Racism, it’s an American tradition!

Today in Malkintown, U.S.A., we will discuss one of the wingnuts’ favorite retorts: “Just because I don’t like Obama,” they say, “doesn’t mean that I’m RAAACIST!” Their reasons, they insist, have more to do with their dislike of Obama’s economic policies, his stance on national security, or his handling of the financial crisis.

This would be all well and good if it wasn’t—and I’ll bet you didn’t see this coming!—a complete crock of shit.

In her post entitled “SWAGGA time: Obama’s 100 Day Toast to Himself,” white Filipino American Michelle Malkin describes what she’ll be doing during the President’s speech:

I will be drinking SWAGGA juice and waving my tea bag at the television set.

Do you not get the “SWAGGA” reference? I didn’t, either, until I clicked on the link. Apparently, CNN anchors discussed Obama’s “SWAGGA” yesterday, and this really pissed Shelley off. In her post, she wrote:

You know, I thought that slavering piece about Barack Obama’s “hipness” was rock-bottom.

(In this case, she uses the word “slavering” to mean “slobbering.” Of course, in the context of talking about America’s first African American President, she probably could have used a better term, but we’ll deal with that in a moment.)

Meanwhile, at the end of that post, she posed a question to her readers:

How long before someone calls me RAAAAACIST for saying “SWAGGA?”

Well, let’s see. You posted that dare—it was a dare, wasn’t it, Shelley?—at 6:24 P.M. last night, EST. It’s 8:36 A.M. here in New England, so it took…let’s see, about 14 hours before someone called you “RAAAAAACIST” for actually being fucking racist.

Shelley, sweetie, let me explain something to you—and this is coming from someone who majored in English and African American Studies in college. (Yes, I know, you probably don’t think that’s legitimate, but we’ll address that later.) There is a difference between being “racial” and being “racist.” If you were to comment, for example, that you were concerned about unfair treatment of Filipino Americans in cities across the U.S., that comment, though about race, wouldn’t be racist. If, however, you were to refer to those Filipino Americans as “flips” and were to call them “half-civilized (or half-savage), uneducated, worthless, and unscrupulous,” then that would be racist. Do you see the difference? I thought you would.

Now let’s talk about “SWAGGA.” I’m not entirely convinced that CNN was in the right here. I do agree that the term, though relatively common these days, is racially loaded. It might not be as racially loaded as “nigger” and “flip,” but it’s racially loaded nonetheless. So when you use a racially loaded term, Shelley, in a context in which that term is used in a derogatory fashion, is that:

1. racist;
2. not racist; or
3. the shit you usually pull?

If your answer is 2, you’re wrong. If your answer is 1 or 3, then congratulations! You’ve learned a lot from reading a week’s worth of “Your Daily Malkin”!

“SWAGGA time: Obama’s 100 Day Toast to Himself” (Michelle Malkin)

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