between poor whites and slaves was central to this strategy.
    The first slaves sold at Wall Street were Irish but soon the sugar and cotton industry needed the numbers African slave trade offered. America became a new slave market.
    If owners treated horses like they treated the black slave, the public would have been appalled and would have boycotted them. Slave owners feared the black and fear produces deep animosity.
    The same is true of North America’s natives but media does not talk about that much.
    Nigger is not a racist term, it is a descriptive word. If you are sitting in an orange jumpsuit, innocent, black, poor! You be a nigger, no other word tells that story so deep
    A comedian tells a joke, everyone is offended at the “n” word but humor is not racist, actions are racist. Dark humor helps reduce the fear and offense of trauma.
    A rebel flag is not racist, a swastika is not fascist, Hitler stole that symbol.
    Trump can drum up hatred and build walls just like East Berlin but as long as he avoids the n word and swastika it must be OK. Please don’t hurt my feelings!

    • Pat Kittle September 22, 2020

      “Trump can drum up hatred and build walls just like East Berlin…”

      Aren’t you missing a teensy part of the story??

      If the US builds a wall, it’s to stop what is in fact a monstrously unsustainable human invasion.

      East Berlin’s wall was built for the opposite reason — to prevent citizens from emigrating (you know, as in “leaving”).

      Are you so clueless you miss that, or do you knowingly deceive?

      (BTW, I also oppose the wall, for ecological reasons. There are other ways to keep the US from becoming even more over-populated with humans than it already is.)

      • Douglas Coulter September 22, 2020

        I used to work with Richard Wurmbrand’s organization, Jesus to the Communist World. I helped raise funds an smuggle Bibles in, pastors out.
        Funny thing, every pastor we smuggled out fell deep into capitalistic decadence just like the Soviet leaders warned.
        I was taught to hate queers and commies all through school.
        All pure propaganda, both sides. I cannot see a box of dominoes without seeing commie pinko fags. That is learned hatred, just like racist thinking and it can be unlearned if we only choose

        • Pat Kittle September 22, 2020

          My born-again wokester:

          Your inability to respond to the valid points I make does not surprise me.

          :-)

          • Douglas Coulter September 23, 2020

            Little Kittle
            What other valid point did you make?
            Evil commies vs good Americans!
            God on our side!
            All delusion, all propaganda!
            Tolstoy summed it up well.
            As soon as the wall fell Reagan murdered 435 Americans in Beirut with the help of USMC General Kelly trying to spark a new war with a new boogie man.
            Dogma is delusion in a tuxedo
            Beirut introduced two new dogmas
            1 Beirut was a peace mission
            2 bombing was a terrorist attack

            Oh and the refuge problem is because the Munroe Doctrine has allowed us to murder every labor leader south and plant dictators who keep out commies

          • Pat Kittle September 23, 2020

            Douglas Coulter:

            “Little Kittle”??

            I’m trying to have a serious conversation. Sadly, I’m dealing with a semi-literate half-wit engaging in childish name-revision.

            I exposed your deceitful comparison of border walls. You have yet to acknowledge that.

            As for resisting Yankee imperialism south of the border, I’ve done more than my share, and quite possibly more than your share.

            Human over-breeding is an act of extreme cruelty to the biosphere, regardless of who’s doing it. Many condone the practice for their own selfish reasons. Others merely excuse it, out of fear and/or ignorance. I suspect you fall in the latter group.

            As for Beirut, the Terrorist Theocracy of Israel completely dominates US foreign policy in the Mideast, which is why…

            … ISRAEL DID 9-11:
            — [ https://wikispooks.com/wiki/9-11/Israel_did_it ].

            That is the brontosaurus in the living room, if you have the courage to look.

            • Douglas Coulter September 23, 2020

              Big Kittle, sorry for the slander.
              So you Henry Ford and Hitler blame everything on the Jews. You know Ford published, The Protocals of the Elders of Zion in English? Sounds like you did some research. Ford also taught Hitler how to keep unions out of factories, give them mortgages, you strike you lose your home.
              Funny how a sexually assaulted boy created a religion around a Jewish homeless rabbi and created the most rabid enemy of the Hebrews in history, Christians.
              Read all about it in Dueteronomy 32 Paul was the antichrist promised and his mythical Jesus. Just one in a long line of Jim Jones crying listen to me!
              If history proves one thing it is this, mess with the Jews and your country will fall. Israel would not be a nation if not for Hitler, just another Haman looking for Purim.
              Look at Spain after inquisition, down down down.
              If Palistine is a people what does their DNA look like? Perhaps like Arkansas but more like London, a melting pot of nations. Israel owns their land just like their no name god promised.

    • Maritess H. September 22, 2020

      Douglas — Thanks for your perspective. Spot on & thought provoking! It’s so hard for humans to communicate, but it is so necessary. This is what makes us so successful & unique as a species. Absolutely, actions speak louder than words. Actions come from ideas, however, which — if you want others to understand & join you — need to be communicated. We started with, what: gestures, grunts, language, pictures, symbols then written words…? They have the same aim & effect. We in fact need to be careful with all manner of communication: symbols, words, gesture, tone and nuance! Most of all, we should each remember this quote: “Before you speak ask yourself if what you are going to say is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the answer is no, maybe what you are about to say should be left unsaid.” — Bernard Meltzer

      • Paul Modic September 22, 2020

        That was a sobering quote–do you think he meant just speaking to another person or other types of discourse? I just recorded an editorial-type piece for a radio station and it is: true, not kind, not necessary, and probably not helpful. I just wanted to write and record it to entertain people and practice my public speaking. What if Bruce used that standard for his paper–it would be less interesting no doubt. I’ll show you the short editorial if you’re interested. Thanks for your comment.

        • Pat Kittle September 22, 2020

          My dear wokester:

          Your inability to respond to the valid points I make does not surprise me.

          :-)

  4. Pat Kittle September 22, 2020

    Racist – [definition]:

    Any White person who doesn’t apologize for being White.

    • Douglas Coulter September 23, 2020

      Little Kittle
      I have no enemies
      Only non essential friends

      Hate takes way to much energy

      • Pat Kittle September 23, 2020

        Sadly, escaping your religious fundamentalist past has done little for your ability to reason or respond rationally to disturbing facts.

  5. Douglas Coulter September 23, 2020

    Kittles and bits

    We was all a bunch of crying snowflakes sold on wars that just breed heartache
    While a brand new Reich was being formed
    Closed our eyes to starving neighbors said “they be fine if they just labor”
    And another page from the bill of rights is torn

    When them politics get rotten civil rights is soon forgotten
    And some new FEMA camps are born
    Board this train that’s bound for safety all your needs be met completely
    When that brand new FEMA camp becomes your home

    Wealth manufactures human suffering all they offer us is Bufferin
    In a patent medicine made out of corn
    Once Haman owns the kings ear genocide machine kicks in gear
    And a new generation learns how to morn
    Soon as rich folks start agreeing hungry refugees commence fleeing
    Cramped up against our boarders quite forlorn
    As our new puppet dictator kills you now or kills you later
    Because every rose bush has a batch of thorns
    (Chorus)

    The publics standing in the way of greater profits every day
    So pledge allegiance to our god of scorn
    Prophets words often tend many people to offend
    And truth ends up treated worse than porn
    Our latest propaganda fear possesses all the peoples ear
    So come on into where all the sheep are shorn
    Stack your clothing very neatly you can pick them up discreetly
    First delousing showers then assignments in the morn

    please give credence to my song, tune, Them old Cotten fields back home

    • Pat Kittle September 23, 2020

      If human over-breeding could be blamed on Evil Whitey, your kind would oppose it — as your kind did when Evil Whitey was over-breeding.

      But Evil Whitey no longer over-breeds, so over-breeding must now either be ignored by your kind, or (absurdly) dismissed as irrelevant.

      The funniest part of all that is your kind actually fancies yourselves as having science on your side.
      :-)

      • Douglas Coulter September 23, 2020

        Kibbles and bits
        Science? The word comes from KNOW and once you know you cannot be taught. Just like the garden story, a serpent says, “you won’t die, you will become like god knowing” science without history is just repete the same error over and over. Anybody can practice true science, true science is based on questions. How many times do you repete a failed experiment? Follow the successful experiment, why did it work? Question everything.
        If I am paid to produce a result, I am no longer a scientist I am a technician. Just like the tobacco companies, just like Monsanto, just like Pharmaceutical industry.
        Did you know Thorazine came from Coal Tar, that toxic sludge seeking new markets?
        My kind? Yes I hope I am kind to every human I meet

        • Pat Kittle September 23, 2020

          You’re back to your childish reworking of another’s name, after having just apologized for your previous embarrassment.

          In your clumsy fashion you mindlessly repeat trite wokeisms as you tip-toe around anything of substance.

          Like the horrors of human over-breeding.

          Like the Israeli war criminals who did 9-11:
          — [ https://wikispooks.com/wiki/9-11/Israel_did_it ].

          Coward.

          • Douglas Coulter September 24, 2020

            Pat Quibble?
            When I was a child, god stuck me under the village out house. Everybody shit on me daily. One day I discovered how to see through shit so god pulled me out and cleaned me up, said, “congratulations you are now my prophet. Beware though, people still gonna shit on you”
            As far as overbreeding that is what nature is designed for.
            Small Pox will return very soon and will not respond to variolation, a new improved small pox with some MRSA steroids mixed in. Nazi, bigot, king, billionaire, and poor homeless will die by the billions. Much like Canada when British General sent pox into the Iroquois, death swept all the way to the west coast.
            Science will quiver!

          • Pat Kittle September 24, 2020

            Douglas Coulter:

            Well you sure have the high moral ground.

            Just let ’em over-breed till they meet their Malthusian fates.

            • Douglas Coulter September 24, 2020

              Pat pending quibble
              You sure have a hard on for the Jews. Are you one of those sending fire balloons over the Gaza Wall daily. I never saw rockets mortars or fire bombs sent from Mexico.
              Everyone knows only box cutters have the power to pull off 911! Those super power cutters tha shut down all NORAD and Pentagon cameras. That got all the heads promoted for failing to stop it.
              Physics? Atom bomb would have left 12 stories of rubble, I lived 50 miles from Heroshima and concrete did not turn to fine dust and float across the river. Dust that was not hot! As any thermal weapon would do.
              America is a war nation, Carter years was our longest period without a war since founding. Our economy is war. We are a lynch mob nation. So go ahead and preach your Krystalnatch with Ford and Hitler and Martin Luther.
              Purim will come and the Jews will survive. And your. Little hate ulcers will grow.
              Funny how you can dish out insults but cannot take them. Rush Limbaugh debate methods don’t impress me.

  6. Pat Patterson September 26, 2020

    The Pat and Douglas feud is a textbook example of two egotists talking past each other. When two people think of their politics as just another piece of private property, what readers get is a tale told by an idiot: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, as the Bard put it. “God made man because he was disappointed with the monkey,” said Mark Twain.

    My generation of white men (I was born in ’49) grew up in Mr. Jim Crow’s USA. In the 1960s we thought we’d put a stake in his heart but we were mistaken. Our society is still racis. If anybody doubts it, I suggest they read The New Jim Crow (2010) by Michelle Alexander.

    Finally, one definition of a pseudo-intellectual is one who resists giving honest answers to an honest questions. Debate is the attempt to teach by inquiry. Every question has an answer, it being reality.

    • Douglas Coulter September 26, 2020

      I’ve been diagnosed at Guantanamo Bay by experts, spent 11 months in California State Mental Hospitals, released from USMC without court martial for mutiny, followed by Lincoln Towncars, survived cancer 2 1/2 times, run over twice, 40% high second degree burns! manage PTSD with self medication. 5150 6 times yet never attempted suicide, traveled among the homeless on a wheelchair, hope to do so again.
      Alone without family in an apartment for dying old farts under Covid lock down.
      No TV no computer, no phone.
      So all I own is my damn ego and one hell of a skill getting under people’s skin
      If my words are true, agree! Lies require constant maintainance.
      I love to debate insane people but I don’t answer narcissist bait.

      Do you walk across the street to avoid that crazy bastard screaming into the air?
      I’ll engage them in conversation. Insanity is the preschool of the prophets.
      Job debated god but god never answered, instead god questioned Job. I read the book of Job in UCDAVIS burn ward and it made much more sense.
      Job became Melchesidek, the forge and anvil method.

    • Pat Kittle September 26, 2020

      Pat Patterson:

      If you dared to peek at the link I’ve presented, you’d see…

      … the overwhelming evidence that Israel did 9-11:

      — [ https://wikispooks.com/wiki/9-11/Israel_did_it ].

      Fully acknowledging the truth (Israel did 9-11) would require confronting far more reality than you dare.

      So you, like Douglas the Chosen One, pretend not to notice — it’s much easier to simply shoot the messenger.

  7. Douglas Coulter September 26, 2020

    I can’t own a gun due to multiple mental health diagnosis but I can offer some fine poison. Yes I have seen your troll website and it is pure propaganda. Nazi evangelism all taken from (the Protocols of the Elders of Zion) or Hitler’s bible. Eugenics and psychiatry are both faux science. Tunnel vision never leads to desired goals.
    I bet you have been accused of schizophrenia by the peddlers of Thorazine!
    The voice in your head is on the wrong channel.
    Hitler called his life,(mien kamph) my struggle
    Gandhi called his life an experiment
    I like Gandhi better then Hitler so I’m not going to respond to your inner Nazi.

    If every Jew on earth was murdered the earth would still be an evil planet ruled by greedy men. Your cure for evil is pure fantasy fed by hate! Name your poison, messenger!
    No god? Know FEAR!
    Know god and no fear.

  8. Pat Kittle September 26, 2020

    Douglas Coulter:

    You say “I can’t own a gun due to multiple mental health diagnosis but I can offer some fine poison.”

    That is a thinly-disguised death threat, typical of your kind when your nasty secrets are revealed:

    Overwhelming evidence that ISRAEL DID 9-11:

    — [ https://wikispooks.com/wiki/9-11/Israel_did_it ].

  9. Douglas Coulter September 26, 2020

    Not a threat, an offer you cannot refuse!

  10. Douglas Coulter September 28, 2020

    Funny how few responses to my main points anyone bothered to post.
    Some critiques of my competence to breath and form valid arguments but not one rebuttal of my main points.
    Sugar small pox and Haiti!
    History repeats and man dreams things will work out different this time.

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