The question in this headline doesn’t refer to all white-skinned people — just white-skinned Americans. Especially themen.
When Donald Trump repeatedly characterizes black crowds as “rioters” and “thugs,” he’s being racist. Just a tiny, tiny percentage of black Americans could fairly be called “thugs”— about the same as white Americans. The racist generalization isn’t true — it is a racist lie.
Same when Trump describes undocumented Mexicans as “drug dealers, criminals, rapists” (while allowing that “some, I assume, are good people,”— but only “some”). This is racist because his ridiculous and vile characterization is totally untrue — another racist lie. Most undocumented immigrants are good people — so good, in fact, they have a lower crime rate than their American counterparts.
But when it comes to white Americans, some unflattering generalizations are true. Polling tells us that one in three white women are pretty unshakable Trump supporters, as are about half of America’s white men.
I look at this from the perspective of a guy who runs a guest house in Canada just north of the U.S. border. If the borders were open now and I got an online reservation from a white American couple, there is a fifty/fifty chance that one of them would be a Trumper. That means a fifty percent chance I would be personally engaging with someone who:
- does not value honesty and thinks habitual lying is acceptable
- thinks all my house rules designed to keep everyone safe from exposure to COVID are total nonsense based on a hoax
In my life I do not trust people who think it’s “no big deal” for someone to lie whenever its convenient. I am wary of people like that. I am also wary of people who disrespect science-based COVID hygeine — especially since I have to come in contact with them when they arrive. Yet — if I get a guest reservation from a white skinned American couple, there is a fifty percent chance I get both these undesirable traits. (Our reservation system provides a profile photo of the guest, and usually the skin colour is unambiguous.)
There is no public opinion polling that leads me to believe there is a fifty per cent chance an asian-American or a black American is a Trumpist, so I have no reason to start worrying they are someone who thinks dishonesty is okay is hostile to COVID precautions. There is and there is certainly no reason to think new guests from Korea or Singapore or elsewhere in Canada are likely to come with Trumpy baggage.
The only block of people in the world who have a fifty per cent chance of having these moral defects are white Americans. This isn’t a racist lie — it is based on reliable polling. Fifty percent is certainly not one huindred percent. Fifty per cent clearly does not apply to all white Americans, but the percentage is so high that that it makes me wary at the prospect of a white American stranger showing up on my doorstep.
When I meet a white-skinned American stranger, I have to wonder “Is he/she a Trumpist nutcase… are they going to be honest with me or lie when convenieht… are they going to be defiantly careless about COVID” If the white stranger male, there is a fifty oercent chance the answer to these concerns is “yes,”— so, until I find out, I’m wary.
… and that brings me back the question posed in the headline: Is it racist to be wary of white-skinned Americans? Please answer in quiz or comments or both.
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(Full disclosure: my white-assed Scots ancestors arrived in what is now America about 280 years ago. My Tennessee granny eloped to Canada before WWI; my father chose Canadian citizenship when he came of age (no dial-citizens back then); and I have been Canadian (and white skinned) from birth.)