Washington Post columnist on "repressing gag reflex" at interracial marriage

boing
21

Was his beard applied with the MS Paint spraycan tool?

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22

Yes, but he did publish this in that article in his own words:

  • “People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when
    considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a
    black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that
    Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This
    family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts —
    but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t
    look like their country at all.”

With sensitive issues, it’s important to clearly distinguish yourself from being a member of the group in focus in the statement - the “cultural conservatives”.

His words say "cultural changes that have enveloped parts … of America - when you think a change is fully ok, you don’t really write “enveloped”.

And this little gem: “***… and with two biracial children***” - is “biracial” an ok bucket to into which he can dump all children of mixed racial inheritance? I have two children, my wife and their mother is Chinese, and I would never refer to them as “biracial”, like some biological specimen.

He’s either careless, or subtly aligning himself with the “cultural conservatives” that he doesn’t hold clearly antagonistic views towards.

I wouldn’t appreciate the tone of his writing if I were the subject, let’s put it that way.

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23

He’s not actually saying that he has to suppress the gag reflex; those folks with the upset stomach are “people with conventional views.”

That said, he writes his paragraph so badly, that even he doesn’t know its subject. Is it “today’s GOP”? Is it “people with conventional views”? Is it “cultural conservatives”? And to top off the incoherence, he says that “today’s GOP” is not racist, and then, correctly, describes that party’s straight-up racist attitude.

If people accuse Cohen of being racist, he’s only got himself to blame.

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24

Yeah, but he didn’t say it’s not OK either. If you ask me, racism is a trait found only in complete cyounts. Pardon my French.

25

I think that’s implied in America in general… That it’s not OK to be a racist.
Again, his writing is weird and his choice of “conventional” is not the best, but I don’t think this column helps to paint this guy as a racist…
More than anything, the guy blathers on and his editors unfortunately indulge him.

26

So to not gag at inter-racial marriage you need to have unconventional views? And that isn’t offensive?

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27

poor choice of words. rube would be better, but the editor might frown at that.

28

Do you not realize that he speaks out of both sides of his mouth here, he doesn’t refute this belief, he doesn’t call them disgusting, he allows those “conventional viewers” to believe that he also believes this.

That’s what makes him a sleazy shitsmear on the face of his paper.

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29

Actually no… that’s still missing the point. He’s giving credence to the viewpoint by using the word ‘conventional’. If he meant that it’s the view of conservatives then why didn’t he write it? I’m not sure what seems unintentional about his word choice; seems like a Freudian slip, at the most.

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30

He’s “just asking questions”, yes. He’s just retelling what “some people say”.

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31

It doesn’t paint him as a racist, but it doesn’t make it evident he’s not, which is an important activity when you’re communicating about the subject. It’s a line that, if it looks blurred, falls unequivocally on the most stringent definitions.

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32

“He’s either careless, or subtly aligning himself with the “cultural conservatives” that he doesn’t hold clearly antagonistic views towards.”

Exactly. These Opinion writers aren’t entirely stupid. This is exactly what he wants.

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33

It’s “what everyone’s thinking”.

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34

Yep. By playing for maximum numbers of like-minded readers, he’s perpetuating the idea that racism is acceptable - it’s conservative, conventional.

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35

There’s no defending this. He may be saying rubes in Iowa should be ignored by moderate GOP candidates who should win the primary elsewhere, but in the same breath he condones their bigotry.

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36

Are you being willfully ignorant about this topic or do you not understand that you’re conflating separate definitions of the word here?

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37

I was going to make a joke about his beard setting off my gag-reflex, but resisted.

Oops…

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38

I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. The end.
You either didn’t read the whole piece, your reading comprehension is deplorable, or you have an ax to grind.
Every other paragraph is dripping with sarcasm about the tea party and conservatives. He writes like what he believes an east coast snob trying to be nice should sound like.
He even ends it with this about Gov. Christie -
“He would be wise to steer clear of Iowa lest he lose or, worse, follow Romney and take on the deeply conservative coloration of the state’s GOP. That might make him (barely) acceptable to Republican Iowans but anathema to the rest of us.”

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39

The two articles by Mr Cohen that are referenced in this boing boing article are a long way from their description of them here.

As a longtime reader and fan of this site, I don’t always have time to read the underlying source material so I generally place my trust in your editors to summarise and describe fairly. This article falls pretty far from that expectation.

I expect much better from boing boing.

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40

Oh, I agree. He’s written a deeply stupid column, but he’s having to use this incoherent language because he can’t bring himself to say explicitly what is undeniable, even in his own terms: the GOP is racist.

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