Toxic White Masculinity and Donald Trump's Attacks on Black Athletes
by Chauncey DeVega
If Mike Judge writes a sequel to his great 2006 film "Idiocracy" (which now feels like a very prescient documentary and not a satire), he could easily cast president Donald Trump and sports promoter-manager LaVar Ball as the main characters. Both men are obnoxious, loud masters of self-promotion who play on the worst parts of American culture in order to make money. Trump is the champion of this debased culture; Ball is no more than a low-ranked challenger. Nevertheless, in many ways their public personas are more similar than different. Together, they are doppelgängers of crudeness. This fact is lost on Donald Trump, a person who lacks the capacity for critical self-reflection.
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Trump appears to view himself as a monarch who must be shown acts of loyalty and fealty at all times and by all people. In his mind, he is a Leviathan, the physical embodiment of the State, who must be treated accordingly.
Throughout his presidency Trump has repeatedly targeted black people for harassment when he deems their behavior "uppity" and "disrespectful." This is one more example of how the politics of white rage pay great political dividends in America. This fact was true at the time of the founding and it remains so in the age of Trump.
For many reasons, black American athletes are a special target for white rage. Professional athletes in football, baseball and basketball earn large sums of money. For sports fans -- especially those who are white and right-wing -- this is a source of admiration and idol worship, but also resentment and jealousy.
Professional athletes -- who are disproportionately black, especially in the NFL and the NBA -- are impressive physical specimens, in far better shape than the average fan. Black physicality and the black body have historically been objects of contempt, fear and disgust (as well as desire) for the white gaze.
Read More:http://www.chaunceydevega.com/2017/11/toxic-white-masculinity-and-donald.html
Great read from DeVega, he nails it. Read the rest.
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