"Ya know not everything is racist", says the bigot or bigot sympathizer.
"You think everything is racist. Not everything has to be racist. Some things are just innocent humor or slips of the tongue", says crypto-racists.
These are real quotes. They are repetitive quotes. They are the quotes hard-core racists, soft-core racists, crypto-racists and racists sympathizers employ every day to excuse or minimize theirs and/or others racist statements and actions.
The truth is, no, I nor most racial diversity embracing people think everything is racist. We believe racist words and actions are racist.
The "You think everything is racist" response is a strawman. Usually, it is a non-denial denial. It is a weak attempt at deflection and getting those who are calling out racism to chase a red herring. I say it's weak, but actually it works too often, unfortunately.
A recent example is the Florida gubernatorial race. The day after the primaries Republican nominee (and eventual governor-elect), Ron DeSantis said during an interview on Fox News Floridians should not vote for Democratic nominee, Andrew Gillium (who is African-America), because they couldn't risk "monkeying up" the so-called "progress" that had been made under current governor and now senate-elect, Rick Scott.
The comment immediately sparked a public relations firestorm. Almost immediately Fox News issued a statement condemning the comment. Other Republicans, including Scott, distanced themselves from the controversy spewing the usual cursory bullshit about how they don't condone racially insensitive language and yada yada. Although, of course, they do. But, I digress.
DeSantis, however, didn't apologize nor back down. He and his campaign said the comment was innocent and not racist whatsoever. They pushed back against the narrative it was racist by saying the Democrats and mainstream media make everything about race. They contended the phrase was a common idiom.
But, "monkeying up" is not a common idiom. In fact, it's not even a phrase. "Monkeying around" is but even if he meant that the phrase had no place within the context of the sentence. Not to mention considering the dynamics he should have known better than to use such a phrase.
Of course, that is if you were to provide him a liberal benefit of the doubt, which I do not. DeSantis knew exactly what he was saying and so did his supporters.
However, employing the strawman "not everything is racist" was meant to put those correctly calling out racism on the defensive. Get inside their heads, so to speak. And, it offers a perfunctory plausible deniability.
We actually see this strategy instituted often. Donald Trump consistently says things that are at the very least racist in nature, if not flatly racist. Yet, after almost every time he says something racist his supporters and sycophants inherently respond by clutching their pearls. Then, they slip into full snowflake mode with "You Libs think everything is racist."
Again, no, just racist ish is racist.
Sadly, this strawman does work sometimes. First, as with most strawman and generalizing statements there is a grain (albeit usually a minutely small) of truth to counteraccusation. We all know those people who see racism, sexism, ect in everything. The amount of those people is usually quite small but for the purposes of a deflector they're enough.
Second, people become self-conscious and off-balanced when having this nonsense thrown at them. I have certainly been guilty of this. "Maybe I did read too much into her comment about a tendency of the urban demographic to possess a less instinctive ability to be well read. Perhaps, by urban" she meant 'people who attended more metropolitan schools'. Of course, when I took offense she didn't clarify herself by saying that. She said, 'You know it's true. You have to stop thinking everything is littered with racist connotations.'"
Some people, such as the example above which was an actual conversation I once had, are very astute at this game. They always give themselves or those they are defending wiggle room for plausible deniability and just enough cause to make you seem overly sensitive or too social justice warrior like. It can actually be an admirable albeit distasteful skill.
The way to combat this is to turn the tables back around. If someone says something racist and this is pointed out to them, their response (given they truly intended no malice) should be to ask why what they said was racist or do some retrospection on what they said. If the innate response is to put you on the defensive or make themselves the victim, then you probably should have a good idea the intent behind the comment or action or what they believe was the intent if they are defending someone else.
Remember, a non-denial is not a denial.
It is an innate human response to become defensive when accused of something you don't feel you did or feel your intent has been misunderstood or maligned.
It is also a innate human response to become defensive and deflective and accusatory when you have been correctly accused of something you said or did.
A common ploy of racist and their sympathizers is to always flip it over on you so they don't have to actually confront what they are accurately being accused of because they don't have a defense. It is extremely similar to the person who has been confronted by their significant other accusing them of cheating.
A truly innocent person denies it and then demands proof and seeks to know why their love thinks they are cheating. The person who's been creepin responds, "No! Why do you think everyone cheats? Not everyone cheats. Maybe it's you who is the cheater. People who always think everyone is cheating is the actual cheater."
See, the non-denial. See, the flipping it around. See, the strawman and grain of truth about people who always think everyone is cheating is the cheater.
But, they aren't talking about everyone cheating. They are specifically talking about them. And, nowhere in that rambling was a denial or request for proof. Why? They know the other person knows what time it is.
The same applies to the "not everything is racist" crowd.
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"You think everything is racist. Not everything has to be racist. Some things are just innocent humor or slips of the tongue", says crypto-racists.
These are real quotes. They are repetitive quotes. They are the quotes hard-core racists, soft-core racists, crypto-racists and racists sympathizers employ every day to excuse or minimize theirs and/or others racist statements and actions.
The truth is, no, I nor most racial diversity embracing people think everything is racist. We believe racist words and actions are racist.
The "You think everything is racist" response is a strawman. Usually, it is a non-denial denial. It is a weak attempt at deflection and getting those who are calling out racism to chase a red herring. I say it's weak, but actually it works too often, unfortunately.
A recent example is the Florida gubernatorial race. The day after the primaries Republican nominee (and eventual governor-elect), Ron DeSantis said during an interview on Fox News Floridians should not vote for Democratic nominee, Andrew Gillium (who is African-America), because they couldn't risk "monkeying up" the so-called "progress" that had been made under current governor and now senate-elect, Rick Scott.
The comment immediately sparked a public relations firestorm. Almost immediately Fox News issued a statement condemning the comment. Other Republicans, including Scott, distanced themselves from the controversy spewing the usual cursory bullshit about how they don't condone racially insensitive language and yada yada. Although, of course, they do. But, I digress.
DeSantis, however, didn't apologize nor back down. He and his campaign said the comment was innocent and not racist whatsoever. They pushed back against the narrative it was racist by saying the Democrats and mainstream media make everything about race. They contended the phrase was a common idiom.
But, "monkeying up" is not a common idiom. In fact, it's not even a phrase. "Monkeying around" is but even if he meant that the phrase had no place within the context of the sentence. Not to mention considering the dynamics he should have known better than to use such a phrase.
Of course, that is if you were to provide him a liberal benefit of the doubt, which I do not. DeSantis knew exactly what he was saying and so did his supporters.
However, employing the strawman "not everything is racist" was meant to put those correctly calling out racism on the defensive. Get inside their heads, so to speak. And, it offers a perfunctory plausible deniability.
We actually see this strategy instituted often. Donald Trump consistently says things that are at the very least racist in nature, if not flatly racist. Yet, after almost every time he says something racist his supporters and sycophants inherently respond by clutching their pearls. Then, they slip into full snowflake mode with "You Libs think everything is racist."
Again, no, just racist ish is racist.
Sadly, this strawman does work sometimes. First, as with most strawman and generalizing statements there is a grain (albeit usually a minutely small) of truth to counteraccusation. We all know those people who see racism, sexism, ect in everything. The amount of those people is usually quite small but for the purposes of a deflector they're enough.
Second, people become self-conscious and off-balanced when having this nonsense thrown at them. I have certainly been guilty of this. "Maybe I did read too much into her comment about a tendency of the urban demographic to possess a less instinctive ability to be well read. Perhaps, by urban" she meant 'people who attended more metropolitan schools'. Of course, when I took offense she didn't clarify herself by saying that. She said, 'You know it's true. You have to stop thinking everything is littered with racist connotations.'"
Some people, such as the example above which was an actual conversation I once had, are very astute at this game. They always give themselves or those they are defending wiggle room for plausible deniability and just enough cause to make you seem overly sensitive or too social justice warrior like. It can actually be an admirable albeit distasteful skill.
The way to combat this is to turn the tables back around. If someone says something racist and this is pointed out to them, their response (given they truly intended no malice) should be to ask why what they said was racist or do some retrospection on what they said. If the innate response is to put you on the defensive or make themselves the victim, then you probably should have a good idea the intent behind the comment or action or what they believe was the intent if they are defending someone else.
Remember, a non-denial is not a denial.
It is an innate human response to become defensive when accused of something you don't feel you did or feel your intent has been misunderstood or maligned.
It is also a innate human response to become defensive and deflective and accusatory when you have been correctly accused of something you said or did.
A common ploy of racist and their sympathizers is to always flip it over on you so they don't have to actually confront what they are accurately being accused of because they don't have a defense. It is extremely similar to the person who has been confronted by their significant other accusing them of cheating.
A truly innocent person denies it and then demands proof and seeks to know why their love thinks they are cheating. The person who's been creepin responds, "No! Why do you think everyone cheats? Not everyone cheats. Maybe it's you who is the cheater. People who always think everyone is cheating is the actual cheater."
See, the non-denial. See, the flipping it around. See, the strawman and grain of truth about people who always think everyone is cheating is the cheater.
But, they aren't talking about everyone cheating. They are specifically talking about them. And, nowhere in that rambling was a denial or request for proof. Why? They know the other person knows what time it is.
The same applies to the "not everything is racist" crowd.
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