Clinton’s reconciliation rhetoric flattens racism into symmetric stereotyping that erases power

Evidence

Clinton reinforces the idea that our race problem rests with bad people, with the loud racists among us, but not with all of us. He also ignores the specific histories that inform racist acts and talks only about racial stereotypes: all Americans, he reminds us, stereotype. Obviously this is true. But we don’t all stereotype the same people in the same way and with the same effect. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 316

Categorization

• DEFINE: Supports distinguishing the value gap from mere symmetric stereotype/prejudice claims.
• XREF: connects to: Presidential discourse reduces racism to lingering individual heart-states divorced from institutions. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 131