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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Fear of a Black President

Fear of a Black President

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Speaking of good magazine writers, there’s this fellow named Ta-Nehisi Coates who has a helluva long read up today in the Atlantic:

It is insufficient to state the obvious of Donald Trump: that he is a white man who would not be president were it not for this fact. With one immediate exception, Trump’s predecessors made their way to high office through the passive power of whiteness—that bloody heirloom which cannot ensure mastery of all events but can conjure a tailwind for most of them. Land theft and human plunder cleared the grounds for Trump’s forefathers and barred others from it. Once upon the field, these men became soldiers, statesmen, and scholars; held court in Paris; presided at Princeton; advanced into the Wilderness and then into the White House. Their individual triumphs made this exclusive party seem above America’s founding sins, and it was forgotten that the former was in fact bound to the latter, that all their victories had transpired on cleared grounds. No such elegant detachment can be attributed to Donald Trump—a president who, more than any other, has made the awful inheritance explicit.

Despite the sordid topic, it’s a beautiful piece that I am going to bookmark for future use. The great thing about the way Coates writes is that not only does he back up his assertions, but they are undeniable if you are honest with yourself. It’s also nice to finally see someone lay bare the truth about Trump:

It is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true—his ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power. Trump inaugurated his campaign by casting himself as the defender of white maidenhood against Mexican “rapists,” only to be later alleged by multiple accusers, and by his own proud words, to be a sexual violator himself. White supremacy has always had a perverse sexual tint. Trump’s rise was shepherded by Steve Bannon, a man who mocks his white male critics as “cucks.” The word, derived from cuckold, is specifically meant to debase by fear and fantasy—the target is so weak that he would submit to the humiliation of having his white wife lie with black men. That the slur cuck casts white men as victims aligns with the dicta of whiteness, which seek to alchemize one’s profligate sins into virtue. So it was with Virginia slaveholders claiming that Britain sought to make slaves of them. So it was with marauding Klansmen organized against alleged rapes and other outrages. So it was with a candidate who called for a foreign power to hack his opponent’s email and who now, as president, is claiming to be the victim of “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history.”

In Trump, white supremacists see one of their own. Only grudgingly did Trump denounce the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke, one of its former grand wizards—and after the clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, Duke in turn praised Trump’s contentious claim that “both sides” were responsible for the violence.

It can not be stated enough- Barack Obama’s blackness required him to be better than everyone else. Donald Trump’s whiteness allows him to be worse.

Like the kids say, read the whole thing.

Reader Interactions

118Comments

  1. 1.

    ? Martin

    Ta-Nehisi is one of those writers you can forward without reading, safe in the knowledge that it’ll be amazingly good.

  2. 2.

    Mike in DC

    It’s well worth the time to read the whole thing. Getting the media to tell white people the truth about themselves is likely a near futile effort, but i do see glimmers of hope here and there. On MSNBC, Chris Matthews is hopeless–he refers to “the ethnic stuff” instead of calling racism for what it is, and constantly waxes nostalgic for the white working class while glossing over their ressentiment. But Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow are pretty good.

  3. 3.

    Elizabelle

    Thank you. I’d not seen it, and TNC is always worth a read.

    He’s out on a new book tour shortly, if not now.

  5. 5.

    Jeffro

    Several of us were commenting on it in a downstairs thread…excellent piece. Unfortunately, it’ll probably only open the eyes of those whose eyes were already open, just a little wider. But still.

  7. 7.

    Trentrunner

    Best thing written about the rise of Trump. Period.

    So: Now what? We’re a racist fucking country. What do we do about it?

    ETA: Just read that Trump’s approval rating among his primary voters is 98%. As if we needed more proof TNC is right…

    Also, I’d like to read a similar essay on Trump & America’s misogyny, which was also hugely consequential is Trump’s rise and win.

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne

    I still need to read his book. I thought I would be able to read it after the election but, well, that didn’t work out. For any of us.

  12. 12.

    Trentrunner

    @Jeffro: I think it will help against the Lillas and the other Berniebro and bro-curious types.

    If a Dem isn’t addressing race and social justice, front and center, they ain’t a Dem. Period.

  14. 14.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Mike in DC: Just the other day Matthews was gassing on in his closing editorial about how what people in the heartland really wanted was… state of the art high-speed rail, and politicians who could give that to them. Snuh?

  18. 18.

    TenguPhule

    Moreover, to accept that whiteness brought us Donald Trump is to accept whiteness as an existential danger to the country and the world.

    I accept this.

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    @Sab: Coming out on October 3rd: collection of essays, some new, some recent but famous, somewhat touching on Reconstruction’s lost promise as well.

    We Were Eight Years in Power. And I’ve seen elsewhere that he’s already got some book tour dates scheduled.

    From Kirkus Reviews (via Amazon link):

    “We were eight years in power” was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s “first white president.”

    But the story of these present-day eight years is not just about presidential politics. This book also examines the new voices, ideas, and movements for justice that emerged over this period—and the effects of the persistent, haunting shadow of our nation’s old and unreconciled history. Coates powerfully examines the events of the Obama era from his intimate and revealing perspective—the point of view of a young writer who begins the journey in an unemployment office in Harlem and ends it in the Oval Office, interviewing a president.

    We Were Eight Years in Power features Coates’s iconic essays first published in The Atlantic, including “Fear of a Black President,” “The Case for Reparations,” and “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” along with eight fresh essays that revisit each year of the Obama administration through Coates’s own experiences, observations, and intellectual development, capped by a bracingly original assessment of the election that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era. We Were Eight Years in Power is a vital account of modern America, from one of the definitive voices of this historic moment.

  21. 21.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    OT: but bwa ha ha ha

    Genealogist: Tomi Lahren’s immigrant ancestor was indicted for forging US citizenship papers

  22. 22.

    Sab

    @raven: TNC has been polite and restrained for many years. He has a kid to worry about, who is now a black male adolescent in the US. Of course he’s outraged (and honest, as he always is.)

  23. 23.

    Major Major Major Major

    I bookmarked it for later when I’m feeling more contemplative. I will say though that I find his prose far too flowery. I always think of a column he wrote where he was talking about those apps that tell you what song is playing. He described a millennial at a bar “holding [their smartphone] aloft like a scepter” to do it.

  24. 24.

    trollhattan

    Coates did a pretty lengthy Morning Edition interview today, am sure it’s available on line by now.

  26. 26.

    trollhattan

    As rumored, DeVos is going to water down federal guidelines for universities investigating sexual assault, to “protect the accused.” MRA types must lurve them some Betsy.

    Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Thursday that she will replace an Obama-era schools directive on sexual assault in an attempt to balance the rights of victims and the accused.

    “The truth is that the system established by the prior administration has failed too many students,” she said during a half-hour speech at George Mason University, after which she took no questions. “Survivors, victims of a lack of due process and campus administrators have all told me that the current approach does a disservice to everyone involved.”

    But the announcement that the administration will rewrite the 2011 policy drew howls of protest from womens’ groups and victims advocates, who said DeVos was making a false equivalence between victims and the accused.

    “Schools are not getting it right sometimes — both for accused students and survivors,” said Neena Chaudhry, director of education at the National Women’s Law Center. “But the answer is not to change the law, but to help schools comply with it. Title IX already requires a fair process for both sides.”

    The 2011 Obama guidance for the first time pushed school district, college and university leaders to combat sexual harassment, including sexual violence, saying the institutions were required to do so under Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination. Women’s groups hailed that as a crucial step in cracking down on sexual violence on campuses. But critics said it trampled the rights of the accused.

    God, she’s a piece of shit.

  28. 28.

    Barbara

    @raven: I am not even going to revisit the primary wars but I was disappointed that Coates pulled his punches on Sanders’ fixation on class and dodging, bobbing and weaving when it came to talking about race when he announced his support of Sanders over Clinton in the primary (which I also did not understand but hey, whatever, it’s his decision but at least call the guy out for the very thing that you have been writing about since forever). I don’t know Coates personally, and I always liked reading his blog, but I started to sniff gender bias in seeing Clinton and Sanders as being somehow equivalent when it came to the issue of race. IMHO the woman who buried her disappointment and worked harder than almost anybody to help make Barack Obama successful deserved a little more credit (and in fairness, I do believe that is one reason many African Americans did support her).

  29. 29.

    Sab

    @Elizabelle: Thanks. Pre-ordered digital, although I usually get his hardbacks. Maybe I”ll do both, although I tend to lose my hardbacks when I lend them out.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    @Barbara:

    when he announced his support of Sanders over Clinton in the primary

    IIRC that was fairly early on before the resentment kicked in.

  34. 34.

    Hurling Dervish

    I was at Obama’s first inaugural, and before he was sworn in, I kept looking around, sure there was an attack coming from some place, somehow. Surely, I thought, the white supremacists will never let this happen – they’ll assassinate him first. It didn’t happen, at least not then. But nine years later, it sure feels like they’re assasinating him now, out to obliterate every good thing he did.

  35. 35.

    germy

    Gary Fineout‏Verified account
    @fineout

    .@rushlimbaugh – based in S. Fla. – says he will not be on the air next several days – will be back on air next week from “parts unknown.”

  36. 36.

    ruckus

    @Major Major Major Major:
    Better prose gets him a better seat at the table and his voice deserves to be heard loud and clear. But of course, I’d bet that no matter the quality of the prose, the people who most need to read him, never will.

  38. 38.

    TenguPhule

    @Roger Moore:

    OK Friday. Good Friday would have Netanyahu charged along with her. Great Friday would involve all of Likud going down with them.

    These days we have to take the good news where we can find it.

  39. 39.

    Roger Moore

    @germy:

    .@rushlimbaugh – based in S. Fla. – says he will not be on the air next several days – will be back on air next week from “parts unknown.”

    So he doesn’t believe his own line of BS about the warnings about Irma being a hoax. Hoocoodanode!

  41. 41.

    Lurking Canadian

    @Trentrunner: Trump was winning R primaries with pluralities in the 30s, and only about 35% of Americans are even willing to cop to being members of the Republican Party. That he still has the support of the 10 or so worst Americans out of every hundred shouldn’t be a surprise or a disappointment . At least that many Americans think the moon landing was faked.

  44. 44.

    Lurking Canadian

    @Roger Moore: was he claiming Irma was a hoax, or just that attempts to link it to climate change were the hoax? Surely not even Limbaugh has the chutzpah to tell his listeners, currently being hammered by a hurricane, that the hurricane itself is fake.

  47. 47.

    Humdog

    TNC’s pieces are so challenging to read. He dispassionately diagnoses the pervasive sickness of white supremacy and forces us to confront how wide spread it is. But there is never much hope. He does not seem to need hope in order to keep going. I seem to need more hope that we can get better, otherwise it feels like I am simply stewing in ugliness and I don’t even have to live with it like people of color do. I learn a lot from reading his pieces but it does take bravery to face the ugliness in the mirror he raises before the face of America.

  48. 48.

    TenguPhule

    @Lurking Canadian:

    was he claiming Irma was a hoax, or just that attempts to link it to climate change were the hoax? Surely not even Limbaugh has the chutzpah to tell his listeners, currently being hammered by a hurricane, that the hurricane itself is fake.

    He claimed that the threat of the hurricane was all lies by the evil corporate media meant to help Big Bottled Water.

    I wish I was joking.

  49. 49.

    Sab

    @Hurling Dervish: 9Yeah. I am very white, very Midwestern, with ancestors who lived in colonial Virginia and colonial New England. But I also have a black son in law and black grandchildren.

    I always knew theoretically how different life is for black Americans, but I had NO idea of the reality. My black son in law was stopped and had guns pulled on him by police 5 times in 2 years for just going about his legal business. Twice his wife and children were in the car.

    My white stepson has had alcohol and drug issues for years. He has been stopped by the police many times, he was often violent, and he has never yet had a gun drawn on him. Usually they just call his father.

  51. 51.

    Barbara

    @Baud: Sure, but Sanders’ appeal for free college tuition completely ignored the gross inequalities in primary and secondary education, especially for minorities, and he had no visible platform at all for correcting that. I thought that was hard to ignore.

  53. 53.

    TenguPhule

    Someone please tell me this is some kind of sick joke. They can’t possibly be serious about this?!

    Several influential House conservatives are privately plotting ways to use the legislative calendar this fall to push their hard-line agenda — including quiet discussions about possibly mounting a leadership challenge to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan.

    The group has gone so far as to float the idea of recruiting former House speaker Newt Gingrich or former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum as potential replacements for Ryan (R-Wis.) should there be a rebellion. The Constitution does not require that an elected member of the House serve as speaker.

    While the chances that a non-House member could mount a credible threat to Ryan are exceedingly slim, the fact the group has even toyed with the idea underscores their desire to create trouble for GOP leaders if they believe their demands are not being addressed.

    I can’t even…..there are no words.

  54. 54.

    Jeffro

    @Trentrunner:

    If a Dem isn’t addressing race and social justice, front and center, they ain’t a Dem. Period.

    Agreed, and adding that I think our best candidates will be able to ‘walk and chew gum’ – covering race & social justice as well as workers’ rights & economic fairness/inequality. It’s all tied together.

  56. 56.

    Jeffro

    @trollhattan: Her and Sessions are tied for the “creepiest grin while rolling back protections and processes” in this *administration. She might even be more soulless than he is.

  58. 58.

    Jeffro

    @TenguPhule: Those are some good optics right thar…they already control all three branches of government, but they’re thinking of deposing the Rand-iest of the Randians for failure to deliver, in favor of some bloated crapsack like Gingrich. Please proceed, Republicans.

    (dang, what is IN that Kool-Aid?)

  60. 60.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro: Laurence Tribe, who IIRC would’ve been Bill Clinton’s third SC nominee if such a thing happened, captioned a picture of Sessions’ announcing the rescinding of DACA thusly

    Laurence Tribe‏Verified account @ tribelaw 18h18 hours ago
    The little viper really did look giddy, like he was about to put his holiday special white sheet on . . .

  61. 61.

    Jeffro

    @TenguPhule: Not nearly addictive or delusional enough. It has to be something like crack, cubed, plus a sugar bowl full of LSD stirred into the pitcher.

  64. 64.

    catclub

    @trollhattan: I heard the last bit of that, did not know then it was him, but suspected.

    The last question was along the lines of “if this is all so impossible, how do you(we) go on?”
    and his response was that ~ “going on was always a struggle, it just continues to be one.”

  66. 66.

    Marmot

    Am I alone here in not really being a TNC fan?

    He’s so bleak, offering no ideas about making things better. His writing is fine, if you like “prose,” but I don’t. I find it heavily adorned. And it obscures things. Sure, TNC is right about a lot, but, say, Trump’s ideology isn’t white supremacy–not everything fits that framework–he’s a true narcissist, and they’ll do or say anything for admiration.

    To be clear, I don’t have strong feelings about TNC. But I’m glad so many people find him thought-provoking. Precious few people can break through far enough to really convey what it’s like to be black in our country.

  69. 69.

    les

    @Humdog:

    TNC’s pieces are so challenging to read. He dispassionately diagnoses the pervasive sickness of white supremacy and forces us to confront how wide spread it is. But there is never much hope.

    In his NPR interview this morning, the interviewer said something like “it’s just human to see a way out, to see light from a better future, what do you see?” He answered, I don’t. So, not a guy to go to for hope.

  70. 70.

    Sab

    @Marmot: He is raising a black family in the real world of 21st century America. Of course his view is bleak. Things may come out okay if luck prevails and everyone behaves perfectly , but it’s a big challenge.

  72. 72.

    The Moar You Know

    .@rushlimbaugh – based in S. Fla. – says he will not be on the air next several days – will be back on air next week from “parts unknown.”

    @germy: An argument could have been made 25 years ago – not by me – that cousin-fucking evangelical Nazi opioid addicts should have a news source that represented their interests. But that time is long over. If you’re still listening to this guy it’s because you delight in pissing people off by telling people that you listen to him. in other words, you’re in it for the hate.

    His contract runs out in 2020. He was making enough money in 2016 to get re-signed. Hopefully that won’t be the case any longer.

  73. 73.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Still haven’t read the article– because I’m not procrastinating I’m just checking twitter for news and oh why don’t I just look at Balloon Juice and it’s only Oh, Shit, Already o’clock…– but the rage of the Wilmerites is building. Coates apparently disrespects the One True Progressive.

  74. 74.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    @Jeffro: When I look at say, Obama or Maxine Waters or Kamala Harris (politicians who obviously understand racism through lived experience) I figure it’s not difficult for them to grasp Class issues (they probably do already.) Whereas any White politician who focusses on Class (Bernie, Liz Warren, John Edwards etc.) will have a much more difficult time grokking the realities of systemic racism. This is one of the reasons why I generally want us to put forward more Black/Brown/Muslim etc., candidates. We’re much more likely to get someone who can see both Class AND Race, and act accordingly.

  75. 75.

    The Moar You Know

    Am I alone here in not really being a TNC fan?

    @Marmot: No, but not for the same reasons as you. His outlook is totally understandable to me, he’s a black man living in America. My issue with the guy is that he will use ten words when one will do. He needs an editor. A better editor if he’s already got one.

  76. 76.

    TenguPhule

    @Marmot:

    He’s so bleak, offering no ideas about making things better.

    Person of color in a country where millions willingly voted for Donald Trump.

  83. 83.

    Mnemosyne

    @Hamila:

    Awesomesauce!

    I was feeling a bit of a let-down last night after the show, but I think that was because I was no longer anticipating it, so I didn’t have that extra boost. But it was a great show and the traveling cast is terrific, especially the guy who plays Hamilton.

  86. 86.

    msdc

    @Major Major Major Major: Yeah, agreed. His arguments are by and large irrefutable when he gets into the weeds, but when he tries to wax poetic he’s pretty uniformly terrible. So naturally that’s what he opens with.

  87. 87.

    Lolis

    @Marmot:

    I think the idea that everyone who identifies a problem needs to offer solutions to be a bit bizarre. But TNC has written a manifesto supporting reparations so I think this is a pretty clear proposal he put out there.

  88. 88.

    Sab

    @Mnemosyne: Someday I will get to see it. I’m so glad you enjoyed it.@Sab: @les:

    What I like about him is how honest he is. I remember years ago when he was hopeful. Now his view is bleak. But %he he lives in a more real world than I do. I hope we can disprove his fears, but on the other hand I wouldn’t have thought that the short time Trump and McConnell have been let loose on the country could do so much damage in less than a year. I thought Our system was supposed to be so slow and unwieldy. But apparently it turns on a dime if you want white supremacy.

  90. 90.

    msdc

    @Marmot:

    Sure, TNC is right about a lot, but, say, Trump’s ideology isn’t white supremacy–not everything fits that framework–he’s a true narcissist, and they’ll do or say anything for admiration.

    No, I would say Trump’s ideology, to the extent that he has one, is straight-up white supremacy. Coates has him dead to rights on this, the birtherism and the ads calling for the execution of the (innocent) Central Park five and so on. It is the one constant element in a psyche that has otherwise been dedicated entirely to the basest self-gratification.

    What Coates has been wrong about is that in the past he’s used “white supremacy” to describe everything else he doesn’t like in American culture, up to and including casting actors he deems insufficiently black enough to play his favorite Marvel superheroes. Coates was more than happy to define white supremacy down when it suited him, back when the prospect of electing an outspoken white supremacist as president was unthinkable to most people. He’s back on track now, but it’s a little too late.

  91. 91.

    bupalos

    @Marmot:

    Trump’s ideology isn’t white supremacy–not everything fits that framework–he’s a true narcissist, and they’ll do or say anything for admiration.

    Politically speaking, I do think what we’re calling white supremacy is overall the most salient part of his ideology. It’s not exclusive. I don’t think white supremacy is why Donald Trump is a politician, that is probably better explained by narcissism. I do think white supremacy is why he’s president. And one could spend a while thinking about how race theory and paternalism plays into his narcissism and vice versa.

  94. 94.

    Roger Moore

    @Barbara:

    Sure, but Sanders’ appeal for free college tuition completely ignored the gross inequalities in primary and secondary education, especially for minorities, and he had no visible platform at all for correcting that.

    This is my biggest policy objection to Sanders. For all he claims to be the one guy in the corner of the working class, his policy proposals are much more tightly focused on the needs of the middle class. Better primary and secondary education and affordable childcare would do a lot more for working class families than free college tuition.

  95. 95.

    Kathleen

    @Marmot: I’m not a fan either, though I thought he really nailed it in the last paragraph of his piece, which someone posted in an earlier thread.
    I don’t have an issue with his hopelessness. I didn’t like his earlier criticisms of PBO, though since I stopped reading him a long time ago he may have changed his perspective more recently.
    I thought his best writing was about learning French and going to Paris. He revealed his curiosity and excitement about learning, which I found very engaging.

    ETA I agree that for me anyway certain passages are hard for me to read. I have attributed it to the fact that I think I’ve lost a lot of mental discipline and I’m not on his intellectual level.

  96. 96.

    gorram

    @Baud: And it was after he wrote about his reservations with Sanders specifically, over reparations. It isn’t hard to see it as something of a labored choice that he wasn’t happy about making.

  98. 98.

    Sophie Montane

    I like TNC and overall it’s a really good essay, but the Clinton paragraph is a mess:

    One is tempted to excuse Hillary Clinton from having to answer for the sins of her husband. But in her 2008 campaign, she evoked the old dichotomy between white workers and loafing blacks, claiming to be the representative of “hardworking Americans, white Americans.” By the end of the 2008 primary campaign against Barack Obama, her advisers were hoping someone would uncover an apocryphal “whitey tape,” in which an angry Michelle Obama was alleged to have used the slur. During Bill Clinton’s presidential-reelection campaign in the mid-1990s, Hillary Clinton herself had endorsed the “super-predator” theory of William J. Bennett, John P. Walters, and John J. DiIulio Jr. This theory cast “inner-city” children of that era as “almost completely unmoralized” and the font of “a new generation of street criminals … the youngest, biggest and baddest generation any society has ever known.” The “baddest generation” did not become super-predators. But by 2016, they were young adults, many of whom judged Hillary Clinton’s newfound consciousness to be lacking.

    Every bit of that is dishonest.

    In her 2008 remarks, and you can watch the tape, she was obviously fumbling over her words. The latest polls showed her with a lead among the white working-class, but like most politicians, she didn’t want to say working class. So she said “hardworking Americans.” But she was only leading with white working class, so she immediately added “white Americans.” If she’d just said “white working class” in the first place, it would have been a simple statement of fact. But in trying to wordsmith it she ended up making it awful.

    The whitey tape was an internet rumor. And as far as I know, the sole evidence implicating Hillary comes from the McCain campaign and other right-wingers. Give me a fucking break. (And if we’re going to re-litigate 2008, the Obama campaign pulled some nasty dishonest shit on Hillary that nobody ever seems to bring up.)

    As for the super-predator business, it’s a bit much to say she “endorsed” it. She’s not a sociologist. It was a popular theory and she cited it in a speech when she was First Lady. It’s since been disproven and she has personally apologized for using the term in her speech.

    The final line about Hillary’s “newfound consciousness” is insulting. Hillary was working against segregation and being mentored by Marian Wright Edelman before TNC was born. Her alliance with black women is a continuing thread throughout her career.

    Propane Jane on Twitter has made the point very forcefully that Hillary Clinton ran the most explicitly pro-racial justice campaign in presidential history. Jane has also pointed out that this is why Hillary, a white woman, was nevertheless seen by white racists as representing black interests.

  101. 101.

    Mnemosyne

    @Roger Moore:

    For all he claims to be the one guy in the corner of the working class, his policy proposals are much more tightly focused on the needs of the middle class.

    I think that one of the things this election showed is that there is a large group of middle-class white people who identify themselves as “working class,” even if they live in the suburbs and completed some college.

  102. 102.

    Lapassionara

    @Kathleen: I really enjoyed his pieces about trying to learn French. I have tried to learn French myself, without much success, so his analysis of the process and the language kept me engaged. I find his essays on race challenging and true.

  103. 103.

    debbie

    @Barbara:

    I started to sniff gender bias

    This seems very unfair. I don’t think TNC’s preferences had anything to do with gender.

  104. 104.

    Gelfling 545

    @bupalos: It seems to me that Trump’s ideology is Trump Supremacy. It gets mixed up a bit with white supremacy because he IS white, but mainly it’s about him. As far as his attitude to immigrants, minorities, women, etc., well, he’s not one so they can’t be all that good, can they?

  105. 105.

    ruemara

    @TenguPhule: This. How fucking cheerful do you want him to be?

    @debbie: black men have a number of gender bias issues. it’s as ingrained as the gender bias issues for white men and can be just as subtle.

  109. 109.

    gorram

    @Uncle Ebeneezer: I definitely agree with the general conclusion, but it’s worth noting that Warren has some indigenous background, and did in fact face some discrimination from it (IIRC, her husband’s family didn’t want him to marry her because of it).

    It’s pretty isolated and minor compared to the non-White-passing and specifically Black experiences of the other politicians you’ve mentioned, but it seems relevant, and also strikes me as part of why her class-centered politics seem at least not as grossly offensive as Sanders’ or Edwards’ are.

  110. 110.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mnemosyne: good point. I have a couple of cousins who are very successful contractors, one of them I think is just flat out rich (a subjective term), and I’m sure they both think of themselves as blue collar. They’re both very conservative, but hate trump. I’ve been afraid to ask how they voted– we never talk politics.

  112. 112.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Gelfling 545:
    Separate from everything else, Trump is racist as SHIT. This is a famous miser who paid money, with no expectation of political, financial, or even social praise gain, to declare to the world that a bunch of black teenage boys should be put to death for a rape they did not commit. On top of a record of housing discrimination and some seriously, seriously stereotype-laden quotes. One of the only things he’s cared about enough to have trouble lying (and remember, he lies so casually a lot of people have trouble grasping how it can be) is whether or not he approves of Nazis. I’m starting to think his precious copy of Mein Kampf is because he actually thinks of himself as a Nazi. The question is definitely only how white supremacist he is, not whether he is.

  113. 113.

    Kathleen

    @Lapassionara: The excerpts I read today I totally think are true. I did not like his critiques of Obama, but he of course is coming at them from a totally different perspective. I don’t think from his perspective he’s “wrong”; I just didn’t like them.

  115. 115.

    msdc

    @debbie: I got the same vibe as Barbara. Not so much in his decision to endorse Sanders back in 2016, but in today’s piece, which attributes Trump’s victory entirely to white supremacy and completely ignores the roles misogyny and gender bias played in the campaign.

  116. 116.

    Monala

    @msdc: The article isn’t about why Clinton lost, but about why Trump won. They’re overlapping but not identical issues. As a black woman, I think a majority of the reason Trump won is due to white supremacy–as in, a majority of his voters were animated by it, consciously or not.

    The margins where Clinton lost is due to misogyny–the Bernie Bros who refused to vote for her; likewise the African American men who had supported Obama but not her. But only a small number of them voted Trump rather than third party or not at all.

    So you’re both right, in different ways. Trump wouldn’t have received as many votes as he did without white supremacy, but Clinton would have gotten more votes if it weren’t for misogyny. But the main point of TNC’s article is the former issue, on why Trump won, and why such a backlash after Obama exists.

  117. 117.

    Chet Murthy

    @Marmot:

    he’s a true narcissist, and they’ll do or say anything for admiration.

    Don’t know about others, but TNC “woke” me. And while I find his writing -painful- to read, it’s also necessary. So yes, a fan. But to your point, with respect, I think you’re mistaken. He’s always been a white supremacist. Look at his position on the Central Park Five. Look at his racism regarding black employees. Look at his birtherism. All of that preceded the election. He’s -always- been a white supremacist.

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