Another day, another hayseed bigot getting caught with his racist pants down. This time, it's the small town / small time mayor of Airways Heights, WA, Patrick Rushing, who in a Facebook exchange called the First Lady "Gorilla face," and referred to the President as "monkey man." He added, referring to the President, "Check out them ears. LOL." When town officials called for his resignation, his dishonor refused, saying that resignation would be an admission that he's racist. After all, no racist says racist things, right? Here's a clue for him: the fact that you're a racist has already been established, it won't be confirmed by your resignation.
Rushing, a part-time bus driver, has had run-ins with the local law, having been cited for leaving the scene of an accident this past January, where he rear-ended another motorist with the bus he was driving. Expect him to be focusing more on driving that bus, rather than Facebook-ing, since the town council is considering measures to sanction his racist language, and perhaps remove him from office.
(photo: Mayor Rushing. Hey, check out them ears. LOL.)
2 comments:
Racism expresses itself in a variety of ways.
Some knuckle-walkers are blatant and unabashed racists, as has been observed on numerous occasions throughout American history … such as when grumpy old white guys wax nostalgic for the days of yesteryear …. before the Civil War.
Other folks indignantly proclaim that "some of my best friends are (fill in the blank)." One may behave in an extremely civil manner -- or even be friendly -- toward someone of a different ethnicity ... so long as that person does not offend one's sensibilities or disagree with one's political ideology.
It is often when confronting someone with whom one has a conflict that race suddenly becomes an issue and ethnic bigotry rises to the surface, such as when a person of color is the butt of a racially-insensitive joke delivered via email, tweet, or at a political event.
Their usual defense: “Just because I enjoy disseminating racist jokes via social media does not make me a racist!” — Uh yeah, it does.
Some pundits smugly demonstrate their bigoted views by assuming that Barack and Michelle Obama — and just about every other left-of-center minority — must have attained their academic and professional successes by means of handouts and special favors, because it certainly could not have been the result of hard work and innate intelligence.
And for others, their racism is expressed by their tendency to apply stereotypical character traits to an entire ethnic demographic group of people, followed by a haughty disdain for these character traits and by their arrogant, condescending suggestion that they -- as an outsider to the culture -- understand the challenges facing people of said demographic group better than members of the group themselves.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments! Racism indeed expresses itself in many ways, and it's unfortunate - to say the least - that it's still where we're at in the 21st century.
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