basquebromance
Diamond Member
- Nov 26, 2015
- 109,396
- 27,005
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- Banned
- #1
excerpt from the article:
âWeâre all tired of being called racists,â a 74-year-old bespectacled white man named Richard Haines told me. âYou open your mouth, youâre a racist. My daughter is a liberal, and sheâs [using the word] all the time. We donât talk politics; we canâtâall the time she always accuses me of hate.â
Haines, who told me he had just returned to the United States from Thailand, where he had done missionary work for 15 years with impoverished children, said that he knew what real racism looked likeâthat his father was a âbigotâ who âdidnât like black people.â
âDonald is not racist, you know?â Haines said. âHe makes a statement, and they take the words out of context and try to twist everything so that heâs a racist. And I think itâs gonna backfire.â
Before the rally began, I sat down on the floor of the arena with two womenâRoseanna, 50, and Amy, 48âwho felt similarly. (Neither woman was comfortable providing her last name for this story.) Roseanna, who wore a red T-shirt, white shorts, and a MAGA hat adorned with multiple buttons, including one featuring the likeness of Hillary Clinton behind bars, had driven an hour and a half from Lexington, Kentucky. She defended Trumpâs statements about Baltimore. âHe didnât say nothing about the color of somebodyâs skin,â Roseanna said, yet it seemed like everyone was âwishing him toward âHeâs a bigot.â
âIâm sick to death of it. I have 13 grandchildrenâ13,â she continued. âFour of them are biracial, black and white; another two of them are black and white; and another two of them are Singapore and white. You think Iâm a racist? I go and I give them kids kisses like nobodyâs business.â
Robert Morris, a 72-year-old man who was fixing his van outside the arena before the rally started, had predicted as much to me. âWeâre not that kind. They got a little carried away there,â he said of the Greenville crowd. Morris, too, said he was tired of being called a racist. Just yesterday, he said, heâd given a stranger $20 to help his foster child, who was black. And he sends money as often as he can to a school charity in the Dominican Republic. So if anybody started a chant like that, Morris said, âIâll tell them, âShut it down. Youâre acting like them. Weâre not them.â The Democratsâthey call names, they accuse, theyâre always slandering, they always have a negative.â
âSend her back?â No, he said, that wouldnât happen again, because âweâre positive.â He chuckled a bit. âBut Iâd buy her a ticket so she can go on a cruise back.â Omar was, he said, âa very ungrateful person.â
âWeâre All Tired of Being Called Racistsâ
âWeâre all tired of being called racists,â a 74-year-old bespectacled white man named Richard Haines told me. âYou open your mouth, youâre a racist. My daughter is a liberal, and sheâs [using the word] all the time. We donât talk politics; we canâtâall the time she always accuses me of hate.â
Haines, who told me he had just returned to the United States from Thailand, where he had done missionary work for 15 years with impoverished children, said that he knew what real racism looked likeâthat his father was a âbigotâ who âdidnât like black people.â
âDonald is not racist, you know?â Haines said. âHe makes a statement, and they take the words out of context and try to twist everything so that heâs a racist. And I think itâs gonna backfire.â
Before the rally began, I sat down on the floor of the arena with two womenâRoseanna, 50, and Amy, 48âwho felt similarly. (Neither woman was comfortable providing her last name for this story.) Roseanna, who wore a red T-shirt, white shorts, and a MAGA hat adorned with multiple buttons, including one featuring the likeness of Hillary Clinton behind bars, had driven an hour and a half from Lexington, Kentucky. She defended Trumpâs statements about Baltimore. âHe didnât say nothing about the color of somebodyâs skin,â Roseanna said, yet it seemed like everyone was âwishing him toward âHeâs a bigot.â
âIâm sick to death of it. I have 13 grandchildrenâ13,â she continued. âFour of them are biracial, black and white; another two of them are black and white; and another two of them are Singapore and white. You think Iâm a racist? I go and I give them kids kisses like nobodyâs business.â
Robert Morris, a 72-year-old man who was fixing his van outside the arena before the rally started, had predicted as much to me. âWeâre not that kind. They got a little carried away there,â he said of the Greenville crowd. Morris, too, said he was tired of being called a racist. Just yesterday, he said, heâd given a stranger $20 to help his foster child, who was black. And he sends money as often as he can to a school charity in the Dominican Republic. So if anybody started a chant like that, Morris said, âIâll tell them, âShut it down. Youâre acting like them. Weâre not them.â The Democratsâthey call names, they accuse, theyâre always slandering, they always have a negative.â
âSend her back?â No, he said, that wouldnât happen again, because âweâre positive.â He chuckled a bit. âBut Iâd buy her a ticket so she can go on a cruise back.â Omar was, he said, âa very ungrateful person.â
âWeâre All Tired of Being Called Racistsâ