Last week, I wrote a column called "the racism reflex," which read in part,
Under the wrongthink guidance of the woke regime that has taken control of every American institution, there's one golden rule that can never be broken. Never, under any circumstances, criticize a black person (if they're a Democrat).
If you break this rule, you're labeled as a racist, no questions asked — even if that person is only Kamala Harris-black.
Enter Betsy Huang, a Professor of English at Clark University and former Director at the Center for Gender, Race, and Area Studies, and her September post for The Conversation, "The audacity of Kamala Harris' laughter - and the racist roots of Trump's derision," or, as Fast Company titles it, "How Trump mocking Harris's laugh tells a story of America's racism."
Just when the summer uproar over Donald Trump calling his potential rival 'Laffin' Kamala' and 'Cackling Copilot Kamala Harris' was beginning to subside, an apparent new round of attacks by Trump and other Republicans has emerged after their initial U.S. presidential debate.
The target - again - was Kamala Harris' laugh.
Three days after the debate, for instance, Bruce Zuchowski, an Ohio sheriff, posted on his Facebook account that Harris was a 'laughing hyena.' Zuchowski was subsequently barred from providing election security during in-person voting.
Conservative media commentators also have voiced their displeasure, calling Harris' laugh 'contemptuous,' 'exaggerated' and 'inappropriate.'
This is not surprising, given that Harris' laughter was on full display during much of the nationally televised debate - and, worse, Trump was clearly the object of her unrelenting derision.
First off...pretty sure she barely laughed during the debate, but whatever!
Second, are you really telling me that this laughter is normal?
Huang next dives into the root of the problem — racism! — linking the treatment of Kamala Harris's laugh to the "subversive power of Black laughter in 1930s America" explored by American writer Ralph Ellison in a 1985 essay titled "An Extravagance of Laughter," including the use of "laughing barrels" in Southern towns "into which any Negro who felt a laugh coming on was forced … to thrust his boisterous head."
And pointing out that Kamala Harris's laugh is annoying is just the same...apparently, let alone Huang's declaration that Trump's labeling of Harris as "dumb as a rock" and "a radical left lunatic" is further proof of his racism.
"These hearken to the long and shameful history of racist characterizations of Black Americans as menaces to society," Huang wrote, ignoring that Harris is running for President of the United States, a job that makes you a menace to society by definition!
Huang's conclusion is particularly glorious, given Harris's collapse in the polls that followed:
Trump's mockery of Harris' laughter has not been successful in neutralizing her popularity.
Harris is widely regarded by political commentators as the winner of the debate, and the lasting impression is that of a glowering Trump repeatedly failing to put a stop to Harris' mirthful expressions of incredulity.
Almost a century has passed since Ellison's disruptive laugh occurred in a New York theater in 1936. In that time, both Obama and Harris have reordered traditional gender and racial norms by using Black laughter in the very public theater of U.S. presidential politics.
It's weird. Some of the most successful comedians in the world are black Americans — Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy — and they have been known to laugh during their performances, with not a word of protest.
It's only a problem when Kamala Harris starts laughing. I can't imagine why...
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