August 17, 2018

"I have always assumed, casually, that Trump has used the word."

"To suppose that he didn’t would be to imagine that a real-life Archie Bunker didn’t—Trump is, after all, of the same white, salt-of-the-earth Queens stock as that character, with the same sense of what real America is. I recall a man who worked with me on a summer job at a seafood market in the ’80s. On Fridays, the store would feature whiting, a fish especially popular with black people. One of the employees had misspelled whiting on the sign, and this Trumpesque fellow chuckled, unaware that I was within earshot, 'Doesn’t matter—n*****s can’t read anyway.'"

Writes John McWhorter in "Trump and the N Word/It’s not the word that matters—it’s the sentiment" (The Atlantic).

The weirdest thing about that paragraph is Trump's apparent success in getting people to think of him as a working-class guy. How the hell did he do that? He's always been rich. Why would he be like Archie Bunker or a guy who works in a fish store?! The phrase "white, salt-of-the-earth Queens stock" suggests something at the genetic level. Stock. Was the fish-market guy from Queens "stock" too? In what possible way was this man "Trumpesque"? He was white, I get that, but this seems dangerously close to seeing all white men as alike.

I don't know. That whole paragraph made me uncomfortable. I've been around white people all my life, and I was born in the 1950s, and I don't remember them — us — using the n-word. McWhorter tells us what he's "always assumed, casually," but it doesn't fit with my experience of white people.

McWhorter continues:
Things like that let you know what sorts of things are said when you aren’t around; this man was perfectly ordinary, as is, quite resonantly, Trump. 
Trump is "perfectly ordinary" — quite resonantly perfectly ordinary?! That really makes no sense at all. Trump is the most unusual person we've ever seen. Just being the sort of person who could get to be President makes a man very unusual, and Trump is the most unusual President we've ever seen — quite resonantly.
What would be surprising is if he, a sociologically unheedful person molded in the 1950s, wasn’t well acquainted with the N word...
A sociologically unheedful person... that's a great phrase, but an awfully weak foundation for making such a negative assumption.
That Trump is a casual racist has long been painfully clear. While his scorn for all comers is plain from his speeches and tweets, he has repeatedly demonstrated an especial contempt for black people....
Trump says a lot of blunt things — very positive and very negative — about a lot of people. McWhorter admits that, but he still wants to make Trump's attacks on black people special (especial?).
No, he wouldn’t burn crosses on anyone’s lawn. Trump is a man of the late-20th century, not its earlier half. But Trump clearly thinks of black people as an inferior caste....  Like so many others, he thinks black people are not only lazy, but stupid.

With the case for Trump’s bigotry so clear, in what sense would it somehow be a key revelation that he has used the N word? In what sense is his using that slur proof of anything but what we’ve known all along?
If you've come this far and are keeping up with McWhorter's assumptions, you will now see that it doesn't even matter whether Trump used the n-word. He's just as bad whether he did or not, and yet, don't stop there, you ought to assume he did:
Given what his views clearly are, wouldn’t it be a little odd if he primly refrained from using that word in his private moments?
Not to me, but then I don't accept the given. And yet, I think even if I did accept the given, I wouldn't find it odd (or prim) to refrain from using the word.
That would be an incoherent person, and Trump is, if anything, quite coherent...
McWhorter is essentially joking that it would be a compliment to credit horrible old Trump with the use of the n-word because he'd at least be "coherent" (that is, consistent with all those other things McWhorter has aggressively pinned on him).
... gruesomely predictable in his solipsistic, unrefined Alpha-baboon essence.
Oh! A monkey metaphor, flung casually, and it's okay, because the person lampooned is white.

306 comments:

1 – 200 of 306   Newer›   Newest»
rehajm said...

The polling with blacks must be especial bad for lefties.

Oso Negro said...

There appears to be no reach in logic too great, no sentiment too outlandish to express, to demonize Donald Trump, whose popularity with working Americans outside of the Democrat sphere of control appears to be increasing, including black people. The Comgressional vote in 2010 was profound, but it seems the future of the Republic hinges on this November’s election. If the Democrats take Congress, the Deep State will be resurgent. I greatly fear that the Republican Party will be entirely comfortable with that.

DavidD said...

“Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.”

David Begley said...

“While his scorn for all comers is plain from his speeches and tweets....”

All? Really?

A long article of pretention based upon assumptions and speculation to prove something that was never said.

If only The Atlantic would devote the same amount of space to how Hillary paid the Russians for fake dirt. That would be news to its readers.

Tina Trent said...

McWhorter is apparently not getting enough attention from pretending to be the guy who can occasionally treat white people as if they're not all seething racists in order to get published in City Journal, so he has dropped the pretense.

Someday, naive centrists will figure out who their friends are. Or not. Of course, McWhorter is still carefully reserving his spot on the centrist intellectual caviar gravy train by telling the right sorts of people that the problem with Trump is a problem of lower class whites, not people like them.

And they belive it because they want to believe it, even if it makes no sense.

As usual, the problem with pushing certain people under the wheels of the racial accusation bus is that you're then first in line to be pushed by the guy behind you.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
FIDO said...

Trump is 72 for the love of God. He was born in 1946. He was in his twenties when the entire Race Riot thing got started, and it was particularly intense in New York City.

This was a far different time. I was raised in a working class neighborhood and that word, even in the Seventies, was prevalent. My mom's friend was about to buy a ROCKING house for very cheap...because the Race Riots had destroyed property values.

So the idea that Trump never said that word is laughable.

But if Robert Klegale Byrd can 'grow', why isn't the same benefit of the doubt shown to Trump?

Because here is the thing: Unlike Leftists, where History always started Yesterday, Trump was always described as shady, weasely, and guilty for perving on women. When he bought the Miss America pageant, everyone was rolling their eyes and giving each other knowing glances.

This was who Trump was.

Nobody ever called him a racist before 2016 that I remember. It wasn't a thing, until the media tried to make 'free speech principles' where used to be de rigor into 'racism'.


So I don't care if he used that word in the past. Bill Clinton probably did. Robert Byrd and Teddy Kennedy ABSOLUTELY used that language.


I am not big on double standards.

Rob said...

Trump’s inroads with African-Americans are far too threatening to Democrats to be ignored. So the campaign to tar him as a racist was completely predictable.

DavidD said...

John McWhorter Is a bigot.

campy said...

Any grade-schooler can tell John McWhorter what happens when he ASSumes.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
clint said...

" But Trump clearly thinks of black people as an inferior caste.... Like so many others, he thinks black people are not only lazy, but stupid."

Um. What?

DavidD said... John McWhorter Is a bigot.

Clearly.

Rick said...

A long article of pretention based upon assumptions and speculation to prove something that was never said.

This is the advantage of normalizing racial pandering. People become so used to it non-pandering seems different and is therefore considered proof of racism.

Jess said...

According to statistics I heard on a radio report, Trump had a favorable rating with 18% of Blacks polled last year. This year, the rating is 31%. That's not good news for the Democratic Public Plantation. They will resort to using their media to create lies, promote false narratives, and demonize Trump as a racist. At this point, after the years of their failing effort, it appears it won't work any better than in the past.

traditionalguy said...

A sensitive boy raised by a Scots mother from the Isle of Lewis ( The most Presbyterian place on the earth) would never use bad language at home.

That's a fact jack.

cronus titan said...

It's always revealing when talking heads cite Trump's Queens roots as part of the attacks. The condescending phrase used to describe New York City residents outside Manhattan is "bridge and tunnel people." Nobody outside New York City cares about it yet there was a stubborn belief in the inferiority of residents in the outer boroughs. I grew up in Brooklyn, similar to Trump's neighborhood in Queens, and rarely heard the n-word. Yet there was certainty that there was nothing outside Manhattan except ignorance and racism.

The Manhattan-based media shares these views. They cannot believe someone from the outer boroughs had the nerve to venture outside their station and win. Guiliani went through something similar when he was elected Mayor. The self-proclaimed elites have never cared for white working people. The only difference now is that it is out in the open.

Archie Bunker was a caricature of the bridge and tunnel people created by elites.

The Crack Emcee said...

Patrice O'Neal said the problem with racism, today, is white's denial they're ever racist - you can't catch 'em. Racism surely exists, but nobody's doing it. If you ask whites.

I've never assumed Trump's said nigger (I'm not prone to assumptions) but my experience with whites says they don't have to "go there" to hurt or destroy a life, even today, so it's not the evidence I need. Their lectures on individuality (as a way to destroy the black cohesion that's seen us through) as they choose to display an ongoing - collective - hostility, is enough now. If they can't understand they've been wrong AND the despair they've ladled out from that, any more than those stupid outnumbered whites in South Africa, then they're simply not as clever as they've thought and don't deserve to be respected, as if they are, anyway. They diminish themselves.

They claim to miss Aretha, who powered the Civil Rights Movement, but stand in the way of reparations - just as they claim it for MLK, too. They make no sense and, frankly, they're liars.

MLK said Berry Goldwater wasn't a racist, himself, but we should avoid him because he made a place for racists to feel comfortable. That's still going on, far too often, with whites.

They just can't let it go.

rhhardin said...

I never used nigger except in eenie meeney miney moe, nor did my friends. Kids in the 50s. NJ.

McWhorter's buying the koolaid.

The Crack Emcee said...

"The weirdest thing about that paragraph is Trump's apparent success in getting people to think of him as a working-class guy. How the hell did he do that?"

Working in construction.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Ol' Massa Trump, he got all dem niggers gwan crazy. Eben Ol' Coon McWhorter gots da derangement plenty bad. An' dis here be a nigger what likes da white folks, so's dis jess prove dat ol' white prezdent be racis'. Why, I's be thinkin' Mizz Althouse done know Ol' Coon McWhorter pretty good, an' she be all de time talkin' wif him on her bloggin'heads t'ing. Man, I sho' do hopes Mizz Althouse gwan ask Ol'Coon bout his racis' racism, cause dat be a mighty bad t'ing, dat ol' racis' stuff.

Kevin said...

“I've been around white people all my life, and I was born in the 1950s, and I don't remember them — us — using the n-word. McWhorter tells us what he's "always assumed, casually," but it doesn't fit with my experience of white people.”

Not us Ann, those other white people. The ones we’re sure exist but who we don’t really know ourselves.

Structural racism theory requires a great many racists. The upper class must be involved but their racism is of the unintentional “white privilege” type. But that’s not satisfying. One race kept down by another unintentionally? No, there must be real white supremacy as well.

So Trump can’t get a pass, he must be with the swastika tattoo people, the working class people, the people no self respecting journalist writhing for a major media outlet knows.

They occasionally venture out to the heartland sure they’re going to find them. They never really do, but they’re still sure they’re out there. We’ve moving from everyone having one black friend to having one racist relative.

Original Mike said...

Althouse said...” I've been around white people all my life, and I was born in the 1950s, and I don't remember them — us — using the n-word. McWhorter tells us what he's "always assumed, casually," but it doesn't fit with my experience of white people.”

Ditto.

Rick said...

MLK said Berry Goldwater wasn't a racist, himself, but we should avoid him because he made a place for racists to feel comfortable.

Applying this principle you should stop whining about how you're treated.

The Crack Emcee said...

"this seems dangerously close to seeing all white men as alike."

This seems dangerously close to seeing how others treat blacks as weird, but only when blacks do it. I've noticed the few times someone has stepped in to say I'm being treated like a BLM member, when I'm not acting like one, but it's been painfully few - but y'all are on alert if blacks do it? How dare we?

The Crack Emcee said...

"I don't know."

I hate when whites admit this, and then go on as though blacks are wrong. If you don't know,....

BamaBadgOR said...

Another day of great blog articles and analysis.

For those of us old enough to remember, on this day 46 years ago, East German guards shot and killed young Peter Fechter as he attempted to climb over the Berlin Wall, and then stood idly by for an hour listening to his groans as he slowly bled to death.

stevew said...

Have you seen the videos of Trump interacting with those, so called, lower caste, working class people, firefighters and police, etc.? He fits in quite well. He possesses their mannerisms. He jokes and jousts as they do. Even though he is rich and always has been so, he behaves very much like the working class folks. I suspect Crack Emcee has correctly identified the source: Trump has been in and among these folks all his life due to being in the commercial construction business. That he has used the word in question is rank speculation done for no purpose other than to try and undermine Trump's growing support among minority voters.

-sw

Rob said...

Until Johnny Cochran imbued the word with magic, there was no blanket prohibition on speaking the word. High school and college discussions of Huckleberry Finn (perhaps the greatest American novel) featured ample references to Nigger Jim, including the efforts in some places to ban the book because of the term. It was offensive to use the word in an offensive way, but not to speak or write the word to describe how some had used it offensively. All that changed after the O.J. trial. The word became so fraught that most white people felt obliged to employ the n-word euphemism. But let’s not pretend that was always the case.

The Crack Emcee said...

"Trump is the most unusual person we've ever seen."

Not by a long shot.

"Trump is the most unusual President we've ever seen — quite resonantly."

Maybe. Nixon was pretty weird.

Tina Trent said...

Crack, is it perhaps possible that the problems you're obsessing over lie with you, not everyone else?

Just a thought.

tim in vermont said...
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The Crack Emcee said...

"A sociologically unheedful person... that's a great phrase, but an awfully weak foundation for making such a negative assumption.

That Trump is a casual racist has long been painfully clear. While his scorn for all comers is plain from his speeches and tweets, he has repeatedly demonstrated an especial contempt for black people....

Trump says a lot of blunt things — very positive and very negative — about a lot of people. McWhorter admits that, but he still wants to make Trump's attacks on black people special (especial?)."

McWhorter's always been weak.

tim in vermont said...
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exhelodrvr1 said...

So now it's wrong for a white person not to use that word? Is there a racism flow chart somewhere I can use? It's getting really hard to keep track of all this!

exhelodrvr1 said...

"Working in construction."

And not being condescending

tim maguire said...

I've been a Lexicon Valley listener for years and McWhorter is a smart even-keeled guy. He has a lot of really thoughtful things to say about race relations (Full disclosure: I loved his take-down of Ta Nahesi-Coates and so want to love everything he says on the subject), but he has a weird blind spot with "the n-word." He did a whole podcast on why it's ok for blacks to say it but not whites and it was a load of obtuse crap. Very disappointing as I went into it knowing his position and looking forward to a reasoned argument that I didn't get. So I'm disappointed, but not especially surprised, to hear such a stupid description of Trump.

McWhorter is a New York guy too so there's no excuse for the ignorance he displays about Trump's history and personality.

Tank said...

DavidD said...

John McWhorter Is a bigot.


Bingo. The simple answer is the best.


Tank grew up in Teaneck, NJ, just outside of NYC. Teaneck was one third black. N***** was not a word that people used, not even black people. Back then the word that black people liked to use a lot was motherf***** in all it's variations.

The Crack Emcee said...

"If you've come this far and are keeping up with McWhorter's assumptions, you will now see that it doesn't even matter whether Trump used the n-word. He's just as bad whether he did or not, and yet, don't stop there, you ought to assume he did"

I never forget, before Trump was guilty of being president, he was guilty of not being the sort of person who'd hang with John McWhorter.

mezzrow said...

I really like John McWhorter, but he stepped in it here. Just another reminder that we all lack self-awareness to some degree, no matter how brilliant or erudite we may be. Unlike John or Althouse, most of us get to publicly display this on a comment thread at most.

That God for small favors as well as large ones.

The Crack Emcee said...

"I wouldn't find it odd (or prim) to refrain from using the word."

McWhorter should be ashamed here.

tim in vermont said...

People may use the phrase “Begging the question” is different ways. For example, some people mean a premise has been omitted. Sometimes people say “it begs the question” when there is a question that should be part of discussion. For example, in discussing prayer in school, a debater might say, “It begs the question as to what the First Amendment says.” But in the field of Logic and Philosophy, begging the question means arguing in a circle or assuming what you are trying to prove.

mezzrow said...

That = thank. My editing skills are crap these days. The only errors I see are what other people write.

Birkel said...

I have always assumed that John McWhorter would assume* I am a racist if ever I came to be known by him.
It’s almost like he has a pre-judgment of people.
One wonders what basis he has for that pre-judgment.

*My mixed heritage notwithstanding.

Eleanor said...

I need to get something straight. I can't admire the talents of someone like Aretha Franklin unless I also agree to fork over money to people who are several generations away from slavery, which my ancestors fought a war to end? It's OK for black South Africans to kill white South Africans and force those that survive to flee? People whose ancestors have been there since the 1600s? While I would miss the talents of many black performers, I can live without them. If I'm going to pay reparations, I'd rather help pay to move someone whose life is currently in danger from racism. If only people with the power can be racist, then the racists in South Africa are black. Go ahead. It will only take me a few minutes to shake off the charge of being a racist. It's been cheapened, and it doesn't mean anything anymore. Ann's link took the value down to junk bond status.

Shouting Thomas said...

I don't give a fuck who is and who is not racist.

rhhardin said...

In NJ in the 50s there were colored men, colored women, colored people, but they didn't come up in kid discussion at all. The words were just descriptive.

The interesting divisions were boys and girls, and jocks and non-jocks. That's about 100% of the kid social mental space.

The Crack Emcee said...

"... gruesomely predictable in his solipsistic, unrefined Alpha-baboon essence."

"Oh! A monkey metaphor, flung casually, and it's okay, because the person lampooned is white."

Yeah, in America, can you imagine? Meanwhile, consider that focus on race, when the accurate charge that should stick and hurt this entire nation right now - "solipsistic" - flies by without a mention or concern. Catholic priests molesting children bother you? Why? Whites have always made sure they're fine - not blacks. How about Jehovah's Witnesses? Why? Whites have always made sure they're fine - not blacks. Hell, Scientology fucking survives amongst whites and they're only now bringing blacks in - but the rest get mad if we say "Justice."

You think being called a monkey is bad for a white person?

I think being called crazy should be a much more concerning title.

Robert Cook said...

"I've been around white people all my life, and I was born in the 1950s, and I don't remember them — us — using the n-word. McWhorter tells us what he's 'always assumed, casually,' but it doesn't fit with my experience of white people."

It depends on where you grew up. I was born in southern Indiana and lived there until I was 8. I never heard the "n" word or other racial slurs there, but then, most of the people around us were white. There were blacks who worked in the kitchen in my grandfather's BBQ restaurant, and there was one black family in our church (Episcopal). (My father told me years later that Indiana had been a hotbed of KKK activity, with a huge membership in the state at one time.)

When we were preparing to move to Florida--in October 1963, right in the midst of the civil rights era, and a month before JFK's assassination--my parents admonished us to never use the "n" word, that it was a very bad word. They emphasized this.

They must have assumed we would hear the word spoken often and/or casually in Florida...and they were correct. I can even recall children in my grade school using the term "n---- lover" toward children who did repeat their use of the "n" word.

My parents' conditioning of us was such that to this day the "n" word seems to me the ugliest word in the world, and I have a physiological reaction when I hear it spoken.

rhhardin said...

Racist doesn't literally mean anything negative in the first place.

Figuratively it means somebody with ill will towards black people.

The rhetorical trick is claiming that the former deserves all the opprobrium that the latter deserves. So noticing anything is racism. In reaction, racism as a charge goes empty, or at best a PC claim that various fictions must be maintained at any cost.

Jersey Fled said...

I still don't get how Trump's bigotry is so obvious that it doesn't require proof.

I've asked this before on this blog.

What evidence can you present that Trump is either a racist or a bigot?

His "Muslim ban"? The Supreme Court has ruled that it was not specifically targeted at Muslims.

His enforcement of border laws? That were passed by Congress years and even decades ago?

That he called members of MS-13 animals? Guess what. They are animals. And we use the term every day to describe fellow humans. I watched a football game last week where a player was described as being an animal.

This is a guy who employed tens of thousands of Blacks and Hispanics over the years and the Democrats couldn't find one of them to drag out during the election to call him a bigot. Instead, they had to make up stuff about Russia.

Help me here. I'm serious. I've asked this question here before. What evidence can you present that Trump is a bigot or a racist?

Saying that it's self evident is just a copout.

whitney said...

I agree with you. White people quit casually using that word a long time ago. When white people use it it's not casual. My grandmother was born in 1914 and I was visiting her when I was in high school and she used it and it made me cringe

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Growing up, I heard my share of n*gger jokes, and I'm sure I repeated some of them, though I don't remember any specific instance. Also heard, and repeated, my share of Polish and blonde jokes. And of course, we made fun of wops, and kikes, many of whom were our friends.

Darrell said...

Whoever was holding that tape recording would be an instant millionaire. And the tape was never sold--one that existed since The Apprentice?

Right.

It's a bold-face lie.
He never said it.

Virgil Hilts said...

Seen on Twitter (over the Politico article about Trump's Trump’s diplomatic learning curve: Time zones, ‘Nambia’ and ‘Nipple’):
SecState Mike Pompeo: I need you to talk to the Ambassador from Niger.
UnderSec African Affairs: Why?
SecState: You need to get them to change their country's name.
UnderSec: WHAT? Why? How?
SecState: Just . . . trust me on this.

growing up in 70s I believe only times a civilized white person would use the N-word was when quoting an Eddie Murphy or Richard Prior joke. But even in Nebraska, we knew that people in Queens were not civilized. Whenever I try to make the argument that Trump seemed civilized when he was younger, my wife (who lived in NYC and Brooklyn in the 80s) says "are you kidding, he was from Queens!"

Oso Negro said...

Oh, Crack, if your idea of racial progress is black Scientologists you are aiming much too low.

Virgil Hilts said...

I meant "NYC including Brooklyn."

Robert Cook said...

"I can even recall children in my grade school using the term "n---- lover" toward children who did repeat their use of the "n" word."

Uh, who did not repeat their use of the "n" word.

I must add this was not most of the children or other people around me in Florida, but it was enough to be a noticeable change from Indiana.

Darrell said...

Donald J. Trump

Verified account

@realDonaldTrump
Aug 13
More
.@MarkBurnettTV called to say that there are NO TAPES of the Apprentice where I used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by Wacky and Deranged Omarosa. I don’t have that word in my vocabulary, and never have. She made it up. Look at her MANY recent quotes saying....

The Crack Emcee said...

Tina Trent said...
Crack, is it perhaps possible that the problems you're obsessing over lie with you, not everyone else?

Just a thought.

Yeah - I try to hang out with whites.

My black friends DO say that's the problem,...

rhhardin said...

Niger seed was renamed nyjer seed long ago. Weird reaction jokes.

A co-worker in the 70s wrote up the staffing requirements for a Navy job and said it required two riggers. It came back from the typing pool as two colored gentlemen.

What's funny is the suddenly revealed forces of PC.

The Crack Emcee said...

Shouting Thomas said...

"I don't give a fuck who is and who is not racist."

Which is why many blacks don't give a fuck what whites think or feel about anythijng.

The Crack Emcee said...

Oso Negro said...

"Oh, Crack, if your idea of racial progress is black Scientologists you are aiming much too low."

I would think, when you guys do misreadings and come up with some cockamamy idea like "Crack likes black Scientologists", you'd catch yourselves.

But you never do.

Dave Begley said...

I've always assumed, casually, that Hillary Clinton is an alcoholic consumed by sexual frustration and deprivation which drove her into the arms of a younger Muslim woman and just about any other pussy who would present herself to the Queen. She's also a rich criminal who would do anything to get back into the White House including paying Russia for fake dirt.

rhhardin said...

Which is why many blacks don't give a fuck what whites think or feel about anythijng.

With whites not caring that came on after a long period of sympathy was defeated by rising charges of racism.

The long period of sympathy doesn't seem to have been tried by blacks.

That's pretty self-defeating because good character is the only thing that will work.

Shouting Thomas said...

Listen, Althouse is far more politically astute than I am. Her strategy, honed as a classroom teacher, is to open up a space and encourage people to talk. Evidently, she thinks talking about this racism fetish is worthwhile, so I'll bow to her superior strategic wisdom.

I've been worn out with this fucking idiocy for a couple of decades. I loathe this discussion.

So McWhorter wants his ass kissed because he's professionally black.

I long ago ceased regarding these discussions as anything except an S&M struggle session with some bastard who's trying to force me to cry "uncle."

My response to these fucking S&M games is: "No, asshole, I'm going to make you cry uncle."

That's all I've got to say any more to the racism hysterics. You're not going to rub my nose in shit. I'm going to rub your nose in shit.

Phil 314 said...

“I've been around white people all my life, and I was born in the 1950s, and I don't remember them — us — using the n-word. “

I honestly find this hard to believe. Growing up in a small city in upstate New York in the 60’s I didn’t hear it every day but certainly more frequently than every month. As a kid hearing it from both black and white people it was confusing as to how bad the word was. My mom, from the Midwest, always emphasized how bad the word was. That’s why she was so upset when Dick Gregory on the Ed Sullivan show touted his new book “Nigger”.

Later in the 70’s it was funny in a slightly uncomfortable way when Cleavon Little in “Blazing Saddles” declared “One wrong move and the nigger dies!” By the 80’s it was clear, “YOU DONT USE THE N WORD”. And yet it was and still is confusing when I hear or here of a black person saying to another black person “Nigger, please!”

So would I be surprised if Trump used the N-word, no. And I’m assuming he’s used Dago, Wop, Pollack, Kike etc,

Jeff Brokaw said...

In the first sentence he admits that the whole thing is confirmation bias. 30-40% of the country suffers from it and they won’t shut up about it.

It’s getting really, REALLY old.

Virgil Hilts said...

FWIW, reminder that we have multiple witnesses to Bill Clinton - almost same age as DT - repeatedly using the n-word in unfriendly manner in his much younger days. Bill's history really does help DT skate on stuff.
https://www.theblaze.com/contributions/racial-slurs-are-unsettling-if-used-by-celebrity-chefs-or-top-democrats

Shouting Thomas said...

Which is why many blacks don't give a fuck what whites think or feel about anythijng.

I don't give much of a fuck about what "many blacks" think or feel about anything. So, we're even, as it should be.

I'm an individual and I'm on my own.

Henry said...

That Trump is a casual racist has long been painfully clear. While his scorn for all comers is plain from his speeches and tweets, he has repeatedly demonstrated an especial contempt for black people....

Especial? How about empirical? You'd have to do some summation of all the rude and cruel things Trump has ever said and apply them, percentage-wise, to all his opportunities. It would be a big project.

Trump's is the Henry Higgins defense:

HIGGINS [irritated] The question is not whether I treat you rudely, but whether you ever heard me treat anyone else better.

Trump does treat some people better. The people who flatter him.

Marcus said...

Born in Brooklyn to NYC parents, I was 5 or 6 years old when my mother overheard me reciting the "Eeny, meeny, miney moe, catch a nigger by his toe." I had no idea what a "nigger" was. I don't know where I picked it up, probably from another child in my Connecticut rural neighborhood (moved there in 1960). My mother corrected me, saying that "nigger is a bad word" and told me to use "tiger by its tail" instead. I, of course, did, because disobeying your mother in those years was unthinkable. I never heard my parents use the term to describe Negroes (which is what we called black people in those days). To do so would have made us "prejudiced" people, which is what has become "racists" to help the liberals inflame the description.
While the word got publicity galore during the O.J. trial, the advent of rap music made it, to me, a non-word. "My nigga", indeed.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

Especial? How about empirical? You'd have to do some summation of all the rude and cruel things Trump has ever said and apply them, percentage-wise, to all his opportunities.

Well, have you done that? Or are you just assuming how it would come out based on your reading of an anti-Trump press with it's constant invidious interpretations of every Trump utterance?

Answer? No. How about ONE racist thing that Trump ever said?

The Crack Emcee said...

rhhardin said...

"That's pretty self-defeating because good character is the only thing that will work."

Pffft. We're long past the good character argument. Whites and their demand for respectability killed that noise. Y'all really have no idea what you unleashed, do you? Just stupid white people.

Sigh.

Rory said...

"growing up in 70s I believe only times a civilized white person would use the N-word was when quoting an Eddie Murphy or Richard Prior joke."

This is one thing I wonder about, though I was thinking of Pryor and Chris Rock: are there people who hear and laugh at their routines, but then just don't refer to them ever again? I understand not launching into a Rock imitation on the subway, but are there people who hurt themselves laughing at their routines, and then just never, ever repeat what they said? It's bizarre.

Shouting Thomas said...

I'm going to quote that great black philosopher, Chuch Berry:

"It's a mean old world to try to live in all by yourself."

Really, nobody gives a shit about you but a few friends, some of your family members and, maybe, your spouse.

If you need your ass kissed to be functional, you're dead meat. If you collapse and cry because somebody calls you a nigger, you're a fool and everybody will rip you off.

The underlying theme here, which is that if we kiss blacks' asses enough they'll stop murdering one another in droves and filling up the prisons, is bullshit.

MikeR said...

John McWhorter is a really bright guy; I used to like listening to him. But like so many others he has gone off the rails about Trump. I heard him talking to Glenn Loury about how stupid Trump is; his proof was that Trump got rolled by North Korea. Glenn was a little more gentle than he usually is: "Uh, I think the jury's still out about Korea." In my words: This is something where Trump has an honest chance to solve a seventy-year-old war and bring a medieval hellhole into the modern world. And win a Nobel Peace Prize. But the usual experts are sure that Trump got rolled, so it's evidence that he's an idiot.

Sebastian said...

"I have always assumed, casually, that Trump has used the word."

Ah, he has always assumed, has he. No evidence needed. A case of black privilege: you can just assume white people are racist.

"To suppose that he didn’t would be to imagine that a real-life Archie Bunker didn’t—Trump is, after all, of the same white, salt-of-the-earth Queens stock as that character"

Yeah, sure, if Archie's father were a rich developer, and his mom an immigrant from Scotland, and he had gone to military school and Wharton, and if he had been in the public eye his entirely life--in that case, sure, he'd be like Archie. But really, even for a half-sane prog like McW, this is exceptionally sociologically unheedful.

"He was white, I get that, but this seems dangerously close to seeing all white men as alike."

Black privilege again: you can just stereotype away. Of course, it is actually one of the real costs of slavery and segregation: the inability to the see the other in her particularity, as a real person, beyond the categories that have been imposed on you. But the categories are too engrained, and too politically useful.

"McWhorter tells us what he's "always assumed, casually," but it doesn't fit with my experience of white people."

The dirty secret is that most whites don't give a moment's thought to "race" when they don't have to. But it is so much more comforting for blacks to think that they matter more than anything, and that their misfortunes are still the fault of mean whitey.

"Trump is "perfectly ordinary" — quite resonantly perfectly ordinary?!"

Even more ordinary than O's grandmother, the "typical white person."

tim in vermont said...

I guess the only time I remember a parent using it was to criticize one of my uncles for pronouncing "negro" the commonly accepted term at the time, as "nehgrrruh."

But I heard it plenty from my uncle who lived in a trailer and from other kids I knew.

Sebastian said...

"That Trump is a casual racist has long been painfully clear. While his scorn for all comers is plain"

What has Trump said that is casually racist? He scorns all comers who scorn and criticize him. There is a difference.

"but he still wants to make Trump's attacks on black people special (especial?).

Well, that's the black intellectual's shtick. It is always and everywhere about them.

"But Trump clearly thinks of black people as an inferior caste.... Like so many others, he thinks black people are not only lazy, but stupid."

If it's so clear, how about a few examples?

Althouse: "If you've come this far and are keeping up with McWhorter's assumptions, you will now see that it doesn't even matter whether Trump used the n-word. He's just as bad whether he did or not"

Exactly. Progs use words as tools, and if they don't have the words, they just make up shit.

"Oh! A monkey metaphor, flung casually, and it's okay, because the person lampooned is white."

Of course. Black privilege again. You gotta problem with that?

The question here is why McWhorter, who has written some good and useful things in the past, wrote this nonsense. Like Brennan's over-the-top smears, it's another case of using rabid anti-Trumpism to seek absolution from progs who had been critical of McWhorter's previous overly moderate reasonableness. "Welcome back, John, you're one of of us again."

Tom T. said...

McWhorter knows that the use of the N-word is nowhere near as common as he suggests, and he's just flattering his white readers by letting them say to themselves that they're not part of the bad white people.

Mike Sylwester said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike Sylwester said...

I have enjoyed listening to John McWhorter many times, so I am surprised to learn that he is such an unreasonable, mean-spirited bigot.

n.n said...

McWhorter is either prone to color judgments or is a rabid diversitist on principle (i.e. character). Ignoring this is how we got Hutu and Tutsi, Mandela and necklaces, etc. The monolithic "indian" or native seeking external relief, the "noble savage" and sacrificial rites (i.e. elective abortions for secular incentives), slavery, inter and intra-tribal genocide, and contemporary "minority" gangs preying on each other.

Comanche Voter said...

A lot of projection by McWhorter. And a bucketful of erroneous assumptions.

MikeR said...

I think black people would be better off if they didn't spend so much effort reacting to the possibility of racism, in places and times where it makes little difference, like private conversations.
But I'm white, so I don't expect blacks to listen to me.
The weird thing is that John McWhorter says exactly the same thing, constantly. When he talks or writes about racism, this is always his point: there is racism, but we are usually better off getting on with our lives anyhow.
Trump is different.

rhhardin said...

Pffft. We're long past the good character argument. Whites and their demand for respectability killed that noise. Y'all really have no idea what you unleashed, do you? Just stupid white people.

You don't hear that from Asians. Why not?

wild chicken said...


And not being condescending

This. Trump is equally harsh on everyone. He's not sentimental about race. He won't play the game.

God love 'im.

Ralph L said...

It's pretty clear Trump is an equal opportunity name-caller, something unprecedented in American public life. After 14 years of reflexive Obama-worship, the elites simply can't deal with the change.

My great-uncle (d. 1964) used nothing else for black people but had a black maid living in his house most of his life.

Jason said...

Liberals are constantly projecting their own insane, vile bigotry on to normal people.

Tommy Duncan said...

You don't need to step back very far to see this in perspective: It's a load of crap.

John McWhorter can't find actual racism so he makes it up. Which puts him in the liberal mainstream.

When everyone is a racist, being called a "racist" loses its sting.

Oso Negro said...

Blogger The Crack Emcee said...
Oso Negro said...

"Oh, Crack, if your idea of racial progress is black Scientologists you are aiming much too low."

I would think, when you guys do misreadings and come up with some cockamamy idea like "Crack likes black Scientologists", you'd catch yourselves.

But you never do.


Lighten up, it was a joke. :)

Oso Negro said...

@ Oso Negro - "oh, Crack lighten up" See!

Henry said...

tim in vermont said...

"Well, have you done that?"

Is that you, me, or McWhorter?

n.n said...

"Whites and their demand for respectability killed that noise."

You don't hear that from Asians. Why not?


They're too busy improving their quality of life through adoption of "white" technological and social standards. The moral of the story is: it's bad to be white (i.e. color judgment), but it's good to be "white". Some people want to have their baby and abort her too.

narciso said...


Germans are confused as well:


https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/unlikely-and-unlikable-jair-bolsonaro-could-lead-brazil/a-45083300

daskol said...

People from Queens, even well-off people, talk funny.

The Crack Emcee said...

rhhardin said...

"You don't hear that from Asians. Why not?"

They're living a different experience. I can't get money sent from China to start a liquor store in a black area - whites made that possible for them and much less possible for blacks.

Stupid white people.

daskol said...

And don't be stingy with the mustard!

n.n said...

Our first New York City President, cosmopolitan and rough around the edges.

rhhardin said...

"You don't hear that from Asians. Why not?"

They're living a different experience. I can't get money sent from China to start a liquor store in a black area - whites made that possible for them and much less possible for blacks.


East Asians are smarter than whites, on the average. They don't need to delude themselves with collective excuses.

Jeff Brokaw said...

The larger picture that most people are avoiding is this: dredging up quotes from old private conversations and then criminalizing them is not something that any culture really wants to get into.

Just stop yourselves. Even SJW types do not realize the can of worms they are opening here. It’s not in our best interests. Period.

daskol said...

yes, n.n., the truly provincial New Yorkers live on the Upper East Side.

roesch/voltaire said...

The Trump’s actions speak louder than whether or not he utters the N word. Unlike Althouse, I grew up in Milwaukee during the fifties amongst family and relatives who were white blue collar workers, yes the N word was used just often enough to let me know it was pejorative. Interestingly the children of that generation, as far as I can tell when we meet for family reunions, are much more open minded including accepting an interracial marriage.

The Crack Emcee said...

rhhardin said...

"You don't hear that from Asians. Why not?"

That is a really stupid question. Why don't whites know what they've done?

n.n said...

"They're too busy improving their quality of life through adoption of "white" technological and social standards."

So blacks - being completely cut off and isolated from all other cultural markers, and financial instruments, unlike Asians and Europeans are - are just stupid, and white's 400 years of interference in our aspirations and ability to accomplish things play no role in our unique inability to succeed, as we think we should, while living amongst those who abused us?

daskol said...

in the outer boroughs, and even in Manhattan if you don't have loads and loads of cash, you can't help but be cosmopolitan, even if you aren't that happy about it.

rhhardin said...

The larger picture that most people are avoiding is this: dredging up quotes from old private conversations and then criminalizing them is not something that any culture really wants to get into.

I'd bet that Trump literally actually never used the word. Rich kid in good school. The culture is unlikely to use it because it's not a thing there.

Wince said...

"I have always assumed, casually, that Trump has used the word."

There is a word I associate with “casual assumptions” about people...

Bigotry.

The Crack Emcee said...

rhhardin said...

East Asians are smarter than whites, on the average. They don't need to delude themselves with collective excuses."

They've also got money, a homeland, a history, and no one focused on them like a laser for their entire existence, after making them sleep with them and suckle their children and whatever else they decided we should consider normal because they did it to us.

Stupid white people.

narciso said...

And China was subjugated for a century, and Korea was split between China and Japan, life is tough all over, nat.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

That's the most bizarre confession of progressive bias I have ever read. The illogic hurts. His prose is twisted, revealing a mind that is perhaps missing a few connections. Or maybe it's just humanity itself which is missing from this misanthrope's warped being. He literally posits that no matter what Trump does or not does, says or not says matters, because in his own mind the writer has already condemned Trump. Wait, Did Trumpit or Inga write that article?

rhhardin said...

So blacks - being completely cut off and isolated from all other cultural markers, and financial instruments, unlike Asians and Europeans are - are just stupid, and white's 400 years of interference in our aspirations and ability to accomplish things play no role in our unique inability to succeed, as we think we should, while living amongst those who abused us?

US blacks have an average IQ of 86. That doesn't matter because there's always smart people and dumb people, and they all fit in somewhere. It all worked out until we decided to give black people an IQ test to determine the group average. The IQ test was in the form of outcome-based discrimination tests. That's the first place that averages mattered.

It turned out that blacks were not passing the lieutenant's test at the same rate as whites, on the average. Blacks were told that that's because there's still, after years of affirmative action and sympathy, they're being discriminated against. Blacks bought it and became angry. Whites stopped caring what blacks thought. And here we are, whites not giving a shit and blacks angry. All because somebody brought up outcome-based discrimination tests.

Somebody who's of good character is much more valuable that somebody who's not. Aim for good character and you get a nice job. People need you.

Don't, and they don't.

Good character beats IQ, if you want to try it.

Ralph L said...

Our first New York City President

Since Teddy Roosevelt.

while living amongst those who abused us

More often, those who have ceased to care about blacks as a group, which is a big step up.

Gahrie said...

Fuck McWhorter and the horse he rode in on. He's a fucking racist and a sloppy thinker.

Biotrekker said...

I had assumed that John McWhorter (who is a linguist by training) was a typical identitarian Trump-hating Liberal/Leftist, but his past writings are far more complex, often criticizing the negative aspects of "black culture" and calling out "black victimology" for example. However, it seems that marinating too long in the Leftist academia swamp has left its mark. His view of Donald Trump is reflexively Trump-hating Leftist piffle and he has become a proponent of "black" English as a legitimate version of English and not a "degraded" one - which is perhaps not so strange for a black linguist.

Heartless Aztec said...

Raised in the 1950's South by my momma and the "Help" use of the "N" word would get your bottom switched poste haste by Momma - or any adult in their circle of friends.

Gahrie said...

Trump has done more for the Black community in two years than Obama did in eight.

Anonymous said...

Tina Trent: Someday, naive centrists will figure out who their friends are. Or not. Of course, McWhorter is still carefully reserving his spot on the centrist intellectual caviar gravy train by telling the right sorts of people that the problem with Trump is a problem of lower class whites, not people like them.

And they belive it because they want to believe it, even if it makes no sense.


I've never read or listened to McWhorter, but from general reference I had the impression that he was a smart and non-insane, if more or less conventional lib.

If that's true, I'm shocked by the willingness of such a person to write stuff as stupid as this and consent to have it published in national magazines, just to keep a place on the gravy train. Because stupid is what it is, something a clever high-school student might be pleased to produce, but would be embarrassed to be associated with by the time he got out of college.

It merits scorn, not serious criticism and analysis.

The Atlantic was once a "prestige" publication, no?

Gahrie said...

Stupid white people.

Racist fuck.

n.n said...

Were there baboons... orange baboons on Planet of the Apes?

Perhaps baboon was the inspiration for painting him orange. That said, a-diversity politics.

Gahrie said...

They're living a different experience. I can't get money sent from China to start a liquor store in a black area - whites made that possible for them and much less possible for blacks.

Whites had nothing to do with it you racist fuck..it's about culture. Explain the difference in the way Asians in Asia behave versus Blacks in Africa.

Mr. Groovington said...

Eleanor said.. It's OK for black South Africans to kill white South Africans and force those that survive to flee? People whose ancestors have been there since the 1600s? .... If only people with the power can be racist, then the racists in South Africa are black.

I’ve been in SA for nearly two months now. I socialize with mostly Afrikaners, and some blacks. I’ve been dating a Bantu woman for 5 or 6 weeks. The extremes are both equally racist in different ways. Power is split in different ways. Both are corrupt in different ways.

More, in a month.

rhhardin said...

he has become a proponent of "black" English as a legitimate version of English and not a "degraded" one

McWhorter is right on that, linguistically. The rules are there and adhered to.

It's also a marker of black culture, and so a marker of such negatives as a high crime rate, so it's a good marker to avoid if you want to avoid it.

That's sociology, not linguistics, though.

Identify as American, not black, and you'll do better.

Freder Frederson said...

Trump’s inroads with African-Americans are far too threatening to Democrats to be ignored.

You guys really have created your own reality. You take one outlier poll and it becomes the gospel truth.

Michael K said...


Shouting Thomas said...

"I don't give a fuck who is and who is not racist."

Which is why many blacks don't give a fuck what whites think or feel about anythijng.


Crack, do you have any idea how little I care about you ?

There was a time when whites like me had great concern that blacks were treated better and had equal chances to succeed.

I can remember those times and how I felt.

The hostility that you demonstrate ended it. Affirmative action was worthwhile for years but not any more as it has become black racism.

I just don't care anymore and I'm not the only one. The left wing whites that purport to be BLM supporters are faking it They want something from you.

Good luck.

n.n said...

Since Teddy Roosevelt

There has been noticeable progress in New York City, but, yeah, Teddy was also plain spoken, direct in meaning, but perhaps softer expression.

Michael K said...

You take one outlier poll and it becomes the gospel truth.

No, but it is fun to see you lefties panic.

Gahrie said...

Pffft. We're long past the good character argument. Whites and their demand for respectability killed that noise

Yeah, Blacks and their love of thug culture had nothing to do with it.

Robert Cook said...

"Our first New York City President, cosmopolitan and rough around the edges."

Cosmopolitan? No. Provincial, despite his wealth and city of origin.

daskol said...

it's too bad McWhorter chose to write about Trump's alleged use of the word that can't be said instead of sharing his thoughts on Trump's speaking style more generally, which is McWhorter's academic specialty. this piece by Scott Alexander is the most intelligent comment I've seen about Trump's alleged racism and overall evil. as you can tell by the disclaimer, and also the comments section, the comment was very poorly received by Scott Alexander's audience. he's added multiple disclaimers to the piece and written multiple defensive posts clarifying his already clearly stated perspective. McWhorter wouldn't get any points for a dispassionate analysis of Trump's speaking style.

daskol said...

Robert Cook said...
"Our first New York City President, cosmopolitan and rough around the edges."

Cosmopolitan? No. Provincial, despite his wealth and city of origin.


the wealthier New Yorkers are the more provincial ones. I would have thought a socialist would intuitively understand that about the haute bourgeoisie.

n.n said...

Identify as American, not black, and you'll do better.

African-Americans, Asian-Americans, North American-Americans, South American-Americans, European-Americans, Antarctic-Americans, and Australian-Americans all have their continental biases.

Fernandinande said...

No, he wouldn’t burn crosses on anyone’s lawn.

It was mighty white of McWhorter to admit that.

Anonymous said...

r/V: The Trump’s actions speak louder than whether or not he utters the N word.

Which actions?

Unlike Althouse,...

And also unlike Trump...

I grew up in Milwaukee during the fifties amongst family and relatives who were white blue collar workers, yes the N word was used just often enough to let me know it was pejorative.

What a clever, subtle child you must have been - you figured out that white people using the word "nigger" in the '50s meant it as a pejorative? And here I thought that the lower-class whites throwing the term around in the '60s South were using as a term of affection, what we were taught was an obscene and taboo word.

Interestingly the children of that generation, as far as I can tell when we meet for family reunions, are much more open minded including accepting an interracial marriage.

You're just full of the novel insights today, r/V. Younger generations of Americans are more accepting of interracial marriage than older generations of Americans? "Interestingly"! Who would have thought?

n.n said...

Cosmopolitan, yes. Less sensitive through experience to insignificant differences. Not that provincial people can be painted with broad, sweeping strokes (i.e. color judgments). Principles matter.

narciso said...

Plus there are many linguistic cultural and other demotic descriptions, by tribe and dialect,

Lewis Wetzel said...

Freder Frederson said...

Trump’s inroads with African-Americans are far too threatening to Democrats to be ignored.

You guys really have created your own reality. You take one outlier poll and it becomes the gospel truth.

Trump got a greater percentage of the Black vote than Romney did. Frederson is in the bubble.

Robert Cook said...

"Trump has done more for the Black community in two years than Obama did in eight."

I'd say they're about equal, each having done little for the black community.

narciso said...

So africans are not one single entity, and they differ from African Americans. The former were exploited by colonists by corrupt rulers, yet they do better, this had been my brief fleeting hope with obama.

narciso said...

See one makes distinctions, one might say discriminates, but why is the striver dragged down by free hand law, how do Sharpton and mcksson to name two, come out on top?

Caligula said...

You can't prove he didn't. Can you, can you??

Because he could have, and therefore he probably did, and therefore we may assume that he did.

Besides, he's white and he's from Queens. And there was a racist TV-show character who also was white, and from Queens! What more need be said?


This illogical jumble of a j'accuse is an embarassment to McWhorter, who surely can think better than this. And to Atlantic Magazine, which continues to publish such comic-book-villainn trash.

And all because his press secretary could only say "I never heard him say that" and not "I can prove he never, ever did."

daskol said...

what if Trump used "the word," but he used it like Chris Rock does in his comedy routine?

SeanF said...

Althouse: Trump is "perfectly ordinary" — quite resonantly perfectly ordinary?! That really makes no sense at all. Trump is the most unusual person we've ever seen. Just being the sort of person who could get to be President makes a man very unusual, and Trump is the most unusual President we've ever seen — quite resonantly.

Presidents are unusual people.
Trump is an unusual president.
Therefore, Trump is an unusual (unusually unusual?) person.

I don't think that logic is entire valid.

Shouting Thomas said...

I'd say they're about equal, each having done little for the black community.

Good, now maybe the "black community" can consider doing something for and by themselves, instead of jiving and hustling Whitey.

MadisonMan said...

I'm sure some of John McWhorter's best friends are Black!

Logically, if Presidents are unusual, and Trump is the most unusual President, then Trump could be very not unusual.

MikeR said...

@CMC "I never forget, before Trump was guilty of being president, he was guilty of not being the sort of person who'd hang with John McWhorter." Yup.

daskol said...

Chris Rock from 1996

Shouting Thomas said...

Cosmopolitan? No. Provincial, despite his wealth and city of origin.

A dingbat commie said that, folks.

Irony of ironies.

MadisonMan said...

And I'll add: This Trump might have said nigger!! outrage is just the latest outrage!!!!! peddled by the press to try to sink Trump. Apparently the outrage over revoking Brennan's clearance just didn't work. Nor did the outrage over Omarosa. Nor did....

Tommy Duncan said...

Bears repeating:

"I just don't care anymore and I'm not the only one."

The Crack Emcee said...

rhhardin said...

"Somebody who's of good character is much more valuable that somebody who's not."

I know - Ben Carson can say the pyramids of Egypt were used by Jesus' father to store grain and that gets him respect and a job from Republicans.

Say it's not true, he's been misinformed, and Republicans shun you and make your life miserable.

GREAT PARTY.

Amadeus 48 said...

So I guess McWhorter didn't vote for Trump.

bleh said...

“While his scorn for all comers is plain from his speeches and tweets, he has repeatedly demonstrated an especial contempt for black people.”

I really don’t understand this line of attack, but at least McWhorter pays lip service to evidence against it. Trump attacks everyone who crosses him. The more you disappoint him, the more intensely he attacks you. He doesn’t discriminate on race or gender or anything like that.

Treating women and minorities like precious little things that must be protected and handled with kid gloves — now that’s pretty bigoted. This “soft bigotry” certainly predated Trump. It was the worst thing about having Obama as president. You could not criticize him from the Right without people calling you a racist. You could criticize him from the Left if you did it mildly and acknowledged Obama’s heart was in the right place.

It’s infantilizing.

The Crack Emcee said...

Ralph L said...

"Those who have ceased to care about blacks as a group, which is a big step up."

Blacks look at the 72 dead in Chicago and see your dream come true. One we don't want for ourselves, thanks.

The Crack Emcee said...

Gahrie said...
Stupid white people.

Racist fuck.

You're one of the ringleaders - it's a little late to think I'll care now. Fuck you.

tim maguire said...

Just how did "the n word" become so special anyway? There are lots of bad words about every group of people on earth, yet this one word gets special status.

Why?

($1,000 says some race hustler simply declared it and nobody had the courage to challenge him.)

rhhardin said...

Say it's not true, he's been misinformed, and Republicans shun you and make your life miserable.

Try tact. Act white. You'd be amazed.

Shouting Thomas said...

Crack, this going to shock you, I know...

I never looked to a politician for a job. Shit, I never looked to a politician for anything.

You might want to try this strategy.

The last thing in this world I'd ask a politician to do for me is to relieve my misery.

These are things I take care of myself.

I realize I might as well be talking to a wall. Whatever in the hell created these absurd assumptions you carry around that anybody else is, or should be, that interested in your welfare?

The Crack Emcee said...

Freder Frederson said...

"Trump’s inroads with African-Americans are far too threatening to Democrats to be ignored."

"You guys really have created your own reality. You take one outlier poll and it becomes the gospel truth."

They spent all their energy agreeing with Obama that Kanye was a jackass, but now claim he's a genius after he recognized Candace Owens - but think blacks don't recognize their hypocrisy and incoherence as they do so.

They're idiots.

The Crack Emcee said...

rhhardin said...

"Identify as American, not black, and you'll do better."

You should "identify" as a woman - it fits you better.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

So it's: even if he didn't say it we can assume he did say it because of who he is--he's THAT kind of person and THOSE people all casually use racial slurs (which we can be certain of even though we have no evidence).

Do you nice centrist people see yet why we can't give the Left even an inch? Do you get that the guilt-by-association & bigotry they claim to oppose is in fact a CENTRAL part of their thinking and conception of the world (when applied, naturally, against their opponents)?

If someone says "well you know his kind" about, say, Michael Brown then that person's an irredeemable racist who must be cast out. When McWhorter says "well you know his kind" about Trump McWhorther's published in a smart person magazine & held up as an insightful intellectual.

[Not to single out McWhorter--he's a smart guy who often has interesting things to say. Just note that this particular line of thinking exactly mirrors one that would be called ugly & unacceptable by all the right thinking people were it to come from the wrong "side."]

The Crack Emcee said...

rhhardin said...

"Try tact. Act white. You'd be amazed."

Jesus' father hid grain in Egypt's pyramids - there, I said it - what do I get?

daskol said...

Kanye is most definitively not an idiot.

daskol said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
narciso said...

That would seen a historical, Joseph maybe, but you win the scorn of Seth rogen.

Lucien said...

I enjoyed Ann’s evocation of monkeys flinging feces “a monkey metaphor, flung casually”.

rhhardin said...

You should "identify" as a woman - it fits you better.

Too many STEM hobbies.

The Crack Emcee said...

I just had a revelation:

I was thinking white Democrats have a blind spot regarding mysticism, and white Republicans have one on race - two sides of the same coin - but, if you put them together, what do you have?

White people have a problem with religion and race.

The religious problem manifests as the weird, incoherent solipsism blacks are forced to endure at their hands.

That's why they can't give up Jesus. Without that mystical incoherence, they know oppressive white attitudes make no sense.

It's enough to almost make me feel sorry for them.

Stupid white people.

The Crack Emcee said...

Will Brown said...

"It seems pretty simple to me, if we want to get rid of racism we stop being racists, whites and blacks alike, including our friend Crack."

It should be pretty obvious you guys have no interest in that, so - voila!

Michael K said...


rhhardin said...

"Try tact. Act white. You'd be amazed."

Jesus' father hid grain in Egypt's pyramids - there, I said it - what do I get?


Why don't you separate conjoined twins ?

Then you would be Carson's equal.

Meade said...

"Identify as American, not black, and you'll do better."

I agree. Also, not white. Nor any other color. Don't allow yourself to be colorized or pallor-ized.

Of course, now you might have the problem of people trying to make you feel guilty over your American privilege. But the answer to that is easy -- "Fuck yeah it's privilege! Join us!"

Henry said...

Robert Cook said...
I'd say they're about equal, each having done little for the black community.

Touché

Michael K said...


rhhardin said...

"Try tact. Act white. You'd be amazed."

Jesus' father hid grain in Egypt's pyramids - there, I said it - what do I get?


Why don't you separate conjoined twins ?

Then you would be Carson's equal.

mccullough said...

McWhorter is an interesting writer and thinker. But he struggles with Trump.

Trump is a very unusual politician/celebrity. McWhorter, like other mostly astute thinkers, doesn’t have the perspective to understand Trump. Academic or lawyerly training and work provide the wrong analytical framework for looking at Trump. McWhorter, like most other critics of Trump, are frustrated. They sense they are criticizing what they can’t understand. It’s interesting to read these people’s essays/articles. The frustration and struggle. They need to shift perspectives and forget some of what they think they know.

Anonymous said...

Archie Bunker never said that word on television. They even commented about it in one episode. He also was a fictional character created by writers in California. Queens is pretty diverse. Equating a forest hills kid like Trump with a middle village sounding AStoria resident would be like suggesting Mcwhorter must talk like a South Central rapper at home, an ignorant false generalization.

Derek Kite said...

I just casually slander people. I am righteous.

Darkisland said...

McWhorter says:

No, he wouldn’t burn crosses on anyone’s lawn. Trump is a man of the late-20th century, not its earlier half. But Trump clearly thinks of black people as an inferior caste.... Like so many others, he thinks black people are not only lazy, but stupid.

With the case for Trump’s bigotry so clear, in what sense would it somehow be a key revelation that he has used the N word? In what sense is his using that slur proof of anything but what we’ve known all along?


BULSHIT!

People keep claiming that President Trump is a racist, I keep challenging them to give examples and never get any. Particularly none that he is racist against blacks.

Hey, shithead (McWhorter), where is the evidence that President Trump thinks of blacks as a lower caste, lazy or stupid? Examples, or I call bullshit, horseshit on your chickenshit charges.

What president in the past 100 years has done more to make black lives better?

John Henry

Drago said...

Wetzel: "Frederson is in the bubble."

You should read Freders non-stop serial lies from just a couple of days ago about the BLM/Bundy which has already been adjudicated and all info made public hich refute the Freder lies!

Perhaps Freder is just not that bright.

Rick said...

"I just don't care anymore and I'm not the only one."

No one should care about racists or race hustlers. Similarly they should not let the racists or race hustlers detract from their efforts to create a better environment for everyone.

Seeing Red said...

An old boss tried for a few years to get Buddy Guy to work for him, but he was too busy. He also was charging $15,000 for a private performance.

The former King Edward VIII and his wife Wallis used “to work” for a lot of people, too. They were paid to appear.

Seeing Red said...

What’s even more fun is that Obama used to work for me.

Roy Lofquist said...

Crack,

What is the leading cause of death for persons of African ancestry? Give up? Abortion. Since Roe v. Wade there have been 54 million abortions. 40% were black babies. That's almost 22 million. That, my good man, is genocide with a capital G.

Yet you proudly and loudly march with the pussy hats in defense of that very lucrative abomination. You are one dumb n-word.

tcrosse said...

Robert Cook said...
I'd say they're about equal, each having done little for the black community.


What can or should the President do for the black community, besides partying with rich ones?

Meade said...

Great American Aretha -- bless her Queen of Soul -- once worked for the great American entepreneur from Queens who now works for me.

Only in America.

Michael K said...

"Perhaps Freder is just not that bright."

I think that's it. I see so many lefties opining on economics on Facebook. It is amusing and they really believe that stuff.

I rarely watch TV but Laura Ingraham had some Democrat on last night while we were eating dinner. He was filibustering, as they usually do, and what he said was nonsense.

I think most of them know better but, as someone once said, the politician's job is not to govern but to get elected.

Seeing Red said...

Oh, Crack “is forced” to post here.

The Crack Emcee said...

Meade said...

"Fuck yeah it's privilege! Join us!"

Leave your families! Leave your friends! Leave your education!

We'll only swamp you in hostility when you do! We will find anything that's different from us and attack you unmercifully!!!

JOIN US!!!

Mark Jones said...

"I have always assumed, casually, that Trump is not of my tribe. By default, then, he can only be one of the hundreds of millions of deplorable subhumans who share this nation with us. As such, OF COURSE he's a racist bigot. They all are. Not like US, steeped in virtue from the day we're born with silver spoons in our mouths."

The Crack Emcee said...

Will Brown said...

"Get the chip off your shoulder, Crack, and stop looking between all the lines for racism, you probably won't find as much."

If you think blacks are "looking between all the lines for racism" then you are an example of a clueless white person.

wildswan said...

” I've been around white people all my life, and I was born in the 1950s, and I don't remember them — us — using the n-word. McWhorter tells us what he's "always assumed, casually," but it doesn't fit with my experience of white people.”

My experience in the Forties and Fifties growing up outside DC in a family from the North, was that the word was banned from the family group and its circle but it was in use around me, as was "n-lover." It wasn't just lower class either and the further South you go the truer this was. In the North it was banned in the upper class before World War II. But in all other groups, North to South, there were circles where it was used and circles where it was not; and in those where it was not used it was utterly banned because of the close proximity of users. You heard it on the playground but you were taught not to pick it up and use it. So I think just assuming Trump used it isn't being knowledgeable about the sociology of the use of the word.

The Crack Emcee said...

Roy Lofquist said...

"What is the leading cause of death for persons of African ancestry?"

White people, making laws that took black men out of the house, resulting in pregnancies for fatherless daughters.

narciso said...

The serbs have developed a fine sense of grievance, six hundred years Plus. To Kosovo polya how did that work out?

rhhardin said...

White people, making laws that took black men out of the house, resulting in pregnancies for fatherless daughters.

That's where good character would show up, if you wanted to try it.

narciso said...

Chris rock was mildly amusing then he started associating bill Clinton with his people's situations 're Monica Lewinsky, oddly he doesn't make that connection with trump.

The Crack Emcee said...

I think you better start with these guys before thinking blacks are going to trust you.

buwaya said...

Any Chinese person in the US, or for that matter any Asian in the US, living in some sort of Asian ethnic enclave, is very likely guilty of using their own variety of the n-word. It is ubiquitous. FOB (fresh off the boat) Cantonese have a variety of terms, none nice. Anyone with such roots can be assumed to have been exposed to such attitudes.

Because so many of these poor immigrant Chinese ended up being bused to the same schools as black kids, the racial tensions have usually been high, or rather, the Chinese fear being in this position. Its a one-way relationship as far as personal violence and intimidation. To some degree Asians see themselves as a preyed-on class of victims, thrown to the wolves (black people), by the white people who run the schools. I'm not joking about this, it is ubiquitous.

It has been the main driver for immigrant Asian politics. If you wanted to unify and stir up generally apolitical Asians anytime since the 1960s, school integration was the #1 issue. Its not usually recognized how important this has been in Asian-American local politics.

You also see this at least privately with Arabs, Persians, Indians, etc. I am sure they have their words too.

There is more than one stereotype and more than one n-word. McWhorter is parochial.

The Crack Emcee said...

hhardin said...

That's where good character would show up, if you wanted to try it."

White people have to convince everybody else THEY have good character before anyone's going buy them on the subject.

The Crack Emcee said...

It's wild how whites always think SOMEONE ELSE has to develop character, when it's whites who went against "All Men Are Created Equal" for hundreds of years.

They always get the order, of how these things have to happen, wrong. YOU GO FIRST.

dreams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
William said...

I'm in my mid seventies. I'm sure that sometime in my life I've used the n-word. It was never a standard part of my vocabulary, and I am not cognizant of using it in recent years, but I'm sure I've used it. Here's my question: why is using the n-word a worse offense than drugging and raping thirteen year old girls or calling women of opposing views feckless cunts? Why does the use of this word at any time in your life disqualify you from forgiveness or for any place in public life or even in polite society? People are giving this word a unique and unjustified power. If George Carlin did a set that featured any of the wrong verboten words, his memory would not be hallowed.......I wonder if McWhorter has used the term white mother fucker more times than I've used the n word. I wouldn't bet against it.

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