Since the election, there have been hundreds of recorded incidents of racial hatred and violence. And by that I mean that white people feel empowered to spew hatred (and at times, violent hatred) towards minorities and people within marginalized communities. Everything from sh-t being thrown at Muslim-Americans, to watermelons being smeared on African-Americans’ property, to simple, garden-variety racial hatred and animosity. While Trump supporters can claim that their vote doesn’t mean that they’re racist, misogynistic bullies, bigots and predators, their Trump votes have empowered every racist, every misogynist, every bigot and every predator in this country.
Which brings me to this story. Kumail Nanjiani and Thomas Middleditch are costars on the popular HBO show Silicon Valley. They are friends outside of work too, and after work one night after the election, they went a nearby bar for a drink. And this is what happened, according to Kumail (who is Pakistani-American). He tweeted:
Was at a bar last night with @Middleditch. At the end of the night, 2 white dudes, 20’s, who’d been there for hours came up to us.
“We’re big fans of you guys. (To Thomas) I trolled you on twitter yesterday.” He goes on to say how we’re wrong about Trump. I go “Hey we don’t wanna discuss politics right now.” His friends goes “oh they’re cucks.” Then starts yelling at us. “CUCKS CUCKS CUCKS!” He starts getting in my face. Thomas puts his hand on the dude’s chest to stop him. “Don’t touch me you cuck. Wanna go outside?”
At this point, the bouncer runs over, grabs them, kicks them out. The bartender is awesome & apologetic. Thomas & I are stunned.
This happened at a bar in LA surrounded by ppl. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be someone who looks like me in other parts.
We can’t let hate/racism/bigotry/sexism be normalized. If something happens, be safe, but let it be known we won’t stand for this. Many ppl are like “just cuz I voted for Trump doesn’t mean I’m racist/sexist.” Ok, but at best, you ignored it, you overlooked it. We thought Internet would give us access to ppl w different points of view. Instead it gives us access to many ppl w the same point of view.
I like the ppl that don’t believe me, as if I’m like “it’s great that I’m on an HBO show but my true passion is to be yelled at in a bar.”
Thomas Middleditch tweeted about the incident too, backing up Kumail’s story completely, tweeting: “Out with @kumailn; for no reason two dudes came at us with Trump right wing sh-t, calling us “cucks”. Never in my life. I hate this. Week 1.” And in case you were anything like me and you’re not down with Alt-Right lingo, “cuck” is an Alt-Right (aka “Neo Nazi”) slang term for “cuckservative.”
We’ve spent a lot of time in the past few years talking about white spaces, minority experiences, white privilege and what it feels like to be told, in so many words, that you are not welcome, that you don’t belong, and that you are not safe. This is what Donald Trump’s elevation to the presidency has done though – he’s pushed all of those conversations into the mainstream, he’s made that conversation a daily one as every hate-filled a—hole now feels “empowered” to “take back their country.” We will absolutely be hearing more and more of these stories in the days, weeks, months and years to come. It makes me sick to my stomach.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Trump supporters are crying a bunch of white tears saying that they aren’t racist. But this is what they enable. By voting for Trump, they said this kind of behavior is A-OK.
I’m seen literal white supremacy displays via six degrees of separation. I live in a bubble of liberal; our county and state voted blue, but shocker we have a democratic senator. On one of my local FB friends, her friend from out of town had a photo of a KKK rally with the title, “victory” above it. And last week I was 40 miles away from my liberal zone and a truck drove by with a house sized confederate flag. So Yes, the pandora’s box of racial violence is opened, but we have to be strong. We HAVE to learn skills and organize this NOW. I have NO IDEA how to defeat this scourge, I am so blindsided and can admit I’m unprepared to fight!
Check out Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.splcenter.org
They have been fighting hate and working to teach the next generation tolerance for decades.
I’m in the country, but the house closest to me has a flagpole with a giant confederate flag. No American flag, just a confederate one. ‘Course, I’m in Alabama, so what else is new. The yahoos here who hate the government don’t seem to know or care that for every $1.00 we send to DC we get back $2.46 in services. Thanks, California and NY for bailing us out, sorry ’bout that.
And this shiz is just beginning. Once his cabinet is filled and inauguration day happens (and one can only imagine what kind of sh*t show THAT will be), it will get worse. It will be a all red government for all intent and purposes and once he is formally sworn in, I really feel like all these idiots will feel like the floodgates are formally open and they will have free reign. I feel like it will make this week look like a cake walk.
To think that within months Rudy Giuliani will be attorney general and do absolutely nothing when black people get killed by police men. He will probably justify every killing.
I have been thinking about this since the election results. I am much more concerned about Giuliani being in charge of the justice department (law and order) than I am about Trump as president. No one is talking about this very key appointment. No one is talking about his track record as mayor of NYC and the racial problems that were created during “Giuliani time.” Two words: Abner Louima.
I wish the press would address this because if they don’t, it’s another example of the press failing.
Please start writing to Senators now (even if they are crazy right wingers) opposing the nomination of Guliani. We have to make him as toxic as possible if we have any hope of stopping this nomination.
That has been my worry – that the KKK, Neo – Nazis, etc will take this election as open season for them to go do whatever they want to do and feel no consequences for it.
These stories break my heart. A vile autocrat emboldening the very worst in people is not what this country is about.
Cuck is the weirdest insult today. When alt-righters throw it at each other, they’re ready to beat the s out of each other. It’s the worst name you could be called in that circle.
But for the rest of the world, it’s really not much of an insult, is it, since it widened its meaning for the alt-right? Does anyone even twitch on that?
But still, I can imagine how uncomfortable this was. Random dudes starting fights in bars can be everything from “just” drunk assholes who like to yell to actually aggressive and dangerous people. No excuse.
Cuck is also a play on the word cuckold. Before p0rn cuckold was just a guy who got cheated on. It carried sexist undertones, regarding him as weak for being cheated rather than doing the cheating. Also, treated the woman as irrelevant in the equation, a more virulent man had come along so of course she strayed. Now, to these guys, it holds its p0rn meaning. A cuckold is a white guy whose wife sleeps with a more masculine, more endowed black guy. Get it? Obama. White men feeling emasculated by black presidency? So those Conservatives voting and even supporting a black guy as they did in 08 and 2012 are like p0rn cuckold. Cuckservatives
On that note, if you are black or female and voted for a man whose now Chief white house strategist created this terminology. You are idiotic beyond belief. As for the rest of you Trump voters, you are clearly awful people with probably no conscience.
I’m trying to figure out if you’re actually addressing me with your second paragraph or are you talking in general? I’m not American, yes I am a woman of mostly (but not completely) white heritage. And in any case I’m not a Trump supporter (not that it matters since I can’t vote in the US). Just wanted to make that clear.
But yes, I know the meaning of the word and that’s why I feel the ones they’re trying to insult don’t really take it as insult the way the alt-righters want them to. How is “you are an Obama voter” an insult to a guy who voted for Obama?
I agree on how women are taken out of this equation.
@crox
Gosh, no. I typed my comment in a hurry and didn’t have time to check for clarity. Of course it’s not about you. It was augmenting what you said about cuck as an insult. Also, I didn’t for one second think you were a Trump supporter. I believe the internet protocol is that unless you are addressed with “@Crox”, the word “you” is probably in the plural form and is addressed at other readers.
This is just SO sad. We are no longer progressing, but moving backwards. This election has resurrected all the suppressed hatemongers who had to hide their hate, and now they feel welcome to put it back in the open. Devastating…
They never died; they were just in hiding.
I always thought the world was full of a$$holes. But with Obama being voted in I realized wow, majority of us are great peole. Now this nightmare happens and I’m like oh… crap…. majority are a$$holes again.
Disgusting. I’ve never talked about politics on FB but I’m starting now. I’m certain there are closeted Trump voters on my page. I’ve been challenging every “time to move on” post with discussion of the hate crimes. When people complained about Veterans day protests, I cited Trump’s disparaging comments on POWs. I’m polite, I don’t call names, but I have been met with silence.
Screw ” you need to move on” from the D- crowd that voted this blowhard in! I fully plan to treat Trump’s first days in office with the same respect and dignity the Republicans gave to Obama during his first days and all days going forward in office!
So in the news I follow, a big deal is being made about how Trump went on 60 Minutes last night and emphatically told people to “Stop it!” when it comes to all of the racially-motivated attacks of the past week. And everyone’s acting like we’re supposed to be giving him this pat on the back for doing the BARE MINIMUM. What these news outlets aren’t saying is that what Trump says now doesn’t matter at all to these people. Trump is not some uniquely charismatic person who has inspired a cult-like following, and now they’ll listen to anything he says. Anyone could have taken Trump’s place, and emboldened these people with the same racist rhetoric, and we’d have the same result. The people who would do this have been waiting a long time to be given permission to act like this. Knowing that almost half of their fellow Americans are as racist as they are or are at least willing to turn a blind eye to racism is what has emboldened them, and Trump is almost an afterthought; a figurehead of the movement rather than it’s leader.
So while Trump may tell them to stop it, and he may walk back some of his more hateful/conservative promises from the campaign trail, it doesn’t really matter anymore. That’s why people are protesting and why people are scared of the next four years. Not because they’re crybabies or won’t accept/respect the President. Trump can possibly be stopped but what are we going to do about all the people living here?
That’s very well put. And very true. What we need to do, honestly, is fight fire with fire. I don’t mean stoop down to their level, but as a large group, fight back towards these racist sexist pr!cks. If we are out and see harassment happening to a POC or a woman, say something. Yell at them, videotape them and publicly shame them, make them feel worthless because I’m sorry, if you have zero respect for someone and feel like it’s your right to make anyone whose not a white dude feel like shit, we’ll I’m going to make YOU feel worse.
“The people who would do this have been waiting a long time to be given permission to act like this. Knowing that almost half of their fellow Americans are as racist as they are or are at least willing to turn a blind eye to racism is what has emboldened them….That’s why people are protesting and why people are scared of the next four years. Not because they’re crybabies or won’t accept/respect the President.” This. That’s what the Trump supporters and their independent/republican sympathizers don’t seem to understand.
It didn’t seem very emphatic to me, was very mild, almost like a wink to his people.
I was trying to be sarcastic there. Imagine me rolling me rolling my eyes while saying that. CNN was making it sound like “see? He said stop it, so everything is fine.”
Got it!👍👍👍
I live in Montana and we are an outpost for gun-carrying, crazy, white supremacist separatists and a general bastion for
“prepper” lunatics looking for their thirty acres and place to hole up with their guns. I’ve always said I am more afraid of the crazy white men who are my neighbors than I am of anyone else and I stand by that statement. I’m terrified. My sister is the principal of a little elementary school and the grandfather of one of her students told my sister she best get prepared if Hillary won. She wasn’t sure exactly what he was alluding to or if he was threatening her or if they were planning on taking over the school. Makes you wonder what all the “militia” folks were planning. Probably not peaceful protests. Again, I’m very afraid and not sure what to do but I know I have to do something.
Be fair. What makes you think they were Trump supporters? Racism and homophobia aren’t exclusive to white people or Republicans. And as an African American female with a Master’s Degree, who voted for Trump, I can tell you that Trump supporters come in all colors, and walks of life.
Lost for words.
Since you posted your support in a very public forum that generally does not support Trump (to say the very least), could you explain why and what made you vote for him?
Because our insurance premiums, for our family of three (husband, daughter and me) are over $1,500.00 a month, for insurance that is virtually useless. No physician or hospital within 200 miles of our home will accept it and we get one (1) well-care visit a year and no prescription coverage. Our out-of-pocket deductible is $8,000 a year. Hillary spent her entire campaign spreading slander and lies instead of telling us what she was going to do for us. We need change, not more of what we already have. So, while that tape (from 11 years ago) was vile, so is a lot of what Hillary has done. We have to move past that. You have no proof of Donald Trump being racist or homophobic (in fact, just the opposite). His wife will be the first immigrant first lady ever in the Whitehouse. His campaign manager was a woman and the first ever to run a successful winning campaign for a presidential candidate. Hillary’s entire campaign was based on making us feel like our genitals were all that mattered to us. We should vote for her because we are women. It wasn’t enough. We should vote for her because we are African American — WHY? I am so much more than those things.
i’d like to know what was the reason you chose trump? or you just hate Hillary that much?
I may not agree with Hillary’s ideas but i would NEVER EVER vote for trump. trump does not give a sh!t about you or your family or anyone near and dear to you.
when people show you who they are,
believe them.
/maya angelou/
@NobleRed
I feel sorry for you and your limited view and when your insurance premiums do not lower, and your family is targeted and harassed, I will feel sorry for you then as well.
When you realize the sheer selfishness of your choice, I will feel sorry for you.
When the US dollar tanks and you struggle to make ends meet as the job market turns volatile I will feel sorry for you.
Your logic and reasoning for voting for a loud racist, sexist, xenophobic human is based on a small snapshot of the world, it’s based on just your needs, it is selfish. That is humanities problem we are selfish and greed has kept us divided and destroyed. When the storm comes and things turn for the worse for you, know that you will only have yourself to blame. Perhaps this will wake you and perhaps it will not, but it is my hope that for the sake of your children you will wake up and see how the world is bigger than your insurance premiums.
Please note this is written by a beige woman that will now have to deal with 4 years of watching my back, finding my community, fighting for equality and trying to stay alive in a climate and a country that has told me by this choice it wishes me dead or enslaved.
Your choice has contributed to condemning us to a volatile and dangerous next term.
I feel sorry for you.
“I will feel sorry for you.” You’re a better (wo)man than I am.
You can kiss any health care goodbye then. Along with affordable education, jobs and feeling safe walking down the street at night. It’s open season on anyone of colour, alternative sexual orientation, any other religion than Christian, and the glass ceiling is now a lead ceiling.
I wish you luck in the coming years, you will need it.
I wonder if Trump’s promise to solve your insurance premium problem will still seem worth it to you as you continue to see the increase in reports of race-related and sexual orientation-related harassment and hate crimes in this country, as you get to see what type of people Trump is appointing, as you watch reproductive rights and marriage equality get chipped away at, and as you watch the consequences of racists and sex-offenders basically being told by society that their behaviors and mentalities are no big deal.
My sister-in-law, who happens to be Mexican, voted for cheeto. She thought since she’s a citizen nothing was going to happen to her. Last week her 17 year old daughter who was born and raised here, was asked when she was planning on leaving the country. They told her now that cheeto is president we’re building the wall and you need to go home. My heart broke for my niece and I was so mad at her mother. The only thing I could do was hug her. These racist twits don’t care where you are from as long as you are brown all they see is illegal.
People like your sil and Noblered above, think their financial and social status insulates them. They think they are not like “those other uneducated do nothing’s” and so have no sense of camaraderie or empathy for them. Of course they soon find out that their being Latino or black trumps (ha!) all other social markers. Trumps base doesn’t care that you are a legal Latina or PhD holding black woman, you are still the reason that “America isn’t great anymore”.
right?!
like the white supremacist holding the gun to your head to #MAGA will care that you blubber through snot and tears that you voted trump…
As someone who is related to a good number of racists (extended family only, though, so thank God for that), I can confirm this. White racists don’t care about about your social standing or how educated you are. A black face is a black face. A Mexican face is a Mexican face (and for them, all Latinos are Mexicans). Or like Kanye said in All Falls Down, “Even if you in a Benz you still a (n-word).”
I know, the husband of a colleague who happens to be Latino and a permanent resident of the USA believes that people was so right to elect Trump because he will make the country better. He is somebody that has a Degree and a permanent job but believes he is kind of “the good immigrant” because he got the permission to reside there so he despises the rest.
I realized I burst his bubble when I told my colleague: -well he better be more involved and worried for his peers’ causes because your family can be subject to a racist attack by the Trump fanatics solely based on your ethnicity-.
I don’t understand how an immigrant ( I am an immigrant too) can forget where they come from and turn the back at others, that makes me mad and sad at the same time. I have family in the USA and I’m terrified for them.
I don’t understand it either honestly. The majority of my in-laws are Republican and when I asked my brother-in-law who he was voting for he proudly declared cheeto. I was so disappointed and I told him so. I went off on that man I couldn’t hold back. After he told me he felt bad about the situation but he was still voting for cheeto. It was like a slap in the face. My husband and mother-in-law voted for HRC. My husband said he really believed she was qualified and would make a great president. My mother-in-law who usually votes Republican also said the same thing.
“…but believes he is kind of “the good immigrant” because he got the permission to reside there so he despises the rest.”
That’s the way of thinking behind a lot of people who aren’t white, male, straight, etc. but decide to support the far right’s stances on certain things.
I’m not purporting to be an expert but it seems like profit is the number one motivator of insurance companies. Have you seen what their CEOs make? Did you see the recent hike on cost for the epi pen? It’s out of control capitalism not Obamacare. Let’s fix it but I am really doubtful that republicans care about your premiums.
I’m certainly no expert on this, but aren’t most flaws in the ACA the result of having to compromise with Republicans in order to get anything passed?
Yes – that was one of the reasons it became so complex. I work in hospital administration and while the ACA isn’t perfect I get so frustrated when people think premiums and deductibles would have been low without it. Our healthcare system has been a financial bubble waiting to burst for more than 20 years. Modern Healthcare has an article today about how costs are likely to go up with a repeal of the ACA. Anyone who tells you there is an easy fix for healthcare is lying.
I’ve never heard the word “cuck” before, so i want to be offended, but I’m confused. Is it short for cuckhold? Like since Bill had affairs, Hillary’s supporters are pro-cuckholding??