09.30.06
Trent Lott and racist thinking
This is such a peculiar remark by Trent Lott:
“It’s hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what’s wrong with these people,” he said. “Why do they kill people of other religions because of religion? Why do they hate the Israeli’s and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me.”
I couldn’t get it out of my head. He’s pretty clearly saying that, with no racial differences, why the hatred? You just have hatred for other races, right?
Obviously, he’s not thinking of places like Northern Ireland, where Catholics and Protestants look very much alike. Or, indeed, Israel and Palestine. Or, to bring it a little closer to Lott, heterosexuals and homosexuals look the same, so why should a heterosexual like Lott hate homosexuals?
But race is so much the structure of his thinking, that his first reaction is, “Why the trouble? You are all the same race.”
A very strange man.
