My Casually Racist Friend Still Digs Trump’s “Sheriff Badge” Graphic
I have a friend who is immune to dog whistles. He’s not a rabid racist who perks up at certain words or images, nor is he atuned to the techniques that some politicians use to get messages under the public radar. In many ways, he is the public radar.
For example, this image, recently tweeted by Donald Trump, did not phase him:
To my friend, this is clearly a “sheriff’s badge” shape.
When I pointed out that the star doesn’t have circles on a each point like a sheriff’s badge usually does, he still insisted that was probably a style choice but clearly meant to “evoke” a sheriff’s badge, and if I saw something different it was because I was the one with anti-Semitism on my brain.
When I pointed out that the star is superimposed over a background of high-denomination currency, he insisted that must have been meant to show the money that “Crooked Hillary” is taking from special interests on Wall Street.
Yes, he actually used Trump’s pet-name for Secretary Clinton when he said this.
I then pointed out that it makes no sense to imply that Hillary Clinton is any kind of sheriff, since she’s never held a position in law enforcement. And also that historically, people only got six-pointed badges attached to them as they were being prepped for transport to a Nazi concentration camp.
In turn, my friend pointed me to a supermarket circular with a six-pointed “SALE PRICE” badge next to a can of tuna. “Is that can of tuna headed for a Nazi concentration camp?”
I like to think that most people can tell the difference between a presidential candidate and a can of tuna, but it shocks me how many people are like my friend. He’s a smart guy who means well and adores his wife and family. He is well liked in our community. He donates his time and money to charitable causes. He considers himself well-informed on political issues. And he won’t ever concede that he’s casually racist, casually sexist, and casually xenophobic.
And oh yeah, he voted for Trump in the primaries. He just won’t say so out loud to most people because, in his words, supporting Trump is not considered “politically correct.”
When Trump withdrew his original graphic and replaced it with a version that adapted the “sheriff’s badge” into a circle, my friend proudly claimed that he’d actually won our argument. “See? Just as I predicted. That right there is a prime example of out-of-control political correctness.”
Unbelievably, Trump’s ham-handed revision only strengthened my friend’s resolve because, in his mind, the “P.C. Police” had struck again. And because the “P.C. Police” had just won a battle against Donald Trump, my friend felt obligated to double-down on his support in order to “resist the forces of multiculturalism.”
The forces of…what? I honestly don’t know where he picked that one up, and I don’t think he knows what it means either.
Somehow, despite the resistance my friend puts up against the forces of multiculturalism, he would never consider himself to be racist. He has black friends. He has black co-workers. He claims to love and respect people of all races, religions, and cultures. But in private moments, he tells me that he just doesn’t want it “all up in his face.”
It later came out that the graphic in question wasn’t even generated by the Trump organization. It had actually come from a virulently anti-Semitic website and had been kicking around the white supremacist community for over a week before the Trump people adopted it.
What did my casually racist friend have to say about that?
“It proves nothing.”
What?
“Facts are facts,” he insisted. “Fox News conducted a poll asking viewers to name the most corrupt politician in history, and Hillary won the poll. That’s a fact. It doesn’t matter who made the graphic because it’s just reporting a fact and facts can’t be biased.”
But…non-scientific polling…of a self-selected pool…of viewers of Fox Freakin’ News… It all falls on deaf ears. My casually racist friend can’t hear dog whistles, and he won’t hear my explanations of what dog whistles are or how they are used. He just believes what he wants to believe, and everything else is just confirmation bias.
My biggest fear is that my friend is not the only person who thinks this way. Much of America is casually racist, casually sexist, and casually xenophobic enough to not only tolerate Candidate Trump, but to annoint him Nominee of one of our major political parties. It’s not just because he dog-whistles to outright racists, but also because he dog-whistles over the heads of people who should know better but might as well have their hands over their ears.
My friend believes so strongly that Clinton supporters have been “brainwashed by the P.C. Police” that he will not admit to supporting Trump unless he’s among close friends or in a like-minded group. If a pollster ever called him, he’d say that he plans to vote for Clinton, which makes me wonder just how accurate those polls really are.
Unless something changes between now and Election Day, my casually racist friend and others like him will be pulling the lever for Trump, I honestly don’t know what can be done to dissuade him.