It's all a matter of self-perception

[thewayne]

"Probably the least racist person on Earth."
—Donald Trump on himself

Let's accept the statement at face value. We still have his statements regarding Mexicans coming across the border being rapists, drug dealers, etc. Recent numbers have shown that more Mexicans are leaving the country than coming in, which will have some interesting results. We also have the fact that he hasn't said a word about a Black Lives Matter protester being assaulted beaten up at one of his rallies.

While he might not consider himself a racist, the fact that he says these things and doesn't condemn acts of violence, I'd have to give the statement a Pants On Fire rating.

At least he doesn't have binders full of women. :-)

I don't say that I'm not a racist: perhaps, to steal a phrase, I should say that I'm a recovering racist. I don't think we have a post-racial society, that's quite evident. I do what I can to fight against the mind sets of the environment and era that I grew up in. I'm not saying my parents were massive racists, but they grew up in the 1930s in the rural Southwest where overt and more subtle racism was not uncommon, and it'll rub off on you.

Do your best to do better, not react negatively and not to spread racial stereotyping and maybe the world will improve. But I don't think The Donald is going to be the role model for that.

Comments

[silveradept]

The Donald is bit a rule model on anything at all, and if he thinks he's the least racist person, then he's got an old model of what racism is rattling in his head.

I do like the "recovering racist" formulation, though.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I remember a scene from the TV movie Lathe of Heaven when the dreamer is told to dream of a post-racial society, and when he awakes, everyone is gray. I sometimes wonder if it's possible to eliminate racism. Humans are 99.9x% genetically identical, I don't remember how many decimal points the comparison went to. People have different opportunities to advance, depending on where they're born. White Europeans subjugated black Africans and did it thinking they were superior, partly because they had superior firepower.

But that was just a situational advantage.

If you pluck a random person who lives in the Kalahari in to the middle of London, they're going to fumble a bit. Give them an English IQ test, and I don't think they're going to be shown as very smart. But if you reverse the scenario and pluck a random Londoner and throw them in to the middle of the Kalahari, the same thing is going to happen and they'll fumble about like an idiot and have a very hard time adapting and surviving.

One is not smarter than the other. Both are specialized for living in their environment and leveraging their knowledge in that environment. Change the environment and they're going to have trouble, which makes me think that a planet-wide cataclysm could make for a very interesting study.

White people were lucky. When you boil it down, it all comes down to luck and superior firepower. If white people can't try to come to terms with that, then problems will arise.

But what do I know. Do your best to be friendly and kind and peaceful to all people, and hope the next generation does better.

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

People are saying he's a narcissist, so he either doesn't have an accurate view of himself or he's lying and doesn't care who knows it.