She was upset that black people who use broken English and bad grammar are seen as uneducated and less intelligent than people who speak proper English. The professor claimed that there was no “inherent ‘standard’ of English,” and that language is constantly changing, so, “These two facts make it very difficult to justify placing people in hierarchies or restricting opportunities and privileges because of the way people communicate in particular versions of English.”42 It appears she is trying to justify Ebonics, and is upset that the “ghetto accent” we’re all familiar with is looked down upon.
The University of Southern California’s mascot is a white horse named Traveler that is trotted out during Trojans football games with a jockey dressed as an ancient Trojan warrior riding him, but since Confederate General Robert E. Lee also had a horse named Traveler, the USC Trojans mascot came under fire by the Black Student Assembly whose co-director considered it a symbol of white supremacy.43
White marble statues, like the ones commonly associated with ancient Greece, are “white supremacist” too, according to a University of Iowa professor. “The equation of white marble with beauty is not an inherent truth of the universe; it’s a dangerous construct that continues to influence white supremacist ideas today,” she said.44 One Stanford University professor even thinks that Dungeons and Dragons perpetuates racism and white privilege because characters are divided by their species, such as elves and dwarves.45
Even every kid’s favorite lunch, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, have been labeled racist by a school principal in Portland. “What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?” she asked, expressing concern that peanut butter and jelly is considered a quintessential American food.46 Peanut butter and jelly isn’t the only food that’s been labeled “divisive” or racist.
Milk is now a symbol of white privilege and white supremacy to liberals. As you know, milk is promoted as a primary staple of a healthy diet, but apparently a large number of black people are lactose intolerant, and so milk being promoted as a “standard” food is considered a symbol of the “white normativity” perpetuated in America.47
PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calls milk, “a thinly-veiled allegory for racial purity” and “the perfect drink for supremacists everywhere.”48 Trolls on 4Chan, an online forum known for its creative pranks and hoaxes, decided to run with this idea and began spreading the “news” that white supremacists had indeed adopted milk as their new symbol, prompting some outlets to publish stories with headlines like “Milk, a symbol of neo-Nazi hate,”49 and “Milk is the new, creamy symbol of white racial purity in Donald Trump’s America.”50
Since one of President Trump’s nonverbal quirks is his frequent use of the “okay” hand sign, many Trump supporters have adopted the gesture to show support for the president and his agenda. But some jokers on 4Chan thought it would be funny to troll anti-Trump fanatics by spreading a hoax that the hand sign represented “white power.” They created diagrams claiming the middle finger, ring finger and pinky symbolized the “W” while the wrist along with the circle that the index finger and the thumb formed was the “P.”
Sadly, not only did liberals on social media fall for the hoax, but some journalists did as well. After a blogger named Cassandra Fairbanks got a temporary press pass to the White House briefing room, she posted a photo online of herself standing at the podium while giving the “okay” hand sign. Several liberal outlets including Fusion TV, a social justice warrior cable channel aimed at Millennials, published articles claiming she flashed a “white power” hand sign in the press room! She sued for defamation.51
A few months later when a photo of the current White House interns was published, one of the interns could be seen making the same hand sign, so The Washington Examiner and other outlets published stories identifying him by name, claiming that he too flashed a white power hand sign.52
Instagram removed a selfie of a young woman showing her wearing a MAGA hat while giving the “okay” hand sign, claiming it violated their terms of service after people flagged it for including the “white supremacist” hand sign.53 Apparently none of the morons noticed the woman in the picture was Asian!
After Kanye West posted a selfie of himself wearing a Make America Great Again hat alongside a couple of his friends, one of them (Lyor Cohen who is the head of YouTube Music) was making the “okay” hand sign and got smeared in the press as well, so YouTube had to issue a statement that the gesture was meant to represent a company he founded called 300 Entertainment.54
When Donald Trump revealed his “Make America Great Again” slogan, that too was labeled racist. The strange rationale for this accusation was that his supporters supposedly thought America was great during the 1800s when there was slavery, and want to return to that era. On the campaign trail for Hillary in 2016, Bill Clinton actually said it was a racist dog whistle,55 forgetting that he himself had used the same exact “Make America Great Again” line in one of his speeches during his campaign in the 1990s, but of course that didn’t matter.56
And during the entire eight years of the Obama administration, all of his critics were “racists” who didn’t disagree with his policies or oppose his political agendas because they’re members of the Republican political party. No. They were just “racists.” That’s the only reason Republicans opposed Obama, liberals say. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews thinks that people who are against raising the minimum wage are “racists.”57 Other cable news hosts have said the same thing.58
The viral video content farm “NowThis” produced a segment titled, “The word ‘marijuana’ is rooted in racism — here’s why you should say ‘cannabis’ instead,” which consisted of some Mexican guy begging people to stop using the word marijuana, “because it’s racist as fuck.”59 It seemed like a parody, but he was serious, and even admitted “the word isn’t inherently racist, but it was used by American prohibitionists to exploit racism and xenophobia, so by using the ‘M word,’ you’re ignoring a long history of oppression against Mexican immigrants and African Americans.”60
The Guardian covered this made-up controversy and reported that because the word “marijuana” comes from Mexico, it evokes thoughts of Mexicans, and those who supported making it illegal painted pot as a drug for “Negros and Hispanics.” The writer said, “Today ‘cannabis’ and ‘marijuana’ are terms used more or less interchangeably in the industry, but a vocal contingent prefers the less historically fraught ‘cannabis.’ At a time of intense interest in past injustices, some say ‘marijuana’ is a racist word that should fall out of use.”61
Even social justice warrior Laci Greene commented that, “a big part of why some social justice stuff online has gone off the rails is the click economy. There’s a demand to be constantly producing content. Once they’ve covered real problems, some outlets pivot to trivial stuff, like whether saying ‘marijuana’ makes you racist.”62
The Huffington Post published a story titled “Becoming A Racist: The Unfortunate Side Effect Of Serving Your Country?” and blamed serving overseas in the U.S. military for causing white veterans to become racist because after fighting in the Iraq/Afghan war many soldiers, “return with a new-found hatred for those different from them, especially after their mission is one of liberation from those who kill and persecute anyone of different faiths/beliefs.”63