All this. These people aren't going away no matter what happens at any level of government. They were suppressed for about 30-40 years, depending on who you are, where you live and who lives among you. No longer- they are free now, and Trump is their liberator. I can imagine that all day long. We've seen that already happen to a Black physician- on a plane, with a patient who needed assistance. What does she plan to do? I don't see where the political/electoral calculus needs to be sustainable. The joyful conservatism Trump released will simply turn to ugly, vengeful conservatism when they start to lose offices. You're not going to see it tonight because Moore isn't worth it, but if Trump is removed from office or loses to a Dem in 2020, you'll see more of it. It absolutely IS a tectonic shift. Your wife and I will be dealing with the behavior for another 30 years if not longer. Behavior. It takes only one peckerwood. The damage is done even if he loses his job afterwards. Yeah, I believe you do. What I've seen along those lines is an increase in the number of big pickup trucks, usually duallys, that "roll coal", meaning the owner has modded the exhaust to blow some really, really thick black toxic smoke out when a switch is turned. Air pollution as a protest against the use of federal environmental regulations. Sometimes used around cyclists because they don't like cyclists.
Only foreign sports fans here know about you guys. FWIW, I used to get Argentina and Chile mixed up on the map as a child, same as with New Hampshire and Vermont.
I have had the "congratulations on speaking English very well" trotted out more than once. Well, I should since I went to school in the US. The reason I personally dislike this line of questioning because I was born in the USA and there is an underlying exclusion in the question. I couldn't possibly been raised in the US even though I sound like Mr. Pink from Reservoir Dogs. I appreciate it when people are interested in my background, but it feels that people ask because they have a certain expectation on what a Hispanic looks like and I don't fit it. Also, that is not the real question that is being asked. They want to know ethnic background.
She's in critical care, so she holds all of the cards there. She will treat them. She will have their families removed from the unit by armed security if necessary. If their condition is stable enough to be shipped to another hospital, she will explain to their families that they can go to crit unit B or C also in the metro, where their kid will probably be treated by people who look like her. Or they can be shipped at their expense back to rural crit unit D. Rural crit unit D won't have MDs with the same level of experience, nor will it have all of the equipment that they have. So if their kid's condition deteriorates/destabilizes, they will be more likely to die. So are you going to let me do my ********ing job, or I am going to need to force you to let me do my ********ing job? I absolutely agree with you that we can't legislate our way out of racism. Where you and I tend to disagree is why the spike occurred in the first place and what that means going forward. Trump made it okay to outwardly project things that were deemed completely unacceptable before him. Like you said, it has always been there. The difference is the level in which people in political positions (or positions of religious/"moral" authority) give voice to that. We have moved from institutionally racist policies that took on a new trajectory under Reagan to more closely tying religion to these policies under Dubya to white enthno-nationalism under Trump. Somewhere in the middle of Reagan we de-regulated the airwaves as they pertain to right wing radio. This ushered in a new wave of conspiracy theories and white "victimhood". It took us about 12 years for that to stew before we got conspiracy theories like Clinton killing VInce Foster. Then another 12 before we got birtherism and a bunch of UN troops staging a takeover in Jade Helm. This victimhood narrative has been brewing in an echo chamber among certain segments of our society for decades. Along with that is the anti-govt, stick it to the gubmint notions under Reagan, which manifests itself today with morons like the coal rollers...the one case where trickle down really did work. The GOP has long understood there is an issue there. But they also knew that this movement was assisting them politically, so they generally ignored it. They didn't need to weaponize it because the math worked. Impact of Far Christian Right >>>> impact of non-whites, which means they could put a "kinder gentler" veneer on politics to reduce the prospects of other whites picking up on the policy dog whistles. That changed in 2008 because a) the demographics changed and b) Obama was unique in his ability to appeal to non-whites. That's when things were truly weaponized, which brings us to Trump. And 2018-20 will be the Great Reckoning. That's the GOP's come to (non-conservative) Jesus moment. To get any sense of credibility back, they're going to need to tangibly walk so much shit back that the racist twats won't have a political voice anymore. None of this both sides shit. None of this "racism is wrong" shit. We're talking justice selection, voter ID laws, the general role of government in society stuff where they try to run with a Third Way banner. You can't win the moderate 30% of the non-Evangelical white vote by 25 pts. They will be forced, for the first time in history, to actually assemble post-racial political coalitions. And that's going to take more than a tagline. Non-white voters aren't as naive as white voters. Otherwise the GOP will lose. Forever. You can't reduce racism as long as stark political racial rifts exist. But you can't eliminate those rifts as long as one side realizes they don't need to appeal beyond their white base. That won't put the genie back in the bottle. It won't universally get rid of BS in rural Alabama or suburban Toledo or St. Louis. The attitudes will still be there. We will have vengeful spikes as you mention. But the attitudes will by and large be pre-Trump. But for the first time, we'll be able to meaningfully address them, within the limits of what politics can actually do to address them. I think we'll all be dealing with it for as long as we're alive. You more than my wife probably. And my wife more than lily white me. There is one interesting thing I've noticed being married to someone non-white in the Trump era when going into certain parts of the country: under certain very limited circumstances, there's actually an extra special level of scorn for me. Analogy: my wife is Real Madrid or the Yankees. She's always playing away games. It gets worse when she travels to Camp Nou or Fenway, ie the presence of the people who really don't like you. When we're together and we venture into Camp Nou or Fenway territory I'm not only Real Madrid or the Yankees. I'm Roger Clemens pitching for the Yankees at Fenway. Or I'm Figo starting in midfield for RM at Camp Nou. She deals with so many more things, but the rare cases where you wonder if the person saying something is completely off the rails have all come when she's messing with the kids, I'm isolated from them, and someone approaches me. Like going to the can at a restaurant in BFE southern Illinois.
It's not even the first round of the question that bothers me. It's the insistence of asking again that gets my goat. Because you can see the look on their faces that it's not adding up for them. My name is unusual, my accent is akin to a news anchor, and my features are nondescript (I've gotten Italian, Mexican, Chinese , Portuguese, Peruano, Brasileno, Serb etc etc). I get why people ask, but sometimes it turns into a "not racist but not kosher" moment. On the other hand, not looking Hispanic can prove useful with other Spanish speakers when they $hit talk. A few years ago in Alexandria a couple were talking about cutting in line at a retail store. I nonchalantly told them where the line started. Total silence.
My favorite story along that line is my son's friend who spent his junior year abroad studying in Beijing. It turns out that when white people are in Chinatown, the Chinese are quite fond of mocking them. A couple was doing that to him, talking about the stupid shirt that the gringo was wearing. He turned and responded to them in Mandarin. They were petrified.
I could have used a spy like that back in my high school days, when I washed dishes at a Chinese restaurant. I would walk by the grandmother, she would say something to the other old ladies, then they would burst out laughing. It happened every time. They're dead now. Serves them right.
lol ... I'm a white fluent Spanish speaker, and the stories I have. I first learned the language as Castilian while living in Spain, later modified by Mexican after living in San Diego for a few years, and later modified again by being in a relationship with a Puerto Rican. I actually get some negative reactions from some Hispanics because they first classify me as some uppity white Hispanic ... most guess the Caribbean. But I usually tell people that I'm American (even though I'm European), and everyone instantly becomes my best friend. In my experience, nothing makes Hispanic people more happy than meeting a gringo that learned good Spanish. They go through daily life being shit on so much by whites for not speaking English well enough that it's a welcome break to meet a gringo that genuinely respects their culture. Then if you're a gringo that starts talking soccer, it's over ... you're staying over for dinner ... might even get a blind date with the niece before it's over.
In a semi-related tale, Catalonians are happy to speak Spanish with Americans. They all can, of course. But if a Spaniard walks up to them and speaks Spanish, they pretend not to understand. Well at least the militant separatist types do, which when I was there seemed to include all the young males.
Oh dear God no ... I'm 37 so no parent in their right mind would ever ... Anyways, I have a one dance night per year quota which mostly rules me out of relationships with Latinas of any age.
Chileno that grew up in Kentucky, then spent the better part of the aughts in Central America (Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama) and Colombian/Puerto Rican roommates in Charleston SC. CentroAmericans were generally happy that I was fluent. But then you could see them shift mentally when a "Conche" "huevon" "carechimba" or a "-po" slipped out. It was a "awww $hit they taught him EVERYTHING" look.
JFC. Al shouldn't have stepped down because the governor is a complete idiot. He chose the LtGov. Well, how does that change succession in MN? It means the leader of the Senate would become governor if Dayton dies. The leader of the senate is a GOPer.