On Michelle O. at Target, that story really bothered me at the time and still does. The little white woman who asked Michelle for help didn’t do it because Michelle is black. She asked for help because Michelle is tall. I regularly help short people in stores to reach merchandise from the top shelves. Glad to help.

In 2020 Trump took all the Southern states except Georgia. Does Haley really want to alienate Southerners?

Rufus:

Quite so.

I thought some more about Haley’s claim. I would sure like to hear some specific examples of her teasing. And really, everyday?

When I was in fifth grade a new kid from Okinawa appeared in class. I started calling him Okinawa at recess. The other kids liked it, so his nickname got shortened to variations of Oak. Was that kid scarred for life by being teased about being Okinawan?

Did someone hang an unfortunate nickname on her like Brownie?

I just have trouble picturing a smart pretty girl from a professional family being teased daily for being brown in the 1980s even in a small Southern town.

In my childhood the kids who got teased a lot and cruelly were always at the bottom of the status hierarchy for whatever reasons.

https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/01/24/trudeau-government-use-falsified-evidence-to-shut-down-the-truckers-protest/

1. I agree with those stating racism is worse in the north than the south and that many northerners have an ill formed/immature understanding of race relations in the south. In general I see less segregation in the south than the north.

2. Weren’t we all teased as kids? As an adult I notice some people really struggled with the natural teasing (and occasional bullying) that is rampant in childhood interactions and seem scarred by it. And many people just learned to roll with it and it seems to have done little, permanent damage.

Regarding #2, Adam Carolla does a great bit where he talks about white man actually having a real privilege; the privilege of knowing that there are assholes in the world. If someone is a jerk to you, and you are a different race, or have an accent or are female… You may think; “Oh, that person is racist/xenophobic/misogynist.” But if you’re a white dude you know, “Oh, that person is an asshole.”

There are a lot of Karens (and their male equivalents in the world). If you’re a white guy and a Karen is lecturing you about something… If you’re black, or foreign you may think, “That woman is picking on me because she hates people of my race or ethnicity.” Nah. She lectures everyone.

Perfect example: I heard Michelle Obama talk about being at a store, I think it was Target, and someone asked her to get something off a shelf for her. This offended Michelle. It bothered her so much she told an interviewer about it years later. In Michelle’s mind it meant that white people (the customer who asked for help) view all black people as workers/servants, and it would never occur to that white person that a black woman like Michelle might be a customer also.

That same scenario happens to me about once a week, on average. I’m in a store and another customer mistakes me for one of the store’s employees and asks me for help. It never occurred to me this has anything to do with my skin tone or gender, because it doesn’t. But Michelle will carry that Target incident with her to her grave.

I followed your Babylon Bee link and saw this video on their page. My goodness, it’s clever. It’s a Planned Parenthood marketing meeting. Part of what’s so clever about it is that it’s 100% true, regarding their approach.

https://youtu.be/JA9PKK6NkG4?si=KbKOMFQlMV9J6BSr

It also is a specific attack on the most open to the outsider groups in existence. The “white” people are the most tolerance and accepting of other people by a country mile. To have a foreign background person dunk on them is the last minute to cover up her own miss-step is really irritating.

In re: Haley Claims That in the South, She Was ‘Teased Every Day for Being Brown’

Coulda been worse.
https://babylonbee.com/news/nikki-haley-recalls-her-daring-childhood-escape-from-slavery-on-the-underground-railroad