Many people care more about how they do in relation to others than how they do in absolute terms. People judge their social status not as individuals, but as how their group compares to other groups. Racism comes from an awareness of belonging to the dominant group. Grey links to a paper written in 1958.
Here are traits of racism: (1) a feeling of superiority, (2) a claim that the subordinate race is different, alien, and beyond understanding, (3) a claim to privilege from which the lower races must be excluded, (4) a fear the subordinate race wants to upend the dominant race’s position.
It’s not a reaction to negative life experiences. People of color are more likely to have negative life experiences, yet “there’s no hateful equivalent to white supremacy among them.”
Supremacy is a status marker that doesn’t change with economic circumstances (such as the current economic collapse). The status needs no effort and it’s obvious. One gets the status of white regardless of achievement. White people can see themselves as elite.
White people may not see the masters in their own race as oppressors. Rather they’re worthy of emulation. White people can wield power over people of color as their own elites wield power over everyone. That has appeal to white people no matter their actual status. Racial status is more important than economic status.
Supremacy – that white people deserve dominant status because they are white – is irrational. So supremacists won’t be acting rationally.
This isn’t about fear, hatred, or anger. It’s more like narcissism, an obsession with social status. “I deserve high status because I am me,” is similar to, “We deserve high status because we are white.”
Grey discusses several similarities between a narcissist and a racist. Maintaining the (personal/racial) hierarchy is the point. There is no empathy for those seen as subordinate. Both believe they are exceptions to the rules. Both lie to maintain their higher status. Both oppress to confirm their dominant status. They see an ideal social order. When there is a challenge to status both react with abuse. It is a mistake to think either has limits.
To both delusion is essential and cruelty is the point. Cruelty confirms the power one has over other people. They will gaslight, so that the target will feel diminished, hurt, erased, confused, and to question perception of reality, to feel the rupture of reality as the perpetrator does, so that the target won’t want to challenge the power. Both are cruel because the central assertion of both is sufficient justification. Cruelty masks their insecurity.
There is a difference between narcissism and racism. Narcissism is a disorder. Racism is a choice. There are other ways to frame a sense of collective identity.
Well meaning white people want to think a threat to a racist’s rational self-interest will cause a person to turn against Trump. But racism isn’t rational. Racists have in the nasty guy exactly what they want. They want his unfitness, his disdain for science and curiosity, his corruptness, his criminal impunity. He’s a narcissist? It’s like seeing the face of white supremacy itself! As for the pandemic…
How does a narcissist handle criticism of his or her handling of a crisis? They act like everything is fine. The ridicule your concern. They downplay the extent of the crisis. Should evidence of a crisis prove impossible to conceal, the tactics shift to blaming other people. If you make a rational suggestion about what he or she could do better, they aren't receptive to it. The narcissist perceives your rational suggestion as an attempt to indict his or her abilities, and is fixated on possible loss of status that may result from that indictment.Sound familiar?
All the talk by Democrats on restructuring society to combat this and future pandemics is seen as a threat. What if society is restructured so that white supremacy goes away?
That’s why they’re protesting. That’s why they want to reopen everything. That’s why they’re downplaying the death toll and the virus itself. They see every stepping stone to restructuring society as a slippery slope.
His most fervent supporters simply see our criticisms of Trump’s response to coronavirus as a pretext for dismantling white supremacy. In more direct terms, they can only see our criticisms of Trump’s response to coronavirus as JUST a pretext for getting rid of him.
If you resist all attempts to restructure society, then you ensure white supremacy itself won’t be restructured. That sounds extremely fucked up, right? It is! But you try telling me with a straight face that isn't modern American conservatism in a nutshell.
So let us name the essential function Donald Trump serves for his base: to symbolically cancel out Barack Obama’s presidency for white people who processed having a Black President as something akin to a trauma and as an assault on their collective sense of identity.
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So despite the reality that he's presiding over a disastrous response to a viral pandemic, in the eyes of his base, Trump's presidency is still a symbol of the reassertion of white supremacy on which his base can project themselves. And that's why they won't leave him.
Wasted Youth has this in their description, “two paths diverged in the road and America took the psychopath” and responded to Grey:
This explains people voting against their best interest. It Is as if they are saying “ i dont care how bad they screw me as long as someone beneath me is getting it worse”. Or “if i vote dem the people beneath me will have what i have so forget that”To which Grey replied: “You get it.”
Stephen Sather tweeted a question:
Interesting. Why do white supremacists hate whites who don't espouse white supremacy? Is it a feeling of betrayal?Grey replied:
It really is that simple. Their hatred for people like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden is animated by the perception of them as race traitors. That they both showed deference to a Black President and were willing to accept subordinate roles relative to him defines their hatred.Judy Stahl asked:
What is it going to take for these people to grasp that they are no better and no worse than any other human being?Grey replied:
Consistent application of political force. My sense of how Democrats should engage in politicking is grounded in an awareness of how one must confront a narcissist. You do not presume they can change, you do not appease, and you respond with a full awareness of who they are.In response to data that show that low-income communities of color have a death rate more than ten times greater than wealthier areas, Grey tweeted:
This is why Trump's base not only doesn't care, but wants to accelerate a return to "our way of life." If we take coronavirus seriously enough that we acknowledge racial inequities in health care, that's a slippery slope to taking white supremacy seriously. That's what they fear.And he tweeted (explaining what could be called a dogwhistle)
You should absolutely be viewing Trump's rhetoric regarding how "The cure cannot be worse than the disease" through the lens of race, by the way. That is to assure his base he understands: if the societal cure entails upending white supremacy, that is worse than the disease.
I’ll add a little bit. The Democratic House passed another relief bill. It contains a lot of what Dems feel will make the society more equal – exactly what supremacists, the nasty guy, and the GOP want to make sure doesn’t happen.
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