I came across 2 stories this morning that rather shocked me for their overt incitement to race mongering:

"Here’s the gossip: Breitbart is about to replace Drudge as most important White source of journalism", plus

"When Paul Ryan changed political reality. And evangelist culture slapped him down"

I wondered where they got the affrontery to talk like that, the implicit white privilege, and the rather retro political position they've taken as if we were going back to 60's Birmingham.

And then I squinted a bit harder:

LIne 1: Here’s the gossip: Beinart is about to replace Goldberg as most important Jewish journalist

Line 2: When Sanders changed political reality. And hasbara culture slapped him down

Once again we wonder why one ethnic or religious group speaks and it doesn't strike a nerve; another causes our skin to crawl. This is not to pick on Jews - I'm happy to have different groups debating their own identity politics and requirements. Fact is I can substitute similar phrasing with the Black Congressional Caucus, La Raza, The Boston Irish Reporter, and whoever - just not generic white folks, much less a type of Protestant, or else we'll consider them half-Bundy, half-David Duke as our polite starting point.

The Appalachian? Probably redneck racists, eh? Yeah, I just made it up - possibly exists.

(think about how the right must feel about any conversation or headline that addresses "women's issues" - either lesbian support, pushing late-term abortions, or voting their vaginas - choose 1 or more).

We say identity is important, but if 1 identity discusses anything related to its identity, it's crossed the line. "People of Color" is okay. "White People" isn't.

Stereotypes are wrong and hurtful, but Southerners are intolerant, racist, backwards and can't be persuaded.

Try an amusing thought game - the US Population is X% protestant, and the Supreme Court is Y% Protestant.

There yet?

The curious answer is that we're 47% Protestant, but our court is 0% Protestant. It was 6 Catholics and 3 Jews until Scalia died, now 5 and 3, while Catholics make up 21% of the population, Jewish is 1.4%. 

Yet what is our biggest clamoring? That there should be more people of color on the court or some other wish list. Certainly not "hey, we're missing Protestants!!!!" We don't even notice the gap. But I bet we still probably vaguely blame the court's famed conservatism on Southern protestants (as of 2014, 7 Justices were from the Northeast, 4 of them from NYC, with only 1 - Clarence Thomas - from the south & 1 from California).

Related, some talk about a majority Hispanic population as "diverse", not seeing the irony or cluelessness in regarding the swapping of 1 dominant culture for another as equivalent to a multiethnic melting pot.

Our racial/ethnic/cultural blindness is highly selective and rather biased. We see largely what we want to see when we have a point to drive home. I wouldn't say we're as deceptive and malicious when we do it as the right has been, but we do have some splainin' to do.

I still note the double standard where Trump-speak is sexist, but Jay Z saying much worse & much more frequently is invited to entertain at the White House. As the election rolled to a close, we had major campaign spectacles featuring LeBron et al in Cleveland, Gloria Esteban in Miami.

How did white America feel, especially non-urban: a party for everyone but us? Probably shocked as well to find the shunned Dixie Chicks onstage with the not-very-country Beyoncé at the largely white Country Music Awards. (Probably her video smashing car windows didn't go over very well either).

Grin and bear it? Just get used to it? Suck it up, buttercup? Well, if they're the majority, both population-wise and office holders, it's pretty hard to convince them to just fade away. Unless we think abandoning the white voters to Ted Nugent, to Breitbart, to Jerry Falwell Jr., maybe we need to address some of their concerns in their terms, accept them doing the same, see better how they see us, and find a bit more of our famed "common ground" in them as well.

Or is that still too tough?