The White Wolf- and no, this isn't about 'Game of Thrones.'
The first is that it's often used inappropriately. Example: the other day, the president of the United States was overheard referring to Haiti and a group of other desperately poor, predominantly black nations as "sh*thole countries." I watched David Brooks and Mark Shields on PBS the next day bemoaning the "racism" of that statement.
But hold on. As lame as the remark was, it is not only possible but even likely that Mr. Trump wasn't thinking about race when said that.
Or simply wasn't thinking. This is, after all, Donald Trump.
Sure, he insulted a group of predominantly black countries, but not in a way that necessarily was racist, as opposed to insensitive, tactless, and downright stupid. It does no good to say that it was implicitly racist; maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. That's debatable, and its debatability can be a problem. If it's debatable, it will be debated. And the next time a clear-cut example of racism is before us, the racists and their apologists will be able to cite it as a precedent for not taking the accusation seriously since we've used it in dubious circumstances before.
And there is a certain subspecies of "progressive" commentator and congresscritter whose instinctive reaction to any ill-advised thing conservatives say, no matter how tangentially related to race, is to use the word "racist." Sometimes, like Brooks and Shields, they assume the motivation of a person who makes a statement or read into it what very well may be there but isn't explicit. Too many times, it's just a lazy way of pointing out that the person who made a certain stupid remark is full of it.
Now, please don't misunderstand me. Sometimes- many times- the things that are said and even the people who say those things are racist, sort of. But nevertheless, this is a plea to use the word sparingly, not so much out of concern for the sensibilities of the racially insensitive, but for a far more important reason.
"Racist" ought to be a word that carries weight. It should be a word with an impact. It should sting. But it's largely lost its sting because it's overused. We all know the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," the shepherd boy who thought it was funny to falsely raise the alarm that a wolf was attacking the flock and then watch everybody run to help him and end up looking foolish. It stopped being funny, though, the day the wolf really came- and when he cried out for help, nobody came to give it.
Above is one of my favorite quotations, known as "Halon's Razor:" "Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity." There is a great deal more to that quote than cynicism. In 2016, two Republican Senate candidates who looked like certain winners lost because they said some incredibly ignorant things about rape. I really don't think either of them approves of rape or hates women or any such nonsense. I think both of them actually believed that what they said was true. That level of ignorance itself is a damning indictment of a person who wants to be a United States senator. But the Democrats saw fit to spin it another way: as an indication that these men were not merely ignorant, but malicious.
It had its desired effect; both men lost- and should have lost- simply because they said those things. But I doubt that anyone came out of the experience educated about the fact that no, the body does not respond to rape by making it impossible to be pregnant, a ridiculous urban legend widely believed in some circles. They merely remembered that these two men were jerks.
They may or may not have been jerks. But they certainly were ignorant to a degree which disqualified them from the office they sought. At the same time, it's always easier to condemn a person than to educate them. Bill Buckley's aphorism that if you disagree with a conservative he'll think you're mistaken, but that if you disagree with a liberal she'll think that you're evil has some merit, although occasionally it also works the other way around. Very few people are merely mistaken in the eyes of either social justice warriors or Trumpistas.
Twice in the last week, I've encountered people on the right who have immunized themselves (and the president as well, at least in their minds) from the charge of racism simply by pointing out that the word is overused. And I couldn't argue with them. Of course, it's overused. And its overuse has turned it into a word that no longer has the weight it once did, and doesn't pack nearly the moral wallop.
And it gives racists- and others- an easy excuse. The overuse and inappropriate use of the term "racist" have blunted needed attacks on racism and given racists all over America a place to hide. Too many real racists are able to dismiss being confronted with their racism by saying that the Left calls everybody it disagrees with a racist, and there is enough truth in that assertion that the real racists can use it as camouflage.
Not for the sake of the sensibilities of either racists or honest conservatives so much as precisely because racism is a subject that matters so much in our society, this needs to stop. I hope African-Americans, civil rights activists, and "Progressives" alike will learn never to attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity. Or even simple ignorance.
Racists shouldn't be able to get off the hook so easily.
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