Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Blowing Shit Up Is the Ultimate White Privilege

See if you can spot the difference between these reactions to Clinton's "basket of deplorables" comment: and these: The stupidity of the press corps is in large part a function of the lack of diversity in the industry. That's what makes it possible--inevitable--for the press corps to dismiss the substance of Clinton's remarks, and focus on optics instead.

Which brings us to maybe the whitest guy in the industry, an anonymous "political reporter" who, thanks to this story, has just replaced Martin Shkreli as the most horrible human on the planet:
I cannot stomach Hillary Clinton. I just can't get with her. Maybe because I know too much. I find so much of her world hypocritical, reprehensible. I think the rest of the country sort of gives her a pass, like, "Oh, she's always been attacked by Republicans, it's not that big a deal, email shmemail!" But I'm like, "WHAT! This is a huge deal."

And then I also obviously struggle with Donald Trump. The things I like about him are: I believe that sometimes you just have to blow shit up to build it again, and I think that a Trump presidency would do that. But just when I sort of get there with him, like, Ohhhhhhkayyyy, he says or does something and I'm like, "No, I can't!" Like saying, "What do you have to lose?" to African-Americans. Like, WHAT? What?

I think I would just have to sort of give in to my chaos theory of Trump and just hope that he surrounds himself with the right people enough that it's not a total disaster? Or Hillary would have to do a really convincing and honest come-to-Jesus with the media. A real press conference.

I cover this stuff every day. So for me, four years of Trump, selfishly, sounds a lot more enticing, just because it's going to be a dumpster fire. And a Clinton administration would be more of what we're seeing now, which is carefully orchestrated speeches, behind-the-scenes Wealthy McWealthysons going in and out of the White House, and really horrible transparency with the press.

Gun to my head, I would probably vote Trump because of my feelings about Hillary, and my—I just want to see what happens. But if I were to talk to you tomorrow, I'd be like, "Ugh! I've gotta vote for Hillary!" [emphasis added]
Here's what white privilege means: It means you get to indulge in your feelings regardless of the consequences. It means you can vote based on boredom. It means you get to think about blowing shit up without worrying about harm to yourself.

The irony here being that as a reporter, this guy is going to be in the line of fire under President Trump. That's the weirdest thing about this whole campaign season: Trump has made it clear that he is a direct threat to press freedom, and you'd think that at least would motivate the press corps to quit propping him up. The only explanation I can think of is that most white journalists simply can't internalize the idea that they're vulnerable, because they never have been before. Because they're white.

And maybe this guy is such a narcissistic sociopath that even if he were surrounded by black, Latino, and Muslim colleagues he still think this way. But there's a good chance he wouldn't, and a near certainty that in a more diverse industry there would be fewer of him.
Posted by Tom Hilton at 2:00 PM 0 Comments
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