re: #220 Walter L. Newton

There are layers of hatred, sure. I would say that it’s like a cheesecake. The cheesecake filling is racism. The crust is the other stuff. He’s a black guy, with a weird name that people associate with terrorists and Bad Guys. They use that as their hook to convince people that he’s an enemy of the state. They’re “othering” him because of his skin, and his name. That’s racism. I’m sure there are plenty of kooks who are 100% about believing that he’s a secret muslim and they’re not racist at all. But it’s primarily racism.

Here’s what I want to know: if a racist does believe “islamic” just means evil middle-eastern-guy, and he hates everyone from the middle east, and thinks a dude from Jordan is the same as a dude from Istanbul is the same as a Palestinian, is he not actually racist because “Islam is Not a Race”? (tm) Does he get a pass?

I think what’s happening here is you’re trying to make fine distinctions, distinctions that are not made by the actual haters in question. This is simple tribalism, simple motivations. These people are blunt objects.