article by Don Cooley, AKA dbciii Grumpy Old Man @frogcycle on Twitter

I've been knocking around this country for 70 years. Military brat, lived in 17 houses by the time I was 14, all over the country. Then I worked for a company with Deep South roots for 12 years. Then several tech companies in the MidWest. As a consultant I worked with companies all over the country, many industries. I have known a LOT of people, mostly white.

I can say with confidence that racism in this country is frigging RAMPANT

It ranges from the white hood variety to what might just be called snobbishness. The latter is not hate per se, just a conviction that "they" are not quite as good as "we." perhaps a remnant of European royalty vs. commoner mentality. It is seen everywhere, btw: the caste system in India, Japanese discriminating against the Ainu people from Hokkaido.

But I want to talk specifically about those further down the spectrum; those that have a conviction that non-white people are not just "lower class" but actually inferior humans, or, in the extreme, not even human. Yes, you read that right. (see my Polar Bear post "Christian Identity " article.)

I don't know what percentage actually subscribe to the 8th-day creation crap, but I am convinced it is more than the linked articles suggest. There are too many indicators:
- Trump saying his family has "good genes.
- That whole eugenics thing.
- The entire concept of slavery where people could convince themselves "owning" people and "breeding" them and beating them and lynching them was ok while still attending church on Sunday.
- Then jim crow, and all the crap today about preserving 'white heritage.'

This link gives some insight to the people acting on these beliefs. Some may buy the whole weird creation myth; others just have a conviction that whites are somehow "pure" and not to be contaminated: See my PBP "Know your Enemy" post.

These bastards touting "white supremacy" aren't just whistling Dixie, as the saying goes. They are frigging BAD people. There is no grey area. The visceral reaction people have to entitled athletes, to BLM, to the Civil Rights movement 50 years ago is one of not just preferring people like themselves; it is resentment that anyone other than Aryans has a place on earth other than to serve them as work animals.

There are all sorts of dog whistles, all sorts of subtle indicators. Black people see them daily. I noticed one time as I was going thru a checkout line the clerk handed me my change and laid the Black woman in front of me's change on the counter. The one in front of HER had been handed her change with a smile. Tiny little thing, doesn’t affect job prospects or equal treatment under law. But it is just there, a constant needle prick that you are seen as “other.” And it came from a clerk in the company cafeteria, who probably earned less than 20% of her salary. Picture if you will, THAT being your daily experience.

Another recent, more overt example. From the news it seems like it is getting worse. Or maybe it is just that the news is paying a little attention now.

Claiming that racism is over and gutting the Voting Rights Act was itself an act of overt racism by the United States Supreme Court.

It is everywhere. It is constant. More whites are racists than are not. I speak from experience as MANY people have let on to me how they feel thinking I was white so obviously would be of the same mind. Glance around and make sure none of "them" are in earshot, then lower voice and make some damned bigoted comment like "well, you know the neighborhood has gone downhill since 'you know who' moved in" with air quotes. This is from people who on the surface seem like decent people with not a hateful racist bone in their bodies. Maybe theirs is "disdainful racism."

Fortunately a much smaller group are the full-up virulent hateful White Supremacists. But we have seen since Trump launched his hatefest that there are far more of them than I for one had imagined.

Trump has rammed a crowbar into the already-existing division over BLM and police murders and is doing his damnedest to inflame with constant harangue against athletes for daring to call attention to it, against immigrants from “shithole countries” against any crimes by brown people while making no comment about mass murders by white people.

It is up to white people, we who have benefited from privilege we did not earn, to speak out often and forcefully, call out politicians, pundits, any and every one who tries to perpetuate the divide. They are not necessarily ALL full-bore Christian Identity zealots, but as they lean in that direction they are enabling the worst of the worst. They love to demand that every Muslim condemn ISIS every time anything happens; they claim BLM is terrorist because it got infiltrated by bad actors. They jump on that crowbar Trump inserted and bounce up and down. We MUST fight back. Call them out. And reach out to vulnerable people. Refugees and other immigrants live in fear.

"Noblesse Oblige"is a saying that "Nobility obligates" -
that the privileged have responsibility to others.

Make that your motto

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