Tuesday, September 27, 2016

How do the racists think about us?


This is Barack Obama talking about his white grandmother, but it might as well be me describing my father-in-law or anyone from my shul:

...a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

I think this aptly describes how we kind-hearted people think about racists who may have managed to earn our love or respect in other ways. We can simultaneously despise the  racism while also appreciating the good qualities.

Does this  work in reverse? Do racists find it possible to value us non-racists for our  other qualities, while, at the same time, hating the decency and correctness of character that makes us non-racists?


DEBATE COVERAGE LATER TODAY (I HOPE)

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