Monday, July 04, 2022

Malcolm X would understand …

… Twitter reactions to racist meme posted by Bette Midler about Clarence Thomas - TheBlaze.

How dare a black man have views that differ from those of white liberals. 

1 comment:

  1. The meme is being seen by many as racist, when primarily it is a meme that shows how a wife influences her husband, or as one commenter put it, they are two sides of the same coin. I went to Paul Leigh's Twitter page, the artist, to see if I could find that he intended something otherwise when he posted it. He only responded to someone who said, "Perfect, as usual," but not to anyone who saw something racist in the work, or spun off in any personal reactionary tangent.

    We know that Ginni Thomas is a suspect or person of interest in trying to fraudulently overturn the presidential election. Whether she did or not, we all get it about her political alignment. And I wondered whether the creation of this meme was primarily a reaction to Roe being overturned, but he posted his creation one day before that Supreme Court decision was handed down. So, hmm, it could have been Leigh's reaction to other Supreme Court decisions, such as gun laws.

    If you click on my name, you will see that as I write, my photo is one with Mary, my life partner. The colors of our complexions are a mirror image of Ginni and Clarence’s. If someone were to photo shop a photo of her or me the way Paul Leigh did with the Thomas’, neither of us would think it racist. It’s like our family has noted, we are two peas in a pod. That’s how I read this meme, that Ginni and Clarence are two peas in a pod. Notice how Paul Leigh has them sharing an eye, how they see eye to eye.

    Okay, so, we clear the artist of any racism, but then must ask, did Bette Midler mean anything else by it? She posted the meme on July 3. Was she thinking anything racist, consciously or unconsciously? And if not, then who has the dirty mind here? If not Midler, if not Leigh, then those who blurt out “Racism” when a mixed-race couple is shown to be two peas in a pod.

    I need to recuse myself a little. Clarence Thomas and I share a large number of common friends, even though we have never met. It’s a great circle of many shades and mixes, many, and smart cookies too.

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