Recently, I mentioned on social media that former President Trump and Senator JD Vance are racists. I posted:
Trump and Vance are determined to come off as racists. This may appeal to Confederate Flag waving Whites, but this doesn’t play well in general.
VANCE: Donald Trump said something very simple, totally inoffensive, but frankly, obviously true to me, which is that Kamala Harris is a chameleon.
She’s a fake, and the American people have to look at her record if we actually want to know how she stands on the issues, because her words simply can’t be trusted.
REPORTER: How can you fake a race? If it’s both Indian and black, how can she fake a race?
VANCE: She fakes who she is depending on the audience that she’s in front of, and that’s who she is, and that’s who she’s always been.
A commenter replied:
No Bruce.. it’s called pandering… Somehow the left has been pandered to for so long by their politicians they not only accept it you’re now defending it and promoting it as something good! Don’t let them do that to you man.
My response:
** *, I have no idea 🤷♂️ what you mean. Are you saying Trump and Vance aren’t racists; that I shouldn’t take their words and actions at face value?
We went back and forth a bit. The commenter finally said:
The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser but you can’t objectively know they’re a racist when it’s clearly an opinion formed by edited media bites and talking head on certain TV channels and you do not consider other sources of information. You’re objectively not being objective. So it is you who are not being logical aren’t you? You are still using that old time religion epistemology and compartmentalizing your beliefs that you can’t possibly back up and protect them. Also the race card is trite and there is too much information and fact now that refutes most of the claims. When it’s used by the left it’s because they can’t think of anything else.
And:
The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser sigh back at you.. really Bruce? I’m not claiming to 100% know what media you consume but it’s clear from your posts and the echo chamber you created on your profile here that you’re captured by a leftist political ideology and that you’re probably a prime candidate for philosopher Peter Baghosian’s “substitutionary hypothesis”. No I don’t see any credible evidence that Trump is a racist in fact the video link I posted above is one of many pieces of evidence against that assertion. Did you watch it? The only people asserting a name calling “racists” call on him are people who do not look at the evidence. So logically you’re either only consuming false media claims or in the political cult. And it isn’t even controversial to claim the fact that Google is absolutely engaged in result changes on their site and are heavily biased towards the left of the political spectrum. That’s not a conspiracy theory. I hope your hatred for people who disagree with your assertions will go away and you will consider that maybe you can be wrong about politics.
I replied with one word: “sigh.” (Why I Use the Word Sigh.)
What follows is an article by Abby Zimet. Used with permission from Common Dreams
Hopefully, horrifically, the Trump War Room’s “comically racist” new ad – juxtaposing two images of “your neighborhood under Trump” and “your neighborhood under Kamala” – can at last put to rest any ludicrous, lingering questions as to whether the flailing felon, rapist and GOP presidential candidate, whose decades-long history of bigotry is well-documented, is really racist. Screamingly, repulsively, truly-Holy-Mother-of-God-vile: YES.
A day after Trump’s Megalomaniac Fascist Fest with Elon Musk – more on that soon – comes the latest obscene proof there is no bottom here on race, or anything else. Shocked, we are not. This is the guy who, along with his Klan father, was sued by the Justice Department 50 years ago for refusing to rent apartments to Blacks; who made an ugly public name for himself by loudly insisting the Black, now-exonerated Central Park Five be executed and starting the Obama birther frenzy; who for years reportedly belittled and discriminated against Blacks, including using the N-word, during his crappy TV career; who boasted about all the (imaginary) things he’s done for “the Blacks,” compared himself to Lincoln, cited “Black jobs” and “shithole countries,” and just trashed both Kamala Harris – who “just became a Black person” – and “horrible” black female journalists for being uppity.
So, sure, bring on a campaign ad deemed “the most racist thing ever.” Tuesday’s post features two side-by-side images: One shows a suburban, flag-draped house captioned, “Your neighborhood under Trump”; juxtaposed with it is an image of a group of mostly Black people packed onto the street captioned, “Your neighborhood under Kamala.” The text above it reads, “Import the third world. Become the third world.” The people on the curb were reportedly African immigrants outside a shelter in New York City; they had come, like so many before them, seeking safety and equality from an America that boasts it will welcome “your tired, your poor/your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” but too often doesn’t, especially when run by racist clowns who know only how to fearmonger, hatemonger, “other” Black and Brown bodies and mindlessly rip the “shithole” countries they’ve fled in mortal danger.
People who’ve become sorrowfully inured to the outlandish evil of Trump still managed to be horrified by racism so explicit “there have been Klan rallies which employed more subtlety.” “This is one of the most racist posts I’ve ever seen. Wow,” wrote one, and, “The racism is off the charts.” “Don’t just take our word for it,” wrote the NAACP. “They are showing all of us just how racist they are. This is what’s on the ballot this November.” “This” – this abomination – is also what Nina Simone could have been summoning years ago with her song Sinnerman, an African-American spiritual inspired by the Book of Exodus about an unholy man running from God and begging for forgiveness on Judgment Day, in vain, from the rock, the sea, the devil: “Oh Sinnerman, where you gonna run to?/Hear me prayin’, Lord Lord/Hear me prayin’ Lord Lord/Sinnerman, you oughtta be prayin’/Up come power/Power, Lord.”
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Not sure if this is always the case, but I’ve noticed that “overt racist” and “asshole” usually describe the same person. This fits Trump, and anyone else who panders to those who want to demean Kamala Harris by purposely mispronouncing her name or questioning her racial identity, to a tee.
I know a person can be a “subtle racist”, which I chalk up more to conditioning from the family and community they grew up around. This admittedly would have described myself in my younger years. I grew out of this when I had actual contact with the world outside of my family and closed community. Some of my older relatives still display discomfort around people of color. It’s sad that they cannot let this part of their life go.
I do think that the media in particular sometimes exploit racial differences between parties to generate headlines. But I also give the grace to them that most stories that have a racial element to them have that because race has been a persistent problem in our country. I think exposing these issues is beneficial, but I would also like to see some abstract effort to lead us all to racial reconciliation.
Unfortunately I believe there are individuals and organizations who truly do not want this, they instead want power and dominance of their particular ideology. And regardless of their ideology, those with this kind of power always turn into bullies. And that is the other personality trait that usually goes along with “racist” and “asshole” that can be used to describe the kind of person who shouldn’t have any power over others.
Elliott, Harris absolutely is winning, and she now only needs to ensure she does nothing to lose it. Trump seems to be doing his level best to appear as racist, homophobic, very senile, and about as unpresidential as it’s possible to imagine. Why should Harris bother saying anything at all, though she’s giving plenty of rally speeches. Saying she laughs ‘maniacally’ is, frankly, just stupid.
My great-grandmother was a racist, the kind for whom it was normal to refer to Black people as “colored” or the N word. She talked about lynching once when I was young, and my mom promptly shut her grandmother up. Of course, I asked my mom what lynching meant, and my mom said white people used to beat up black people for no good reason when and where Grandma F lived. I had no idea until I was an adult how much of an understatement designed for a child’s ears that was.
I remember in elementary school in Tennessee in the 70s the white kids would do a chant where one would point to oneself then to the other person, alternating each word, “Fight, fight, N-word, white” hoping to trip up the other person into calling themselves the N-word. Technically our school counted as integrated, but in reality the “regular” classes were on one side of the school with zero black students (and a couple of black teachers) while the “special ed” classes were on the other side of the school, and they were filled nearly exclusively with black students bused in from “down the hill”. We shared recess time with the “special ed” kids but only played with them when games were organized by the physical education teacher, who also happened to be black. We kids knew that saying racist things was wrong, though some kids didn’t feel bad about saying racist things.
I feel like as a society, there was an understanding not to say racist or exist things. “Political Correctness” was a thing fir a long time, with racist and exist people muttering and grumbling about it. With the onset of Trump, anti-PC folks stopped muttering under their breath and started saying it all openly. Why? Because their Orange Idol gave them permission to say openly racist and exist things. He Made America Greatly Racist again like the pre-Civil Rights era – no, I misspoke, he didn’t make it racist, the racism was there, he just made it “acceptable” in their MAGA circles for these folks to say it loud and proud again.
Hello Bruce, appreciate it. As in REALLY APPRECIATE IT.
First – Kamala Harris – My first choice to replace President Biden. NO
As posted in a political blog I participate in, NO, but in case of emergency “break the glass” and hit the
Save Democracy Emergency Button!
As a progressive / liberal – But someone whom is a realist, IMO, there IS NO CHOICE.
What I would give to have a Mitt Romney or John McCain representing the GOP!
It is STUNNING to me that people pay no attention what comes out of the mouth of the great divider and thief.
For me, what I see, is a self promoting ego maniac whom has loaded the Supreme Court and lower courts to set the stage for the destruction of the Bill of Rights, The Constitution, the Separation of Powers and the Separation of Church and State. In other words, the American Experience and Democracy, should he be elected.
He attempted as much in a well orchestrated plan and attempt Jan. 6th. This man should be in prison.
Stunningly the racist fools and Christian Nationalists that support this overthrow of Democracy will not, IMO, out of a very select few, benefit. The MAGA gang want to take away Social Security, Medicare, assistance for the less prosperous, destroy the environment, turn national parks into Trump Entertainment resorts, disengage from historic American Strategic Foreign Policy, acheived by much blood, treasure and toil. Leave NATO, hand Putin Ukraine, and seemingly as much of Western Europe as Putin wants. I have family and friends that DIED for the current American Strategic Position. Remember, American Servicemen and Women whom died are LOSERS (Trump Quote). He of the draft dodging set.
It’s incomphrehensible to me really, a NIGHTMARE that may end with a TRUMP family Imperium ruling the United States for who knows how long.
I have NO DOUBT that a Trump Presdency will result in some equivalence to the “Enabling Acts” of 1933/34 in Weimar Germany when you know who came to power. I don’t think Trump will try to conquer the world militarily like that other maniac, but he will loot the American Treasury to set up a system of cronyism and American Oligarchs
like his buddy Putin. What the hell do people think Elon Musk is conspiring with Trump about anyway??
The Environment – Kiss it goodbye.
Christian nationalists? Trump (He whom did not know the verse John 3:16 when he ran) will find out Trump will take a giant shit on them when he is crowned Emperor.
Kamala Harris – DAMN RIGHT
Of course he’s a racist. Although the right pretends they don’t understand connotations and metaphors, ways of saying racist things outright and STILL PRETENDING NOT TO BE RACIST. It’s damn sickening.
Bruce!
Saying right it out loud, using his own posts from Donald.
How non-balanced of you!
Journalism isn’t what it once was.
Thank you for the seldom spoken truth.
Trump a racist? No shit Sherlock.
There has got to be tapes of the Apprentice of him using the N-word. I know the producer of the show is a right winger and is protecting them.
I’m impressed Trump has been able to keep what I’d call indisputable racist speech under wraps. Nothing on the list you mention is overt, it’s all dog whistles. Especially as Trump is in the throes of dementia, I’m surprised nothing overt has come out.
Trump is not a man to be admired. It amazes me how many people carry water for this guy. My family back in Ohio adores him, so when Trump enters the dialogue I turn into the black sheep. My dad can’t even acknowledge the events that happened at the Capitol Building on January 6. 🤦🏻♂️
Obviously Trump is racist from the ad you mentioned and the way he talked to black journalists. Harris went to Howard which was started by blacks because southern whites wouldn’t admit them to “white” universities. So what that she is multiracial. I am about 3/4 German and 1/4 English. Lots of Americans are multiracial or multiethnic. He is just pandering to conservative whites who are so used to the pandering to they think it is normal.
If you’re looking for racial or national purity, that boat left the dock or train pulled out of the station—or whichever metaphor you like—oh, about half a million years ago.
(All right: I know there weren’t trains, boats, stations, docks, nations or races back then. But I think you get my drift.)
And that’s the irony of racism: Racists are fighting for a myth (i.e., something that can’t possibly exist). That, unfortunately, is also part of its appeal and why anyone who supports it ultimately is contributing to their collective—if not individual—suicide, even if they are of the ruling class.
I, as a New Yorker, haven’t needed anyone to tell me that Trump is a racist—even before he posted that ad calling for the death penalty for the now-Exonerated Five.
That ad contains the immortal line, “I want to hate these muggers and murderers.” That alone should tell you what you need to know, whatever verbal gymnastics one wants to perform to “prove” that Donald Trump isn’t racist.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/17/central-park-five-donald-trump-jogger-rape-case-new-york#img-2
As a multiracial person born in California, I only care about the policies of Kamala Harris, her color, or lack thereof, never mattered. Most people do feel this way, as in, can she help turn America from utter calamity – both foreign and domestic. Been listening to NPR here in Los Angeles this morning. Montana is having a visit from Tangerine Dream right now,and John Tester, Democrat, is on the ropes because he doesn’t listen to average rural citizens,and their economic worries ! It’s these damned ” New Democrats” that have been in power since the takeout of the Kennedy brothers, who have damaged the party with their out- of- touch elitism. And of course, the MAGA personalities are capitalizing on every concern ” regular people” have. Factories are still closing, a local movie company is merging with another one, laying off thousands at one time. Democrats can and should address this immediately,or it’s truly a lost opportunity! In fact I will be calling offices of Democrat leaders, Tester included, to warn them about this, and encourage everyone here to do this also, and you can do it anonymously, if you want. But please consider doing this. By the way, I also hear that X/ Twitter, is now doing things to censor non- Fascist commenters. Agent Orange is Anti- Native American, and wants to take their remaining lands and reservations away. How’s THAT for being a racist!
It devolves simply enough to this: if Trump is not racist, then why is he ALWAYS the one who raises race as an issue? It’s self evident. So far as Vance is concerned, an angry childless cat person like myself could never vote for a ticket with him on it. It occurs to me to wonder how Williams County votes when race is a factor in elections. I’d feel safe betting my fellow Williams County inmates didn’t contribute much to Obama’s two victories and won’t give much support to Harris. It was long ago and far away when I inhabited Bryan but it was easily as racist in the sixties as the deep south where I lived briefly before the days of civil rights struggle. It’s a mindset that’s imply not amenable as demonstrated by the commenter debating Bruce. SIGH is right. These folks remind me of Monty Python’s Black Knight. Even chopping off their extremities won’t change their point of view..
A note for Yulya… I’m in Montana and Jon Tester, a genuine farmer, DOES listen to ordinary people. He’s not perfect, but Sheehy is just another rich MAGA candidate who lies constantly, as they all do. I live in a very red corner of the state and people here rarely vote based on reality. No matter what Jon Tester does to benefit Montana, in many parts of the state it’s all about the fake culture wars and, yes, the racism. They don’t believe in climate change, they think drag queens are going to destroy our country, they think everyone should have unlimited access to any type of gun, they thought covid was fake. Former interior secretary and current congressman Ryan Zinke, who lives nearby, said that a family of asylum seekers from Venezuela coming to our area was directed to Northwest Montana by Joe Biden for the purpose of voting for Democrats. So please don’t blame the Democrats for the self-destructive ignorance and gullibility — and racism — of many rural Republican voters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcPyKQIfNSs I’ m disgusted with both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance for their failure to point out the real menace to the United States. This Youtube video will show what I mean.