Sooner or later, every one of us is confronted with questions to which we are not expected to be able to answer. One of the toughest and most common is the infamous loaded question, “Have you stopped beating your wife?” which implies that you have indeed been beating your wife. Some people actually DO beat their wives. But what of those of us who don't? How do we answer that loaded assumption without agreeing with it? How do we NOT give an answer without appearing evasive or silently confirmatory?
It has occurred to me that the latest loaded assumption "you're a racist" is one of those unbeatable loaded propositions. What do I mean?
A white guy gets called a racist. How can he defend himself? Are his accusers going to take his word for it that he isn't? How about the word of his white friends? If he even mentions that there are minorities that can vouch for him, he's accused of employing tokenism, and then again, accused of racism for the "token". Despite what the minority individual says, they are testifying for a racist and are just there to be a distraction from his racism.
Or what if he realizes all of this is a no-win situation and just agrees that there is no way he can prove otherwise, should he just say he is a racist?
All the bases are covered! So, you DO beat your wife...
It has occurred to me that the latest loaded assumption "you're a racist" is one of those unbeatable loaded propositions. What do I mean?
A white guy gets called a racist. How can he defend himself? Are his accusers going to take his word for it that he isn't? How about the word of his white friends? If he even mentions that there are minorities that can vouch for him, he's accused of employing tokenism, and then again, accused of racism for the "token". Despite what the minority individual says, they are testifying for a racist and are just there to be a distraction from his racism.
Or what if he realizes all of this is a no-win situation and just agrees that there is no way he can prove otherwise, should he just say he is a racist?
All the bases are covered! So, you DO beat your wife...
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