Tagg, You're Still It

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Tagg Romney wanting to "take a swing" at President Obama after his dad's debate loss Tuesday night:

Yes because a good whippin' would teach that Obama boy to mind his place. 

It's worth trying to imagine any black man associated with a credible black candidate for the presidency, joking about beating down the incumbent president of the United States. Racism isn't just in what you do and don't say, but in the terrain you walk. It is baked in the cake -- a fact which is hard to understand when you are the party of white people.

 

If you're looking for the working definition of racism versus assumption of privilege, Tagg Romney is an excellent example.  Racism is the grim realization that any minority male Obama surrogate joking they would "take a swing" at Mitt Romney would almost certainly lose their job within days, with conservatives demanding the first African-American president be made to answer for his tacit fomenting of race war during the election.  Reaction, if the races were switched, would be completely different.

 

Assumption of privilege is the even more grim realization that Tagg Romney will completely get away with saying what he said, as would any white male surrogate of Romney.  That difference in reaction is always a one-way street.