By David Futrelle
Early in the Trump administration, amateur and professional White House watchers noticed something rather striking about the assorted photo ops that the new President and his handlers liked to stage for the press: they all seemed to feature gaggles of smug white dudes, with the occasional white woman added to the mix to provide a little bit of gender if not racial diversity.
While some considered this a public relations blunder, probably because the staff at the White House was so amateur it didn’t even realize how off-putting the optics of these all-white photo ops were to most Americans, others wondered if the Trumpies were doing it on purpose — offering a not-so-subtle wink to Trump’s racist fans, an assurance that, yes, white dudes were once again firmly in the saddle in the White House.
I think it’s pretty clear the cynics were right here. If you have any doubt, look at this official White House video of the recent Congressional Picnic held on the South Lawn of the White House. It’s possibly the whitest thing I’ve ever seen.
Seriously, I’ve watched this video five times and I’ve only spotted two people of color amidst the vast sea of white people on the South Lawn — a secret service agent and what appears to be a staffer involved in setting up the event.
And guess what? Trump’s most racist fans are receiving the message being sent here loud and clear. In a blog post yesterday (archived here), pickup artist turned white supremacist propagandist James “Heartiste” Weidmann hailed what he called “Trump’s Love Letter To Heritage America,” Heartiste’s pet term for what he sees as the golden age before the civil rights movement and the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965.
After posting the video above, Weidmann notes that the sheer overwhelming whiteness of the video is clearly “intentional” on Trump’s part.
Trump knows what he’s doing, and he knows the sides in this battle for the soul of America. His promos, visuals, and speeches are an extended play love letter to Heritage America. To White America, before it became a Dirt World Depot. If you doubt Trump’s loyalty to the cause, dispel your doubt. His heart is in it. He fights for you.
Weidmann’s fans were even more enthusiastic in their praise.
“Not a single bulldyke, Skype or nog in sight,” wrote someone called LeShitlourde, using two favorite alt-right slurs for Jews and blacks. “My America right there. Thanks DJT.”
“[T]his is not just a love letter,” added plumpjack, “it’s a declaration of WAR.”
Hackett To Bits offered his own love letter to white “civilization.”
Message to the mud peoples of the world and their enablers: this is what ordered, civilized existence looks like, you should eat your hearts out.
Not everyone was so enthusiastic about the all-white optics. While conceding that (at least to a racist like him), “the video is beautiful. A breath of fresh air after 8 years of thug entertainers and muzzie dinners at the white house,” Alea Iacta Est worried that mere videos won’t be enough to stop
the primary trend. I’m doing my best. Voting and making white babeez, but my neighborhood pool is no fun any more. Its always being closed because noglets barf in it, and I look like the foreigner now. I don’t want white picnics on the south lawn. I want my country back.
Too bad for you, then, that “your country” is no more than a racist fantasy. America has never been as white as that picnic on the White House lawn.
Which brings us to the giant irony to Trump’s “love letter to White America” — the jazz music on the soundtrack. While the band featured in the video looks to be all or almost all-white, jazz music is, obviously, anything but. Originating in black America, jazz is an amalgam of African traditions and American innovation, and the most celebrated and influential Jazz musicians have of course almost always been black.
While the anodyne jazz featured on the White House video soundtrack may give racists warm fuzzies, here’s some jazz and jazz funk that will more likely give them heart attacks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWD6dYcD9DM
To help you remain tranquil in the face of certain Trump, smooth jazz will be deployed in 3… 2… 1…
Ack! No! No Kenny G!
Of course, if you try P-Funk might take control as to bring you this special show…
Awesome music!
I am reminded of Gandhi’s (possibly apocryphal) response when asked what he thought of “western civilization”:
This horror cannot end soon enough.
http://i.imgur.com/nSZZo.gif
Aw, that looks very sweet, doesn’t it? Very creatively edited.
Too bad that halcyon slice of life is as much of a fever dream as the nonsensical mutterings of racist assholes.
This new DLC for Bioshock Infinite is rubbish!
@Laugher at Bigots, Low-T Inbetweener Weener
We’re gonna make it friend, we’ll make it after all.
Yeah. Everything this administration has done has been designed to get the nazis out of the woodwork and into the open.
I think it would be best to assume, always, that they’re doing the worst. Always.
I wish we lived in a world where people were incapable of causing harm to other humans, or through inaction allowing humans to be harmed.
…”Skype”? How the hell is THAT a slur for Jewish peeps? Are they trying to imply that they’re slow, clunky, and go catatonic if you keep them around for too long?
@Moggie
Priceless.
I’m laughing at the use of Jazz at their all white picnic!??
There’s a popular theme on Tumblr that there is no such thing as “White” culture because there’s no such thing as Whiteness. There’s Irish, Italian, Scottish, German, and French culture, but none called “White”. The going theory is that’s why “White” people appropriate other people’s cultural traditions, music, and food, while disparaging the people who invent it.
“Whiteness” will denigrate Irish people as drunkards, but on St Patrick’s Day, they all wearing green and throwing up in the street. “Whiteness” talks shit about Mexicans all day, every day, but come Cinco de Mayo, they all wanna wear sombreros, and eat authentic Mexican food at Taco Bell, while planning their next trip to Cancun. They hate on Black people all year round, but when the party gets started they start dropping it like its hot to the latest R&B group.
I do know there are plenty of White people, but not all of them practice “Whiteness”.
So I’m not the most qualified
For a dissertation here
For while I’m a few things these folks don’t like
Like AFAB and genderqueer
I’m ’bout as pasty as they get
And the same goes for my family
And it also applies for gals and guys
In every community
That I’ve lived in in my short life
(Unless my parents are holdin’ back)
But I know a little about music, and
Dave, please don’t hold me back
From when ragtime was rollin’ round
To when the swing was finally found
To the advent of honkin’ rock and roll
That’s out to steal your mortal soul–
Well, that’s all music that black men made and white men stole.
And if you do some digging
You’ll surely find
Plenty of people ravin’
’bout the jammin’ kind
But later in the cycles
People started not to mind
And nowadays
Who whinges about ragtime?
Excuses were common in the eras they were born
But one thing linked it up, and it’s the color kids were born
The music black people made was so often demonized
Until white men picked it up and gave the masses glazin’ eyes
An addendum to this bit that really shouldn’t be last
As I’ve mentioned, I’m Kentuckian, and we’re known for bluegrass
And–yep–we’ve got black people to thank for that, and it strikes a chord
Our banjo evolved from somethin’ that someone made from a gourd (if I ain’t mistaken!)
Nowadays, as we all know, it’s rap that takes the shit
But nowadays, it’s bleedin’ out–white men are gettin’ hits
And just imagine, just over a hundred years behind
Scott Joplin’s works were hardly played for the ice-cream-eatin’ kind!
(And if anything I say ain’t true,
feel free to fact-check me–thank you!)
Sounds more plausible as to his actual meaning…
@lkeke35,
Yeah, surely there was something out of John Philip Sousa’s catalogue that could’ve been used for this, or maybe from Stephen Foster’s catalogue, if they really wanted some rousing music written by a white guy. But then, preserving the actual good stuff made by dead white men (as opposed to trashing everything else that they claim wasn’t made by ‘white people’) was never their priority, was it?
Then again, I’m loathe to associate either of these musical guys with the NeoNazis here, given they likely wouldn’t like those guys if they were still alive. At least Foster might not have, since he seemed to have some progressive views on race, it seems. Not sure about Sousa. And I might not want to know either, since I like his music. :/
ETA: YESSSSSS!!!!!! Got my Gravatar to work!!!!!!! *\o/* Jetpack/Cyborg Vixen for the win!!!!!
@Redsilkphoenix, re: Stephen Foster
I actually saw The Stephen Foster Story (I think?) a few years ago. It’s a show in its own outdoor theater here in Kentucky (he didn’t live here too long, but he wrote My Old Kentucky Home) about his life and times. It was quite a ride, though it did have, at one point, a depiction of a “minstrel show”, as they were. I don’t believe anyone in the cast was wearing the dreaded blackface, though…though at the same time, I was quite some ways away from the stage. (It was also portrayed as they were–quite sleazy propositions.)
Me and my little sibs (thanks to our grandparents) got to see that and the house he and his family occupied. We also stayed the night nearby, and wherever we were, it had a neat continental breakfast. Grandma got on me for having way too much rice.
If I recall correctly, it’s their attempt to give social media reticent to host racism a Morton’s fork: either host our abhorrent opinions, or censor us and reduce your brand profile. It also helps that it’s not a well-known slur, so censorship software that relies on key-words passes over noxious emissions that do this.
@Laugher at Bigots
Well, that’s fucking stupid. Anyone without context who sees that is gonna be confused. I mean, Skype is shit (I say that with it being active on my PC), but I don’t think peeps would use the same words to derogate that as these fucks would to derogate Jewish peeps.
@Troubelle,
That’s still playing? I recall seeing The Stephen Foster Story years ago (as in, a few decades ago now D: ), and finding it a good story, though I understand that it took more than a few…liberties with his life’s story. Possibly the acting company did more than a few updates to keep up with current political realities of these times, I don’t know.
The acting company would’ve had to acknowledge the minstrel stuff Foster did somehow, since he did write songs for those so he could eat. Sounds like they did (somewhat) acknowledge that those old shows really weren’t good for society as a whole, at least. Not going to comment more on the content until I get a chance to see it again. (Sometime in the distant future at this point, given my current financial realities. 🙁 )
Glad you had fun in Kentucky! Hopefully you can make another visit sometime in the future.
ETA: Francesca posted a link for me a few threads ago about the NN using common words like Skype for Jews in an attempt to evade banning for using racist language. If you give me a few minutes, I can relocate that link and post it again for you.
@Redsilkphoenix
As mentioned in my song that I posted in this thread earlier and in previous posts, I live in Kentucky–the particular part of Kentucky that thing was in was just a few hours away. (Non-USAian Mammotheers: reminder that America is a fucking big country.)
I don’t remember the bit of having to do it so he could eat, but it makes perfect sense to me. Sort of like the racist parallel to modern artists having to do very…niche fetish art to make a buck, though the latter is probably far more pleasant.
ETA: Yes, I would quite like that link. Thank you.
@Troubelle,
Missed the edit window, but here’s the link Francesca provided about that:
https://qz.com/798305/alt-right-trolls-are-using-googles-yahoos-skittles-and-skypes-as-code-words-for-racial-slurs-on-twitter/
ETA: And I just saw you response about Kentucky. Sorry, not sure why I forgot you lived there already. My bad. 🙁
@Redsilkphoenix
Thanks for the link–and it’s quite alright. There’s a lot of people here from many different places, and it’s understandable that the info can blank.
I was just hoping someone read the song…
ETA:
Also, “yahoos” is oft in use for “idiots” (with some anti-rural sentiment, if memory serves) and “Googles” just reminds me of the Webkinz. I used to have Webkinz. Named them all after video game characters. My Googles was named Lucy Fleetfoot, from Pokemon Trozei.
I know it’s been explained already, but my first thought when I read it was “This is ‘alt-right’ merkins appropriating Cockney rhyming slang. It doesn’t rhyme and it doesn’t follow the system, so it’s completely in line with their competence.”
But it wasn’t even that clever.
Message to the white supremacists of the world and their cheerleaders: This is what complete bullshit looks like. Y’all got NOTHING. Donnie’s not fighting for anything, he’s flailing and failing, and you just haven’t looked hard enough to see it yet. You should go fuck yourselves with a saguaro.
@Bina,
I’ll just add another dot point to your memo, if I may 😀
Guys, your hero Trump is the kind of guy who hangs fake Time magazine covers of himself in his own clubs. He’s the definition of pathetic and then some.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/time-magazine-with-donald-trump-on-the-cover-hanging-in-his-golf-clubs-is-fake-20170627-gwzyei.html
@Troubelle
We know. In fact, in terms of land mass (not population, obv), it’s about the same size as Australia 😛
I think it’s supremely fucking telling that they’re crowing about how this is what ‘civilization’ looks like and this is what ‘civilized’ people do, and the rest of us surely must simply not know.
Like, I had a picnic for Beltane, ya wankers (and I even invited a latina friend of mine). I know what a picnic is. I’ve even ridden a carousel (both of horses and cocks, bow chika wow wow). These things aren’t connected to race, and the idea they’re celebrating this solely because only white people (who are probably just as racist as they are) are doing it is baffling, to say the least.
Having a white people only picnic and riding a little white people only carousel does not “civilization” or “civilized people” make.
This idea that white people going out and about and doing simple fucking things, thus they are the pinnacle of “civilization” is fucking silly. It’s a damn participation trophy is what it is.