As long as everyone is making resolutions, I’d like to suggest one for folks like Carl Paladino and his ilk: Stop denying your obvious racism in 2017. Lean into your bigotry like a proper Klansman and own it.
That’s right. Stop trying to shoehorn hateful words into a socially acceptable context. It’s not possible. And it’s not as if anyone will respect you more for being accidentally racist. We’re onto you.
Let’s take the words of Mr. Paladino, a former New York gubernatorial candidate and the co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign, as a handy example.
In response to a questionnaire from a Buffalo newspaper about his hopes and dreams for 2017, Mr. Paladino said that he would most like to see “[Michelle Obama] return to being a male and let loose on the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie the gorilla.”
Mr. Paladino then turned his heavy-lidded gaze to President Barack Obama: “Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford [sic]. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret [sic], who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason when a Jihady [sic] cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her.”
When the reprehensible nature of his words was pointed out by pretty much everyone including his son and a spokesperson for Mr. Trump, Mr. Paladino insisted his words were not meant to be construed as racist.
“I did not mean to send those answers to [the newspaper],” he wrote in a statement. “Not that it makes any difference because what I wrote was inappropriate under any circumstances,” he conceded. “I filled out the survey to send to a couple of friends and forwarded it to them not realizing that I didn’t hit ‘forward’ I hit ‘reply.’ All men make mistakes.”
It is a disturbing rationale because it is an obvious lie and an attempt by the embattled Buffalo school board member to convince everyone that there are like-minded people out there who would welcome racist-sounding email from him that isn’t actually racist.
For Mr. Paladino, who is now fighting an effort to oust him from the city’s school board as a result of his comments, it is far more preferable to be thought of as stupid than racist. Who wouldn’t want a really stupid guy who doesn’t know how to use email on their local school board?
Stemming from an incident in July, Mr. Paladino is already on record for not knowing how to use simple technology. While tweeting about the current Attorney General Loretta Lynch, a black woman, Mr. Paladino wrote: “Lynch @LorettaLynch let the Grand Jury decide.”
At the time, Mr. Paladino claimed he wasn’t suggesting that Ms. Lynch be strung up by her neck. He said he was merely trying to tweet a private message to her but goofed up. He doesn’t want anyone to mistake his love of violent puns for racism. Perish the thought.
Closer to home, Pamela Taylor, the director of a nonprofit in Clay, W.Va., just got the boot after a month’s suspension for a Facebook post that said: “It will be so refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady back in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a [sic] Ape in heels.”
“Just made my day,” Clay’s mayor, Beverly Whaling, wrote in response to that post. Before she was forced to resign her elected office, Ms. Whaling insisted her comment “was not intended to be racist at all …Those who know me know that I’m not of any way racist!”
Of course; it’s just accidental racism. No point in confusing it with the real thing.
When it was reported that Ms. Taylor, the halfwit behind the original post, would be returning to her job as the director of the Clay County Development Corp. after her suspension, the public reaction was fierce. The nonprofit decided it was time to ax Ms. Taylor for sloppy paperwork and inadequate recordkeeping regarding the nonprofit’s internal non-discrimination efforts.
When she was suspended a few weeks ago, Ms. Taylor said she had merely given her opinion of what she thought of Mrs. Obama’s looks, which had nothing to do with the color of her skin. The whole “ape in heels” thing was all about unfortunate fashion choices by FLOTUS, according to that very classy lady in Appalachia — not evidence of racism on her part. Perish the thought!
Coming out of the racist closet, white hood and all, is better than indulging in this undignified charade. No one wants to live in a country where so many citizens are capable of saying horribly racist things because they’re only accidentally racist. So here’s hoping that bigoted people all over America develop the courage of their convictions in 2017. You have nothing to lose but your hypocrisy.
Tony Norman: tnorman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1631.
First Published: December 30, 2016, 6:11 a.m.
