What snowwrestler says: Trump says an American Judge, whose job it is to be impartial and judge things, can't do his job because he's Mexican-American. That's messed up.
Sure, we can understand if the Judge has some personal feelings, but we also understand that he's going to set them aside and be impartial in his judgement because he's been made a JUDGE! We presume that the folks who gave him that authority did so because they thought and felt that he would be good at it. (And not "despite being a Mexican"!!)
Trump's B.S. undermines the whole concept of impartial Justice. It drives a wedge into the fundamental values of our government. And it's pretty racist against Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. It was a hell of a thing to say when he was just the joke candidate, and it's all the more dismaying now that he's the Joke President.
>What snowwrestler says: Trump says an American Judge, whose job it is to be impartial and judge things, can't do his job because he's Mexican-American. That's messed up.
Reality is a bit more nuanced than that.
A Mexican-American judge who is affiliated with `La Raza` [0] and is sympathetic to illegal immigrants (from Mexico) ruling on a case against an individual who is not sympathetic to illegal immigrants. The keyword I'm emphasizing because people conveniently leave it out is: illegal. It makes a drastic difference when speaking about immigration. Illegal immigration is not the same.
>The HNBA sometimes condemns rhetoric that it perceives as "divisive and racist" and aimed at immigrants. For example, in response to Donald Trump's comments regarding illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States, and Trump's derogatory remarks about some of those immigrants, the group's president issued a press release in July 2015 calling for a boycott of all Donald Trump-owned businesses.
I agree with everything you've written here except for the one italicized sentence. I think we fundamentally agree on Trump's character, and are basically having a discussion about semantics at this point. However, I do feel it can be a useful discussion. The people who write the N word and "Trump" all over someone's car are clearly racist. The people who say, "We don't want those people in our town. It's not a race thing, it's just that they're using up all the resources, and ruining the culture, and when I drive by the playground now, there aren't even any white kids there anymore," are probably racist, but legitimately don't believe they are. Trump may well be racist, but mostly he's opportunistic and self-centered, and in my opinion that's what his comment about the judge showed.
The problem is, calling that comment racist cheapens the condemnation of the writing-on-car guy. It also causes the second group to write you off as out of touch, ensuring they won't listen to anything else you say on the matter. Even calling that second group racist, while true, is most likely counter-productive. Most people with racist (or sexist, or homophobic..) beliefs honestly believe they don't have "any problem with those people", so labeling them in that way again just shuts down the dialog, and if anything hardens their views. And what ultimately matters is that people treat each other decently, so we need to choose both actions and language that are most likely to encourage that.
I get what you're saying. It's not constructive to simply shout "racist!" at someone and run away. (Although I did just that to "masondixon" elsewhere in this thread, but I stand by that: dude is a looney. Long experience has taught me not to waste time with a true-blue freakazoid like that.)
For communicating with normal everyday folks who don't even know they're racist you do indeed have to use a light touch if you want to get through to them. I totally agree with that and do my best to practice it.
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As for whether or not the statements he made about the Judge indicate strongly ("big league") that Trump is racist (however latent or unconscious) I think we have to agree to disagree. For me, and a lot of folks, it was disgusting hearing something like that from a presidential candidate. I'm not surprised so many people are saying today that his election proves that middle America is racist. I've heard his election called "revenge for eight years of <African-American> president"! In any event, racists are having a field day.
Sure, we can understand if the Judge has some personal feelings, but we also understand that he's going to set them aside and be impartial in his judgement because he's been made a JUDGE! We presume that the folks who gave him that authority did so because they thought and felt that he would be good at it. (And not "despite being a Mexican"!!)
Trump's B.S. undermines the whole concept of impartial Justice. It drives a wedge into the fundamental values of our government. And it's pretty racist against Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. It was a hell of a thing to say when he was just the joke candidate, and it's all the more dismaying now that he's the Joke President.