re: #657 iceweasel

I updinged you because that was a trenchant and thoughtful comment.

But I disagree with giving Matthews a pass on this, because he wasn’t speaking to friends or ‘off the cuff’.

Pundits and so on need to think before they speak. Matthews didn’t— and he should have. And his random comment does, I think, reveal a lot about how far race relations in the US need to go.

I agree that a pundit has to be careful of their words, but in this case Matthews was also expressing honesty, an internal experience that surprised him. Most people “prepare a face to meet the faces that they meet” thus, he will talk correct, act correct, but internally, he is aware he is speaking to an ‘other’. And probably extra careful to use politically correct words as a result. That is the normal reaction.

It comes as a surprise then when one no longer sees the person as an other, the difference becomes unnoticeable and one is no longer aware they are speaking to someone different, no longer being careful with their words. So yes, as a pundit it is a fail, but as a person, it was a personal revelation to him which he expressed honestly. Instead of pretending he was colour blind in words and deeds because that is the ‘correct’ thing to do, he actually experienced colour blindness for the first time on a personal level.