A Brief Dialogue About Racism and Donald Trump
From the Archives, by Lucas J. Mather
Oh you’re a professor in Los Angeles? [Assumption we are on the same side]. [Blah blah blah] …[Eventually] …Trump’s racist comments about Baltimore …
Wait, what was the comment? I don’t have a TV.
You know, a bunch of rats live there.
The professor shifted in his seat to get a better angle, sat poised, and asked how is that racist ?
Well, she said, everybody knows he was talking about blacks. A bunch of blacks live in Baltimore. It’s a black city predominantly.
[Ever notice the predominance of the word “predominantly” with some political people ?]
Did he say blacks are rats?, the professor queried.
No but, you can tell that’s what he thinks.
[The professor sat there for a long moment, and took a long pull from his artisan robot-made coffee].
You heard the word “rat” and you immediately thought of blacks, the professor finally said.
[Her eyes bugged out of her face like a Salvador Dali painting, her face contorted and scrunched like a trash compactor working its magic on recyclables. The face went back to normal and her eyes went Mafioso–you broke my heart, Frodo–].
[But the professor never shifted, didn’t alter his steady piercing gaze into her conflicted and confused soul, now accusing, now defending, now condemning herself].
She pulled it together and in a soft voice, finally said, no, he knows a bunch of blacks live there.
You know a bunch of blacks live there, the professor said.
Yes, everybody does. It’s common knowledge.
Isn’t it equally common knowledge that a bunch of rats live there?
He wasn’t talking about rats.
If he was talking about rats, what better way to do it than to use the word rat.
You know what I find interesting, you’re defending racism, she said.
This is what’s interesting, you hear “rat” and you don’t think of rats.
No.
You think of people created in the image of God.
I don’t believe in God.
You think of black people when *you* heard the word “rat.”
No. I–
And you *know* Baltimore is infested with rats, and you just admitted you know a bunch of poor black people live there in that horror, and *you don’t care.*
[She looked away].
[The professor gathered his things and #walkedaway].
Copyright Lucas J. Mather, 2019
All Rights Reserved
Originally posted to Facebook Thursday 1 August 2019 at 10:39 am
Dr. Lucas J. Mather is the producer and host of The Republican Professor Podcast, currently ranked last in the entire world for the category of Uninteresting Podcasts.
