The Racist Syllogism

Lately, there has been an incredibly naive syllogism going around (Salon's David Masciotra is guilty of it in his editorial, "White flight from reality: Inside the racist panic that fueled Donald Trump’s victory"). It goes like this:

1. There is racism in America.
2. Donald Trump is racist.
3. Ergo, all Trump's supporters are racist.

There were plenty of reasons to vote for Trump that were not related to racism.

For example, there are plenty of people who will vote Republican regardless of who is running. And being Republican does not equate to racism, contrary to what many Leftists think.

In addition, Trump's idea to build a wall on the Mexican border is NOT racist. It is based on a flawed idea that immigration is somehow taking jobs away from Americans. It isn't anti-Mexican, but rather poor economic thinking that drives this idea. But when people lose their jobs and see plenty of illegal immigrants working, they tend to equate the two. In reality, one did not lead to the other.

Trump's plans to renegotiate our trade agreements was also popular, and again reflected the flawed thinking they are responsible for lost jobs in America.

There was also the Hillary Clinton problem. While both candidates were flawed, Clinton represented the elite establishment, which gave us Wall Street bailouts, Obamacare, and over a decade of war on Islam. And she was a criminal on top of that. While Trump's flaws are legion, Clinton was just too chummy with the elite establishment, and showed far too much disregard for middle class America. (For example, when Bill Clinton suggested the campaign should target middle class whites, the campaign scoffed at it.)

Actually, the racist syllogism is dangerous. It reflects a dumbing down of the concept of racism to a conspiracy theory, whereby whites are all guilty of a hidden conspiracy against other races (but especially blacks). In effect, "racist" becomes a code word for "white". If being white makes me a racist, so be it, but don't expect me to hate myself for it. If anything, the overutilization of the racist charge in our culture has opened the door for people like Trump, and some of his truly racist supporters, and not just the white folks.