Why We Hate

On the eve of an historic transformation of the American social landscape -- one hurdle down, one to go -- it's still curious to me how the Democratic primary allowed itself to devolve into such purely puerile race and gender baiting.

Sorta curious. Sure, much of the Democratic Party is nothing but faux liberal hypocrites who were forced to come face to face with their...faux liberalism. But at least they had race and gender issues front and center to deal with. It's more than can be said for the big bucket of vanilla that was passed off as the Republican candidates (though I did heart Huckabee). Still, how is it that folks who should know so much better -- i.e. all of us -- allow ourselves to fall so easily into the bigotry trap? It's a notion Esquire Magazine asked me to cogitate on:

Semantics, maybe, but for the sake of discussion, let's separate isms -- racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, and such -- from bigotry. Isms being the most antagonistic manifestation of prejudice: cross burnings and lynchings, bashing and swastikas scrawled across walls. Comparatively, bigotry is more subtle. Often insidious. It's the service at a restaurant or store that's so slow in coming, you leave before it arrives. Bigotry is the guy who cuts in front of you at Starbucks because you don't even register to him. Bigotry is our personal assumptions and the softly spoken question: "Why do those people always [fill in the blank]?" Never mind that our leaders come from every race and background, we still have trouble getting along with the "other" next door. Why? Why do we cling to bigotry?

Because bigotry, plainly, is convenient. It is a near-effortless way to both elevate one's stature and make a pity grab in this culture of victims that we have become. It is an all-purpose tool -- a sword and a shield; we dig the heft of it in our hand as we give a chop to "those people" for being too loud or too urban or too not like us. It's so much easier to swing our hate than it is to understand others.

Similarly, bigotry -- or the reflexive, defensive accusation of bigotry -- is a prime source of instant sympathy from others within our group. A jutted finger and the charge of prejudice, along with a big show of playing the vic, make for a call to rise up and defend the injured, even when the wound is imaginary.

Read the full article at ESQUIRE.com

Comments

[PioneerKing]

JOHN:

You state that "...it's still curious to me how the Democratic primary allowed itself to devolve into such purely puerile race and gender baiting.”
Why are you surprised that the divisiveness of racism and sexism prevail in politics? Bigotry allows politicians and those in power to maintain their positions through obfuscation, dishonesty and divisiveness.

[Snowball]

While the primaries brought to the fore some of the worst aspects of identity politics, both from feminists and civil rights advocates, I believe firmly that the worst of it, online at least, is not the product of Democratic supporters of either campaign, but rather it comes from Republican operatives and loner right wing trolls attempting to divide the Democratic party. Almost every over the top inflammatory commenter at HuffPo designed to sow discord between Obama supporters and Clinton supporters can be revealed as a right wing troll by a cursory look at their commenting history on their profile. Republicans simply cannot resist the urge to call it the Democrat party or use terms like far left and Socialism in describing the Democratic party. Any poster who refuses now to move on from the primaries and support the Democratic nominee, is not a Democrat disaffected or not. They're a Republican troll. Don't take the bait.

[egal]

It's not merely hardwired into our brains to distinguish "us" and "them", like and unlike, and to see patterns where none exist--also, this is the foundation of societies.

Humans are designed to see us and them, to inflict patterns upon chaos, and to view "other" as bad. In our society, the white population is distanced from the so-called minorities not merely by location or economic conditions (both of which they often share), but also--pervasively--by social conditions and perceptions.

By choosing to acknowledge our differences and sufferings yet engage us all as members of something greater, as people and not causes or our little social groups, Obama gives us permission and tools to work toward something better rather than getting stuck in our disagreements of perception and interpretation, on our priveleges and injustices.

It's a genius move on two accounts: we are more invested in our nation's status as we become more involved with its political processes, and we tear down the walls between us as we get to know one another as part of one big something worthy and unifying.

Understanding reduces fear, and coming together reduces hatred. Social groups can divide us and bring us together; and while others have focused on our differences, we move forward by overcoming them and the disparities they engender and injustices they render normative.

[Hastings]

I am puzzled why anyone should be surprised that race seemed to play an important role during the Democratic primary. Overtly playing the race card has been a corner stone of the Democratic party for decades. The only difference this year is that the Democrats played it against each other. Or did they? The generaly dishonest radical left was so intent on demonizing the Clintons that labeling them as racist was no big deal to them. If there is one thing I know about Hillary and Bill Clinton it is the fact that they don't have a racist bone in their bodies. If anything they have devoted their entire lives opening their arms and hearts to people of color, and everyone of you knows that to be the truth. Another truth that showed it's ugly head is the radical lefts utter contempt for the working class base of the Democratic Party. Add to this the radical lefts bizarre and creepy tendency to be antidemocratic, antihumanitarin, and racist when it comes to foreign policy. So, where do we go from here? I advise all liberals to run, not walk, as fast as they can from the "new" Democratic Party!

[egal]

Bill and Hillary ARE racists--almost every white person in America is. Almost every person, period, is; but only the dominant social "race" faces such pernicious, insidious, and omnipresent support for their bigotry, making it hard to recognize, let alone diminish.

This society ubiquitously slights and disparages the "other", leaving such as Hillary and Bill Clinton attempted may be unaware of how they subconsciously and otherwise consider and treat so-called minorities as lesser.

This is the second worst type of racism (the worst being so widespread and acceptable it permits dehumanization to such extents as create genocide or enslavement): the racism we ourselves may be unaware we harbor. It subtly and overtly--but unacknowledged by, socially invisible to, or even deemed necessary (to deal with those lesser beings) by the offender--colors all beliefs, thoughts, words, and actions.

Hillary and Bill's behavior during this campaign sometimes overtly and sometimes tacitly demonstrated their very real, very deep, and potentially self-unaware derision of black Americans, elevation of white Americans, priveleged refusal to see their own failures and bigotry or a black man's qualifications and achievement, and assumptions that a black candidate attained status merely on Affirmative Action and racial identification.

We know that the Clintons are racist due to the consistent condescension that leads them both to fight for equality without engaging the minorities and to insist a black candidate didn't earn his status while black voters were ignorant enouhg to choose based on race alone.

[Hastings]

The everyone is a racist argument doesn't work. The reality is that the radical left hates, with a passion, Bill and Hillary Clinton. This hatred can be traced back to President Clinton's move to the center after the Republicans won Congress in 1994.
Space is short and the list is too long to dwell on the mistakes that Senator Clinton's campaign made during the primarys. However, the biggest mistake she made was to pander to the radical left during the first have of the primarys. The biggest problem she had was that it was impossible for her to differencate herself from Senator Obama because so little was know about him. In other words when it came to Senator Obama there was no there there. That is untill the "bitter" remarks. Senator Clinton siezed upon these remarks to move to the center sooner than she had planned to. Then the radical left pounced and the Clintons became racists along with one of the largest groups in the Democratic Party, white working class folks. That was ok with the elitist radical lefties because they can't stand these "stupid" unwashed working class "dummies" anyway.
The vicious labeling of the Clintons and white working class folks as racist will not be forgotten soon. Although the radical chic lefties are going to destroy the Democratic Party anyway, this will speed it along much faster.

[ddharder]

HuffPost's Pick

I think people are hard wired toward bigotry. It takes education to overcome this phenomina. From an evolutionary perspective, people search for patterns, and can find them when none actually exist. This has helped humanity survive, helping them find established game routes, learning what makes crops grow, etc... But this same trait isn't perfect and we also see patterns and shapes in clouds, we see mother Mary on broken corn chips, or we believe in astrology and other similar nonsense.

How does this relate to racism? Racism is stereotyping. Stereotyping is just a form of finding patterns that don't exist but seem to be so when empirical evidence is not closely examined.

[Bbobb]

It’s safe to predict that the Republicans will find a way to exacerbate racial tensions and inject it into the campaign. It’s already beginning with the bogus claims of a supposed video showing Michelle Obama making anti-white statements (of course no such video exists). Anything that Obama says that can be distorted or taken out of context to “show” that he secretly disrespects whites or latinos can and will be used against him. I imagine scores of Republican operatives making posts to comments boards like this one where they pretend to be angry blacks or angry whites making racist statements and picking fights with other posters just to stir up resentment.

It will be a real test of tolerance and reasonableness to keep this campaign on the high road. But I’m also looking for Obama to be there as the real leader and man of principle that he is to heal the inevitable wounds and calm the irrational fears. I think that more and more people will come to trust and respect his sincerity. And despite there being a hard-core of haters who inevitably fall for Republican smears, I think that a majority of Americans will become even more disgusted as they realize that the Republicans have almost nothing to offer but poison and hypocrisy. I’m looking for Obama and a majority of Americans to rise above the noise. It could be a great time in our history.

[Skepticat]

Don't always agree with Mr Ridley but as one would expect from a talented writer he certainly makes you think.
I believe Mr Ridley's explanation of bigotry as "convenient" - was extremely insightful - and correct.
Classifying individuals into pre-formed categories is "convenient" because it's so easy to do, requires very little thought - and makes it easy to rationalize our dislikes - and feel superior. Us vs the awful thems.
Bigotry also "convenient" for people who need an identity. They can become the stereotype - identify with the group and defend their tribe against the lowlier "others". The "Others" can be agressively loathed - or as Mr Ridley stated just become ignored and invisible. We then don't have to struggle with the legions of mult-dimensional people who just don't fit into the pattern.
Thanks for making us think.

[AlphaDoc]

>it's still curious to me how the Democratic primary allowed itself to devolve into such purely puerile race and gender baiting.<

Are there any actual examples of gender-baiting (other than the "Iron-My-Shirt" idiots you can find in any crowd) to which you can refer? As a woman, I am sensitive to such, and didn't see or hear any instances coming from the Obama camp; still, I keep hearing/reading that there were many. I did take note of the racial remarks coming from the Clinton campaign, however, and found race to be more of an issue during the Democratic primaries than gender was.

[in4success]

oh yes -- and the so called "reagen democrats" are republicans too dense to know there's a fundamental ideological difference. in other words, they get their views from fox and limbaugh and vote republican but are too lazy and boxy-roxie to actually change their party affiliation.

[2cntswrth]

Great blog as usual! I concur with your assessment that our collective Democratic Party's gaze into the mirror, mirror on the wall did not reveal us to be the "fairest" of them all. Instead, a lot of ugly rhetoric reared its head from within our party causing shock, pain, and anger. And the only ones rejoicing in our growing pains were the conservative pundits who usually never pretend to be anything else but bigots...while we liberals have been pretending not to be. But what doesn't kill us usually makes us stronger. If anything, the long hard look throughout the primary season has given most people a chance to grow up and face the reality of dealing with either having a woman or black man become the nominee and perhaps the president ! Finding the politically correct way to always avoid the subjects of racism, sexism, and classism has always been the norm of the past, but never the cure for overcoming "isms" to advance ourselves into the future. So, at least now, we can all take our raw feelings and figure out how to respond to and through our diversities as we address the bigger picture of major national problems. We needed a wake up call to "change our ways" and praise the Lord, we finally we got one!

[StillAmused]

Most of the brain-dead, fabricated angst that contaminated the Dem primary contest has been brought to you by the same underachieving press stenographers who dutifully sold you the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Any moron with a pulse is eligible to be quoted -- the more inlammatory, the better -- with the quote meticulously placed in endless rotation in the news cycle.

American Idol is starting to look soberly deliberative and thoughtfully analytical in comparison.

[StillAmused]

"inflammatory"

(does 'inlammatory' mean 'stuck between laminations'?)

[Underthematrix]

John, Are you telling me that you missed Hillary and Bill's racist and divisive comments or Hillary's 3am Willie Horton ad or her "as far as I know" comment or her ad making Obama look like a terrorist or her invoking the a-word as a reason for staying in the race?

[StillAmused]

Congratulations! You've won today's Super-Shopper prize for buying every fabricated narrative in the store.

Next week, a store-wide special on secret reports revealing the actual locations of Saddam's hidden WMD.

Bring your credit cards.

[Jazz42]

Mr Ridley.
A great article.
I completely agree with you.

[Bladernr1001]

Geeze that took a lot of thought.

[DeadDogDemocrat]

I dispute that hate played a big part in this race (at least at first). Most voters, if you think about it, backed the candidate who "is like me". Conventional wisdom has it that Clinton got the women and Obama got African-Americans.
But let's keep going with this. Obama was the young candidate (post-boomer) whom (I think) got a majority of voters under 45. He was the candidate whose experience in the world of higher education was more recent (and he got the votes of the latte drinkers).
Boomers and seniors needed little prodding to vote for Clinton (and this included some African-American voters). Plenty of young white women, on the other hand, couldn't be pulled away from an Obama rally with a crowbar.
There's a saying in Indian politics: people don't cast their votes so much as vote their chastes. most voters in this election, I suspect, didn't engage in any deliberative process before backing a candidate (and "most like me" generally won out).

[Bladernr1001]

I think most of the race baiters are in the dems party. Wright, Pflagle, Jackson etc, etc.

[Krikkit]

John, when something truly disfunctional is happening, the only way to cure it is to uncover it, go deeply into it, expose its flaws, and ultimately reject it and replace it with something better.

I believe that Hillary truly thought that Obama was unelectable in this election. I think she missed the change that's been happening slowly since the Civil Rights movement got its landmark legislation passed. In other words, she was predicting the past, not the now. To give her some credit, I think she tried to be as subtle as she could in pointing out these past problems that apparently don't apply any more. Our response was to pull out all the ugly underlying disfunctional beliefs inherent in those subtle cues, so that they could be examined in the full light of day. She is taking the brunt of our angry rejection right now, but we may ultimately owe her thanks for lancing the wound.

And now, in choosing Obama as our nominee, we've declared to ourselves and to the world, "There's a better way and we have been and continue to embrace that better way as a people. Don't let our elder leaders mislead you. A sea change is coming."

As a middle aged white woman living in WV, I am enormously proud to be witness and participant in this glorious day! My heart swells to think of it.

[suzukimom]

I love your comment because it is generous to Hillary and her supporters, and it is also hopeful that we truly are becoming a "more perfect union."