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Donald Trump, the N-Word, and the GOP
It’s not okay for white people to use the N-word. I thought this was generally understood and widely accepted for … like a few decades now, but apparently I was wrong. (By the way, if you’re a white person, and you think you’re somehow a victim or being oppressed because you’re not allowed to use the N-word, I pity you.)
This has come up in discussion recently because word once again is circulating that there is a tape (or tapes, plural) of “Apprentice” outtakes that include Donald Trump (among other things) using the N-word.
This story isn’t new. It made the rounds in 2015 and 2016. (Anyone who is aware of Donald Trump’s history of overt racism wasn’t surprised.) I don’t know whether such a tape exists, but some are concerned about it because when Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked this week, she couldn’t guarantee it didn’t exist.
In anticipation of the existence of such a tape and its potential release, we’re already seeing rationalizations (including here on Ricochet) and explanations of how, if Donald Trump was caught on tape using the N-word, it’s either okay or it doesn’t matter.
Okay, so two things: First, it’s not okay. Second, it does matter.
If this tape does exist, and it comes out for all of us to hear, it’s going to do enormous damage to the Republican Party. Because what will certainly follow is legions of Trump apologists explaining how it’s okay.
At which point, the Republican Party will become the It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word Party. If you care about the electoral success of the Republican Party, you don’t want it to become the It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word Party.
Further, if you care about conservative governance in the future, to the extent that Donald Trump is associated with that conservative governance, it’s a big problem. If things like deregulation are associated with the Republican Party, and the Republican Party is the It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word Party, then deregulation becomes It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word-deregulation. All those conservative federal judges become It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word judges. Tax cuts become It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word tax cuts.
For Republicans, if you become the It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word Party, your brand will be irreparably damaged. For conservatives, if you become the philosophy of It’s-Okay-To-Say-The-N-Word, it will be the end of conservatism. Any claim of moral superiority will be gone. The decent people will have to separate themselves and find some other name to call themselves.
If a tape comes out, you don’t want to be trapped on the wrong side of things. Certain things are beyond the pale. This is one of them. If that tape comes out, don’t rationalize it, because what you hear will not be okay.
Published in General
“I don’t know if this happened, but abandon your support for this President now, before the evidence, if it exists, comes out, or you support racism, too.” Readers’ Digest condensed version.
Did you actually read the piece? Because that is not what is written at all.
Moderator Note:
Inappropriate[redacted]
The Republican party will never be the It’s-Okay-to-Say-the-N-Word Party.
The Democratic party, in the meanwhile, is the party of widespread and overt identity-group politics, including racism, sexism, and emotional dysfunctionism. Long after Donald Trump is gone, this will remain true: the Republican party is pretty much color-blind, the Democratic party is identity-obsessed.
President Trump is a vulgar man and an undisciplined speaker. He says stupid and ugly things with some regularity. We didn’t have a better choice in 2016, and probably won’t in 2020.
Live with it.
Please point to the straw man in the argument so that I know what to look for in the future.
Find it yourself.
Unless we spend time defending it, even preemptively defending it is problematic. We should probably just not say anything until there’s a tape to deal with. Prior to that it’s just rank speculation and bad faith accusation.
If such a tape existed that long ago, before the election, then it has either been lost or is in the hands of someone friendly to Trump. Otherwise it would have been released shortly before the election.
F. Lee Bailey is white and used the n-word many times during the OJ trial. So your statement “It’s not ok for white people to use the n-word” is a little simplistic. It all depends on the context. And more generally, yes it’s wrong to call someone that word. But no it’s not more wrong for a white person to call someone that than a black person. The consequences may be more severe, but to say that it’s really more wrong is just moral posturing and/or an attempt to shed guilt.
I do agree, if there is a tape of him actually calling someone that word, or calling black people that word generally, he should resign. It would not be possible to govern effectively in this climate. On the other hand, if it was a real long time ago, like the amount of time that elapsed between when Robert Byrd was a KKK kleagle and when he was a senator, should Trump be accorded the same degree of forgiveness? Oh I forgot, Democrats are allowed to be racists.
I think if you’re going to throw out an accusation like straw man its incumbent on you to actually point to the argument in question and explain why its flawed.
I hope I’m not stepping over Mr. Lash here, but–straw man or not–a major portion of the piece speaks to an occurrence that has not been substantiated. And the “apparently I was wrong” is based on little evidence. This is a compilation of issues already under debate in other threads, apparently not to the satisfaction of the author for some reason. Now it’s front and center on the Main Feed.
It’s time to play “Name that Logical Fallacy!”
Incidentally, the argument that there is something wrong with the fact that the word in question can be uttered only by dark-complected people is not new with Trump. It’s been around for years, and it has some validity.
The answer, I think, is for no one to use it, as I believe it promotes racism whenever it’s used, regardless of the skin color of the speaker.
That doesn’t defend Trump’s use of it: he shouldn’t, nor should anyone else.
Having said that, I’ll admit that context matters: it is less offensive (though ultimately self-destructive, I think) for black people to use racist language than for white people to use racist language, because, obviously, we have an historical context involving the oppression of black people by white people.
(Similarly, a post like this by someone other than Fred would probably be met with more open-minded acceptance because of context, since Fred is the enfant terrible of Trumpian criticism on Ricochet, notorious for one-sided — yet strangely entertaining — attacks against the President, and we’ve all learned what to expect in terms of vitriol [ quite a lot ] and balance [ not so much ].)
Geez, man, here’s one right in the first paragragh:
Drew, I think you’re being terribly unfair. After all, and very much to his credit, Fred did not write this:
“If you think it’s still okay to wear a sheet and burn crosses on the lawns of law-abiding minority people, as President Trump apparently does, then I pity you.”
(Emphasis would have been mine, had he said it.)
This post should not be on the Main Feed.
I don’t feel victimized or oppressed. I feel “othered” because I have to hear it all the time and pretend everything is cool. Its not cool. Its analogous to Orwell’s observation that a totalitarian state makes you accept falsehoods not to brainwash you, rather to humiliate you and render you pliable.
I have the feeling some groups are rubbing my face in it. I am not really a “turn the other cheek” type guy.
Even discussing the use of That Word could be dangerous.
Context does matter, what if he was just singing along to Juicy or Golddigger.
BTW, is the matter of this tape (which, as noted, has been “rumored” for a few years), all that different from the matter of conspiracy theories as discussed in the CoC.
I feel something different. I have never had any desire to use racially charged language. But I regret that the word has such currency in the black community, since it’s functionally equivalent, in that community, to addressing people as “black person.”
And how are we ever to free black people from the crippling burden of perceiving themselves as eternal victims of racism — of the vestiges of racism that are kept alive on life-support by perhaps well-intended people who don’t understand the harm they’re doing — if black people keep reinforcing their supposed victim status with every greeting?
The greatest harm done by the use of this word is that done to the black people thoughtless enough to use it — and to the reputations and image of white people foolish enough to use it.
So the piece is a reaction to a number of pieces I’ve seen here preemptively defending the president over a tape we haven’t seen. To that end the piece seems to be a warning that this is a mistake should such a tape actually exist.
Why don’t you start instead of just throwing out snarky and rude comments?
There are a lot of things at Ricochet that shouldn’t be here and yet we are forced to endure.
Amen.
Jeggings. Justin Bieber. The Bachelor. The assymetric rear windows of the Honda Element automobile. Starbucks Blonde Espresso.
Don’t get me started.
Can we be the it’s-not-ok-to-say-the-Nword-but-depending-on-the-circumstances-it’s-not-the-end-of-the-world party?
What about the we-don’t-need-to-destroy-people-just-because-they’ve-said-something-stupid-or-hateful party?
I skimmed it, and that was what I got out of it too.
It’s okay, Trump shouldn’t be president, but I’m confident that you’ll survive until January, 2025.
Moderator Note:
You Monster!Endure this:
Assuming facts not in evidence?