The Republicans Are Trying To Kill Me

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“Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope,” was the response of Rep. Lynn Jenkins to an audience member’s question of what is needed to “[develope] a coherent Republican policy blueprint”

I’m certain she saw nothing wrong with the phrase “great white hope” – it’s not as though she purposely said something sure to offend – she’s probably heard it used here and there throughout her lifetime and figured it was a perfectly acceptable thing to say. Likely in her mind a “great white hope” simply means “a likely contender”.

I suspect that the people she heard using the phrase knew what it meant and used it purposely and correctly and racistly, and that when the phrase was spoken, others who were listening nodded in hearty agreement, and as she watched this contextual defining of a term she wasn’t familiar with, she concluded it’s meaning was simply “someone who can win”; perhaps she thought it was the name of a long-ago champion race horse, or maybe some sort of reference to Moby Dick. All of that is plausible and even understandable.

So maybe she never bothered to ask what the color white had to do with anything great or hopeful, I can’t really fault her for that. I only know what it means because I enjoy learning and somewhere along the line, I couldn’t tell you exactly where, I picked up what “great white hope” really means, and filed it away. I don’t know the details, even now, I just finished reading the source article and I couldn’t tell you the names of the boxers involved back then- but I do know that “a great white hope”, way-back-when was referring to the desire to find a White man who would triumph over a Black man. I’m not black, or a boxer, or a phrase-origin fetishist, and I haven’t attended any racial sensitivity training seminars; I just read a lot of things, and watch documentaries, listen to people when they tell me about things, and ask them to explain stuff that I don’t understand. And yep, sometimes I let the context define the terms for me, it’s certainly a valid method of learning when no other method presents itself.

Well, since my bleeding heart is predisposed to understanding, fairness and forgiveness, I was nonplussed when a spokeswoman for Jenkins said:

“There may be some misunderstanding there when she talked about the great white hope,” Geiger said. “What she meant by it is they have a bright future. They’re bright lights within the party.”

See. It’s OUR fault for having the nerve to know what “great white hope” REALLY means. We are big meanies because we shoulda known she didn’t mean it THAT WAY. (they never mean it that way)

But ummmm…. there is something missing…. where is the part where she (and not her spokeswoman) says, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware of the origins and connotations of the phrase “great white hope” – I did not know that it referred to the search for a white boxer able to beat a black boxer. Having now learned the true meaning, I understand why people took offense, and had I known it’s meaning and heard someone else use it in the way I did, I would have been offended as well. I sincerely apologize.

No, instead, we get the “I’m sorry you didn’t appreciate my abuse, should I hit you harder this time?” method of apology. The spokeswoman expounds on the unfortunate confusion.

“There’s no doubt the Republican Party has gone through some dark and challenging times in recent years, but thankfully bright young leaders have stepped up to lead the party into the future and she hopes to be a part of it. That was the intent of her comments — nothing more and nothing less. Congresswoman Jenkins apologizes for her choice of words.”

I’m never one to not notice a secret code when there isn’t one not there to notice, (!) but damn, I can almost imagine some morally inferior statement-issuer giggling at the brilliance of it — “hehehe, they’ll never know that I was talking about Obama when I said times are dark hehehe” – or maybe they were crazy like a race-baiting fox and used the word just to piss off those of us who are lucky enough to not be total douchebags. “hehehe I hope they accuse me of meaning Obama when I wrote ‘dark’ so I can tell ‘em they are obsessed with race heheheh”….. Oh those wingnuts sure are wiley!

But really, we all know she meant it, even if she didn’t know she meant what she meant.

Everyone** knows that this faction is just the same as they were a hundred years ago (no surprise considering the conservative ideology of: do not progress, stagnate instead.) when they were outraged that a Black man had triumphed over a White man in the boxing ring. They are outraged that any Black man has ever ever ever ever triumphed over a White man. They are outraged that a Black man was Better, and that a Black man was the winner.

Outraged!

How could they not be outraged when in their heart of hearts they truly believe that White trumps Black, always and forever because the Bible and their grandpas said so. To them, White Will Win is simply the natural order of things, and if White doesn’t Win, if a Black man* somehow does triumph over a White man, it has got to be a fluke, or a lie, or a trick, and there is nothing you can say that will convince them otherwise. In fact, if you say you believe was a fair fight and a well earned victory, they will assume that you are a victim of the trick or the lie and that you just aren’t paying attention and you haven’t figured it out yet. WAKE UP!!! they will shout with their keyboards, loud enough that you think you hear the spittle hitting their screens.

Believe it when they say “It’s not about race!” because to them, it’s NOT RACIST to doubt a black man’s ability or ethics.

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*also wise latinas

**I’m trying to master the conservative tack of wording all my assertions in the “everybody already knows” format. (Everybody already knows Obama is the Anti-christ, but did you know he wants to kill your granny?)

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