Richard Cohen airs his hurt fee-fees: 'The word racist is truly hurtful'

[babylonsister]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/12/1255116/-Richard-Cohen-airs-his-hurt-fee-fees-The-word-racist-is-truly-hurtful?detail=facebook

Tue Nov 12, 2013 at 01:24 PM PST
Richard Cohen airs his hurt fee-fees: 'The word racist is truly hurtful'

by Laura ClawsonFollow


Richard Cohen is hurt, because mean hurtful people said mean hurtful things about him. Like how his suggestion that it is a "conventional view" to have to "suppress a gag reflex" at the sight of an interracial family is perhaps, read in the context of his larger body of work about how it's reasonable to be terrified of black people, evidence of racism. How dare you call Richard Cohen racist!

"The word racist is truly hurtful," he told The Huffington Post on Tuesday. "It's not who I am. It's not who I ever was. It's just not fair. It's just not right."

Well, there you go. Richard Cohen doesn't think of himself as racist, so no matter that he wrote something that, when you break it down logically, phrase by phrase, indicates racism, it's unfair to call him a racist. Richard Cohen is a Very Serious Person, so therefore he feels entitled to have his preferences, not his words, dictate how he is described by others.

To fully understand how he is not a racist, Richard Cohen wants you to read his whole column and consider the context of the statement that "People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children." Thing is, we've read the whole column and the context doesn't actually exonerate him. Not even a little. For one thing, gagging at interracial couples and biracial children is, in 2013, a very unconventional view. For another thing, the column as a whole doesn't make much sense. And let's look at his unintentionally revealing word choice: "conventional." His defense is that he was describing the mindset of racists, not his own mindset. So why call it conventional, rather than any of dozens of words that would have indicated that these are in fact unconventionally racist views?

But the problem isn't just that Cohen is a racist hack without the insight to realize those things about himself, it's about an institutional failure at the Washington Post, which pays him to write this stuff:

Cohen said that no editors objected to the phrasing the first time around. "Nobody, not a single one of my editors—and believe me, they're super sensitive to this sort of stuff—said, 'Wait a minute.' They all knew what I meant because of the context of the column. I was talking about tea party extremism. And it's clear."

The notion that Cohen's editors are "super sensitive to this stuff" raises the awful prospect of what gems have been edited out of his columns before we, the general public, could read them, yet obviously they are not actually all that sensitive. In fact, one might almost think that their sensitivity has been dulled by years of editing exactly this kind of stuff. But the Washington Post is the problem here, because without the platform it gives him, Richard Cohen is just an individual racist.

As far as Cohen's hurt fee-fees? Fuck you, Richard, for believing that your hurt feelings are somehow more valid or important than the couples, the children, the families, you've just described as gag-worthy. Or more valid than the "young black males" you've repeatedly portrayed as terrifying. If as many people are saying one is racist as are saying you, Richard Cohen, are racist, that's cause for serious self-examination, not wounded attacks on the unfairness of it all.

[spanone]

1. if you're explainin' you're losin'

[Blue_Tires]

14. +1000

[Mass]

2. Not sure his editors are that sensitive, given the number of objectionable things Cohen said in the

past as Mother Jones reminds us

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/11/richard-cohen-just-the-worst

[babylonsister]

3. They're not; people have been railing against

certain writers at the WaPo for years, but they just don't care.

[Scootaloo]

4. Rich white hacks who have decided they are the gate's guardians

"Well, huff, puff, if it's fine with me, huff, it's fine with everyone, puff, puff, huff!"

[rurallib]

7. Thanks - thought he had done this crap before

[Scuba]

5. No, asshole, it's racism that's hurtful.

[gollygee]

6. So the word "racist" is hurtful but racist words should be ignored?

Why does he have a job? Wasn't he Zimmerman's biggest supporter? I think he's written a lot of lousy things.

[etherealtruth]

8. I think that's the gist of it

[AverageJoe90]

9. Amen! thanks babylonsister.

And to Cohen: STFU, man. You fucked up.

Is the presence of interracial families in your life truly such a threat that you feel the absolute urge to say stuff like "People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children."? Seriously?

And if this is so, you have some very serious issues to work out, Ricky boy. Even in 1963 these views weren't exactly conventional(outside of the more conservative areas of the South, that is.), and they sure as hell aren't now. People who espouse these kinds of views are rightly excoriated & called out for their idiocy, hatefulness, etc.

Damn, man. I might have given you the benefit of the doubt but unless you offer a clarification and/or sincere apology, you're not getting that from me.

[n2doc]

10. Fucker should be hounded whenever he is in public

Hounded. relentlessly. Just like any other overtly racist bastard who is in a position to influence things.

[PCIntern]

11. His editors are about as sensitive as a

toilet seat.

Ridiculous. He wrote the column In about ten minutes, emailed it, and went out to drink, play golf, or get laid. That's how his stuff always reads...

[NuclearDem]

12. Fuck you, Rick Cohen. You ruined this too? Stop ruining--

[MNBrewer]

13. Mr. Plinkett!!

[nomorenomore08]

15. If this guy is a Very Serious Person then we're all in deep, deep shit... n/t

[MissMillie]

18. +1 (n/t)

.

[The Second Stone]

16. I've read it a few times and it is worse with each reading

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/richard-cohen-christies-tea-party-problem/2013/11/11/a1ffaa9c-4b05-11e3-ac54-aa84301ced81_story.html?hpid=z2

It is apparent that this is not a quickly dashed out sentence, but the central point of the column that RC thinks it is okay for this kind of conventional thought. Geez this is repulsive. In context makes it even worse.

[phantom power]

17. If one doesn't want to be corrected in public, one shouldn't say stupid things in public.