"Well, you know, when it comes to racism and racists, I am the least racist person there is. And I think most people who know me would tell you that I am the least racist; I've had great relationships. In fact, Randal Pinkett won, as you know, on The Apprentice a little while ago, a couple of years ago. And Randall's been outstanding in every way. So I am the least racist person."—Donald Trump.
Just LOL.
You know, not that I expect a man whose life revolves around numbers and competition to appreciate this idea, but ranking precisely how racist you are compared to someone (or everyone) else is really bullshit.
Donald Trump is a white man socialized in a white supremacist culture—and I'd love to meet the white person born and raised in the US who doesn't have internalized racial biases.
Without rigorous self-examination, we're all racists (and sexists and homophobes and transphobes and disablists and fat-haters and…) by default, by virtue of our socialization in a culture steeped with negative stereotypes; we internalize those messages so profoundly that even those bigotries that target us, the narratives used to marginalize our own identities, get turned in on ourselves. The question is not whether we have biases; we all do. The question is whether we leave them unexamined.
And something tells me that Donald Trump hasn't spent a lot of time meaningfully engaged with self-examination.
[Related Reading: Speaking of Racism; Actual Headline.]
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